The Painting

A painting has been left unfinished. The figures inside it are divided in three: the Allduns, fully painted, the Halfies, left incomplete, and the Sketchies, no more than outlines. The Allduns live in the castle and look down on the rest. Three figures decide to leave the canvas and look for the Painter, with one question: why did he not finish. Jean-François Laguionie directs. The visual world rests on the history of painting. Different sections are drawn in the language of different movements, and when the film passes from one canvas to another the colour, the brushwork and the perspective change entirely. The allegory is open and the film does not hide it: the contempt of the finished for the unfinished is built directly as a narrative of class and race. Its second layer is the relation between a maker and the work. The Painter is awaited as a god and, when found, explains nothing. Laguionie belongs to the older generation of French animation and to the names continuing the hand drawn tradition; produced with digital tools, the film still keeps the texture of paint. It runs about seventy five minutes and the narrative opens in layers towards the end. Who it is for: viewers interested in art history and in European animation. Who it is not for: the narrative is too abstract for small children, the allegory is stated too plainly in places, and the characters stay thin.