Let me start by saying that "Le roman de Renard" pulls off a double trick : firstly by being very old (which means, logically, that it once was new and, indeed, revolutionary) and secondly by being very, very good. I started watching the movie without great expectations but gradually my mouth fell open both with admiration and astonishment. It was rather like discovering, say, that around the year 1900 someone somewhere had built a car capable of driving, flying, diving, sailing, shooting and achieving speeds of up to 100 miles an hour. Oh yes, and the car was provided with solar panels, a colour television, a working GPS system and an efficient little kitchen...
So we're not just talking about a very early example of feature-length stop-motion animation : this is a strong, beautiful and entertaining work of art capable of burying quite a lot of modern rivals. At least two scenes stand out in the memory : the scene where the lioness queen indulges in amorous reverie while listening to a minstrel song - a fine tune, by the way - and the scene where the fox, that delicate and deeply Christian soul, discovers the hare indulging in sacrilege and doing a drunken dance. ("Gagnam style" avant la lettre !)
Now "Le roman" is based on a French tale or rather tale collection, dating back all the way to the Middle Ages, which seems to have gone through various changes and editions. Blushing deeply, I've got to confess I've never read it... As a Dutch-speaking Belgian I'm much more familiar with its Dutch-language counterpart "Van den vos Reynaerde", which seems to have been based on the French example(s) plus some other European sources. (This is a matter I gladly leave to the specialists.) The Dutch version - probably written in Flanders - still stands as one of the jewels of Medieval literature. It is notable for many things, chief among them the sharpness and slyness of its satire and the creation of one of the great anti-heroes of all time, to wit a trickster fox of unusual cunning, cynicism and cruelty.
Now the Dutch and the French source material must be very similar, because I immediately recognized the tale being told, about a fox outsmarting pretty much every other animal around, including the dim-witted and greedy lion supposed to be a noble king. I also recognized the satirical message, with the author(s) blowing poison darts at humanity at large, at Medieval society AND at Medieval courtly literature. What you get here is basically an anti-King Arthur with a court made up of dolts, hypocrites and parasites, none of whom are a match for the cruel and highly intelligent criminal who runs circles around them.
Both the source material and the movie remain surprisingly topical, for instance by pointing out that habitual criminals are never more dangerous than when they "have found God". It's a lesson quite a lot of social workers and reformers seem to have forgotten... The story also has some interesting things to say about judges, lawyers and spin doctors.
I recommend the movie wholeheartedly, but I recommend it to an older audience of adolescents and adults. The satire is not only layered and complex, it has a genuinely nasty, grisly edge which makes it unsuitable for young children. Do not be deceived into thinking it's just good rollicking fun...
I gather there's an interesting tale involving the movie's origins : it seems as though the bulk of the movie was made in France, with financial troubles rearing their head and preventing proper completion. Some years later, the movie was finished thanks to German funding. It was then introduced to France by the Germans during World War II, which must have gone down a treat. If true : now here lies the inspiration for a whole book...
So we're not just talking about a very early example of feature-length stop-motion animation : this is a strong, beautiful and entertaining work of art capable of burying quite a lot of modern rivals. At least two scenes stand out in the memory : the scene where the lioness queen indulges in amorous reverie while listening to a minstrel song - a fine tune, by the way - and the scene where the fox, that delicate and deeply Christian soul, discovers the hare indulging in sacrilege and doing a drunken dance. ("Gagnam style" avant la lettre !)
Now "Le roman" is based on a French tale or rather tale collection, dating back all the way to the Middle Ages, which seems to have gone through various changes and editions. Blushing deeply, I've got to confess I've never read it... As a Dutch-speaking Belgian I'm much more familiar with its Dutch-language counterpart "Van den vos Reynaerde", which seems to have been based on the French example(s) plus some other European sources. (This is a matter I gladly leave to the specialists.) The Dutch version - probably written in Flanders - still stands as one of the jewels of Medieval literature. It is notable for many things, chief among them the sharpness and slyness of its satire and the creation of one of the great anti-heroes of all time, to wit a trickster fox of unusual cunning, cynicism and cruelty.
Now the Dutch and the French source material must be very similar, because I immediately recognized the tale being told, about a fox outsmarting pretty much every other animal around, including the dim-witted and greedy lion supposed to be a noble king. I also recognized the satirical message, with the author(s) blowing poison darts at humanity at large, at Medieval society AND at Medieval courtly literature. What you get here is basically an anti-King Arthur with a court made up of dolts, hypocrites and parasites, none of whom are a match for the cruel and highly intelligent criminal who runs circles around them.
Both the source material and the movie remain surprisingly topical, for instance by pointing out that habitual criminals are never more dangerous than when they "have found God". It's a lesson quite a lot of social workers and reformers seem to have forgotten... The story also has some interesting things to say about judges, lawyers and spin doctors.
I recommend the movie wholeheartedly, but I recommend it to an older audience of adolescents and adults. The satire is not only layered and complex, it has a genuinely nasty, grisly edge which makes it unsuitable for young children. Do not be deceived into thinking it's just good rollicking fun...
I gather there's an interesting tale involving the movie's origins : it seems as though the bulk of the movie was made in France, with financial troubles rearing their head and preventing proper completion. Some years later, the movie was finished thanks to German funding. It was then introduced to France by the Germans during World War II, which must have gone down a treat. If true : now here lies the inspiration for a whole book...