Sylvain Chomet

Sylvain Chomet
Chomet in 2014
Born	(1963-11-10) 10 November 1963 (age 57) Maisons-Laffitte, France
Nationality	French
Occupation	Film director, animator, comic writer
Notable work	The Old Lady and the Pigeons The Triplets of Belleville Paris, je t'aime The Illusionist Attila Marcel

Sylvain Chomet (French: [ʃɔmɛ]; born 10 November 1963) is a French comic writer, animator and film director.

Early career[]

Born in Maisons-Laffitte, Seine-et-Oise (now Yvelines), near Paris, he studied art at high school until he graduated in 1982. Chomet moved to London in 1988 to work as an animator at the Richard Purdum studio. In September of that year, he established a freelance practice, working on commercials for clients such as Principality, Renault, Swinton and Swissair.

In addition to his animation career, Chomet has created many print comics, starting in 1986 with Secrets of the Dragonfly. In 1992 Chomet wrote the script for a science fiction comic called The Bridge in Mud. 1993 saw Chomet writing the story for Léon-la-Came, which was drawn by Nicolas de Crécy for À Suivre magazine. This was published in 1995 and won the René Goscinny Prize in 1996. In 1997, Chomet published Ugly, Poor, and Sick, again with Nicolas de Crécy. This won them the Alph-Art Best Comic Prize at the Angoulême Comics Festival.

The Old Lady and the Pigeons[]

In 1991, Chomet started work on his first animated film, The Old Lady and the Pigeons^[1] (La Vieille Dame et les pigeons), with backgrounds designed by de Crécy. In 1993, Chomet moved to Canada. During 1995 and 1996, he finished work on The Old Lady and the Pigeons. The short film won him a BAFTA, the Grand Prize at the 1997 Annecy International Animated Film Festival, the Cartoon d'or prize, as well as the Audience Prize and Jury Prize at the Angers Premiers Plans Festival. It also received an Oscar nomination for best animated short film.^[1]

The Triplets of Belleville[]

Chomet's first feature-length animated film, The Triplets of Belleville (Les Triplettes de Belleville, or Belleville Rendez-vous in the UK) was also nominated for two Oscars in 2003 (Best Animated Feature and Best Song), and introduced Chomet's name to a much wider audience.

Upon the release of The Triplets of Belleville, Nicolas de Crécy accused Chomet of plagiarising his work, citing it as the reason for the dissolution of their collaboration.^[2][3] The visual style of The Triplets of Belleville closely resembles the earlier work of Nicolas de Crécy's 1994 graphic novel Le Bibendum Céleste.^[4]

The Illusionist[]

Chomet's next film was The Illusionist (L'Illusionniste), which premiered at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2010,^[5] after many delays (it was first planned for release in 2007).^[6] The Illusionist, like Chomet's previous work, has its roots in mid twentieth century popular French culture. It is based on an unproduced script that Jacques Tati had written in 1956^[7][8] as a personal letter to his estranged eldest daughter,^[9][10] and stars an animated version of Tati himself. It was originally conceived by Tati as a journey of love and discovery that takes two characters across western Europe to Prague.^[11] Chomet says that "Tati wanted to move from purely visual comedy and try an emotionally deeper story"^[7] and states that "It's not a romance, it's more the relationship between a dad and a daughter".^[12] It cost an estimated £10 million to make, and was funded by Pathé Pictures.

According to the 2006 reading of the Illusionist script at the London Film School, introduced by Chomet, "The great French comic Jacques Tati wrote the script of The Illusionist and intended to make it as a live-action film with his daughter."^[13]

Other projects[]

Another project, Barbacoa, originally stated to be released in late 2005, was canceled because of lack of funding. Also, The Tale of Despereaux was to be Chomet's first computer-animated film, scheduled to come to American theaters Christmas 2008, but direction shifted to Sam Fell after the production studio dismissed Chomet.^[14] Chomet, for his part, says that he could not stand the creative environment.^[15]

In 2005, he directed a segment for the collaborative film Paris, je t'aime; he was assigned the 7th arrondissement (the Eiffel Tower). It was Chomet's first work in live-action.

In 2014, a couch gag directed by Chomet aired for an episode of The Simpsons.^[16] The weekly entertainment-trade magazine Variety also announced that Chomet was moving forward with The Thousand Miles, a mix of live-action and animation based on various works of Federico Fellini, including his "unpublished drawings and writings", with a screenplay by Tommaso Rossellini and Demian Gregory.^[17] Work was later developed to include producer credit from Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy.

In 2015, Chomet directed and co-wrote the animated music video "Carmen" for Belgian musician Stromae.^[18]

In 2016, Chomet produced the illustrations for Caleb's Cab, a children's book written by his wife, Sally.^[19]

In 2021, it was announced that Chomet would direct a Marcel Pagnol biopic, The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol.^[20]

Django Films[]

In the mid-2000s, Chomet founded Django Films, an animation studio in Edinburgh, Scotland. The studio was set up with the ambition of establishing itself in both animation and live-action filmmaking, but now is being dismantled. During its lifespan, Django was beset with production difficulties, first losing funding for what was to be its first animated feature, Barbacoa, about a group of animals who attempt an escape from the zoo during the Paris Commune. Another major setback was the studio's failure to secure funding for The Clan, its animated sitcom for the BBC. The show would have focused on the lives of the dysfunctional inhabitants of a fictional Scottish island, and was labelled "a Scottish Simpsons".^[11] Then came the very public sacking of Chomet as the director for The Tale of Despereaux.^[21][22] As reported by Scotland on Sunday in 2005, Django never got close to employing the 250 artists that it would have required for either Despereaux or The Illusionist (finally produced in 2010), as the two films were originally to be produced simultaneously.^[23] Chomet has been critical of the standard of British art schools and their lack of ability to produce sufficiently skilled animators in large enough numbers required for his Edinburgh studio.^[11]

Post-Django films[]

Chomet has said that he would like to do his next film either in 3D animation or live-action.^[24]

Filmography[]

• The Old Lady and the Pigeons (La Vieille dame et les pigeons) (short) (1997)
• The Triplets of Belleville (Les Triplettes de Belleville, or Belleville Rendez-vous) (2003)
• Paris, je t'aime (segment: "Tour Eiffel (VIIe arrondissement)") (2006)
• The Illusionist (L'illusionniste) (2010)
• Attila Marcel (2013)
• Merci Monsieur Imada (short) (2016)
• (TBA)

References[]

External links[]

• Sylvain Chomet at IMDb
• Sylvain Chomet interview
• Chomet interviewed in 2005