Jean-François Laguionie
Biography
Jean-François Laguionie was born on the 4th of October, 1939 in Besançon. He graduated from the Germain Pilon School of Applied Arts (Paris), department of graphic design, however, he was engaged in many areas, mainly theatre and writing. The contacts he made during his studies were very important for his future career: Jacques Colombat who introduced him to the world of animated cinema and above all Paul Gimault who took him under his wing and helped him perfect an entirely personal paper cut-out technique. His first film La Demoiselle et le violoncelliste / The Maid and the Cellist (1965) won the Grand Prix at Annecy in 1965. His first work emmediately brought to light the facets of an original artistic style which the director has remained faithful to in all of his subsequent works: calm and magical atmospheres, a slow narrative rhythm, beautiful deliberately naive images which subtly cover the complexity of human feelings and preoccupations. He took home the Palme d´Or for short films at Cannes and the César for the animated film with La Traversée de l'Atlantique à la rame / Rowing Across the Atlantic (1978). Laguionie together with a group of other short film creators founded the regional creative centre ´La fabrique´ in which he produced his feature film Gwen, or the Book of Sand / Gwen, le livre de sable (1985). He directed the 52-minute TV special La Souris du Père Noël ou Robert Creep (1991) and his second feature-length film Le château des singes / A Monkey's Tale (1999) which was awarded at Kecskemet film festival.