Summary
The animator Paul Grimault returns to his workshop where he is greeted by a small cartoon
clown who is curious to know everything about life and cartoons. Grimault uses the opportunity
to dig out and show some of his cartoon classics which he made in a career spanning over
forty years, starting with the tale of the spinning table...
Review
This film is both a well-deserved tribute to Paul Grimault, one of France’s greatest cartoon
animators, and also a captivating retrospective look at his work. Grimault himself was
reluctant to make the film but was persuaded when his friend Jacques Demy suggested using
cartoon characters, like the small clown, to interact with Grimault and coerce him into
talking about his work. The film not only allows a new generation to appreciate
Grimault’s work, which is staggering in its originality and quality, but also to see something
of the man himself.
After a film-making career spanning nearly half a century, Grimault won international
acclaim in the late 1970s for his full length cartoon Le
Roi et l'Oiseau, which has been described as the best animated film of all time.
La Table tournante returns to Grimault’s earlier, less ambitious films, all short
cartoons of around five minutes in duration. These include the whimsical L'Epouvantail
, in which a devious cat disguises himself as Josephine Baker to lure a bird-loving
scarecrow to his doom, and the hauntingly surreal Le Chien Mélomane, which
paints a grim apocalyptic view of the future. The film ends with one of Grimault’s
best-loved and most poignant works, Le Petit soldat, which the director made with
his life-long friend, Jacques Prévert, who collaborated on many of Grimault’s other
films.
Grimault’s cartoons show a remarkable variation in style and theme. Some are clearly
targeted at children, others are quite challenging and would tax an intelligent adult
viewer. However all of his cartoons – at least the ones shown in this film – are
exceptionally well made, showing an extraordinary capacity to tell a moving and captivating
story.
The animation shorts which are included in La Table tournante are:
Le Marchand de Notes (1942)
Les passagers de la Grande Ourse (1941)
L'Epouvantail (1943)
Le Voleur de Paratonnerres (1944)
Le Fou du Roi (1988)
Le Diamant (1970)
Le Chien Mélomane (1973)
Le Petit Soldat (1947)
© James Travers 2001
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