Le roman de Renard (1930)

Directors:

Irene Starewicz
Wladyslaw Starewicz

Writers:

Johann Wolfgang Goethe (story)
Jean Nohain (dialogue)

Release Date:

10 April 1941 (France)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Fantasy

Plot:

In the kingdom of animals, Master Fox is used to trick and fool everyone. So the King, the Lion, receives more and more complaints about him...

Plot Keywords:

Fox | Lion | King | Puppet | Kingdom

Cast

Claude Dauphin	...	Monkey (voice)
Romain Bouquet	...	Fox (voice)
Laine	...	Lion (voice)
Sylvain Itkine	...	Wolf (voice)
Léon Larive	...	Bear (voice)
Robert Seller	...	Cock (voice)
Eddy Debray	...	Badger (voice) (as Debray)
Nicolas Amato	...	Cat (voice)
Pons	...	Donkey (voice)
Sylvia Bataille	...	Rabbit (voice)
Suzy Dornac	...	Fox Cub (voice)
Jaime Plama	...	Cat (singing) (voice)

Also Known As:

The Story of the Fox (USA)
The Tale of the Fox

Runtime:

65 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Wladyslaw Starewicz Production

Trivia:

This was Director, Animator, Writer, Cinematographer, Production Designer and Art Director Wladyslaw Starewicz' only animation feature.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

A buried treasure.

It took ten years to make it.I must confess I was not expecting much when I began watching it.What?A puppet animated feature film from the thirties?For the kiddies??

"Le Roman de Renart" (it was originally a "t " ,for Renart was a proper noun;the old FRench word for fox was "goupil" ) is 65 minutes of constant innovation.Borrowing from La Fontaine his "Corbeau et le Renard " (the Raven and the Fox)and smartly integrating anachronisms (the dream of Renard :the tournament is given a live commentary treatment complete with microphone,the sentence which the Lion King (!)says when attacking Renart's fortress is from Napoleon in front of the pyramids.),Ladislas Larevich does not forget humor (the message the Lion King finds in his cassette)and by several respects it's also a musical: there is a frog chorus fifty years before Rupert the Bear (and Paul Mac Cartney),Italian serenades ..

It's very faithful to the spirit of the book:by no means a film for children (it would be interesting to watch a movie of that time targeted at the children market,if there were any),it's a work for the grown-ups like Grimault/Prévert's "Le Roi et L'Oiseau" or Dunning's "Yellow Submarine" .Yes,it's that much good.My favourite scene is when Renard has fallen to the bottom of the well and he pretends he is in Heaven: the pictures almost predate pop art and psychedelic state !The spoof on religion is always present ,the "love one another" becomes " don't eat one another" ,and the Lion King asks his subjects to go veggie (except for his royal majesty on Thursday and on Sunday);another stupefying scene shows the rabbit who begins to shake his small bells frenetically after having drunk the sacred wine (the blood of the Lord)in the church.

In France,it's completely forgotten.It's a buried treasure.