''Chronopolis'' is a 1982

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...

directed by Polish animator Piotr Kamler, with music composed by renowned composer

Luc Ferrari Luc Ferrari (5 February 1929 – 22 August 2005) was a French composer of Italian heritage and a pioneer in musique concrète and electroacoustic music. He was a founding member of RTF's Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRMC), working alongside c ...

, and, originally, narration by

Michael Lonsdale Michael Edward Lonsdale Crouch (24 May 1931 – 21 September 2020), commonly known as Michael Lonsdale and sometimes as Michel Lonsdale, was a French-British actor and author who appeared in over 180 films and television shows. He is often ...

. It was Kamler's only full-length film. The film won "Best Children's Film" at

Fantafestival The Mostra internazionale del film di fantascienza e del fantastico (English: ''International Science Fiction and Fantasy Film Show''), commonly known as Fantafestival, is a film festival devoted to science fiction, fantasy and horror film tha ...

in 1982 and "Critics' Award - Special Mention" at

Fantasporto Fantasporto International Film Festival (Portuguese: Festival Internacional de Cinema do Porto) is an international genre film festival, annually organized since 1981 in Porto, Portugal. Screening and awarding fantasy, sci-fi and horror orient ...

, and it was shown out of competition alongside

Patrick Bokanowski Patrick Bokanowski (born 23 June 1943 in film, 1943 in Algiers, French Algeria) is a French people, French filmmaker who makes experimental film, experimental and animation, animated films. Career The film ''The Angel (1982 film), The Angel'' (1 ...

's '' L'ange'' at the

1982 Cannes Film Festival The 35th Cannes Film Festival took place from 14 to 26 May 1982. Italian opera and theatre director Giorgio Strehler served as jury president for the main competition. The Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, was jointly awarded to '' Missing' ...

Plot

Chronopolis tells the story of a gargantuan city lurking in the sky colonised by powerful immortals who have become jaded and bored with eternal life, and thus have decided to manipulate elements of time. They play with atomic particles and electricity, and monotonously construct bizarre and unusual objects to assist in this, including a ball that communicates with higher technology, but in reality they are waiting for the ultimate gift to arrive in their hands.

Production

With a grant under $400,000 from the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel of Paris and Centre National du Cinema, Piotr Kamler completed the film within a five-year period from 1977 to 1982. Most of the animation and CGI he accomplished on his own. Kamler openly admitted that the script he provided to obtain his funding had nothing to do with his original concept. Only after building the characters and set did the film's "story" take shape. There are two versions of the film. The original 1982 version runs at 66 minutes and was released in North America through a company in Boston. The official and final cut, re-released in 1988, has 14 minutes of footage taken out leaving it at 52 minutes. Within that version: *All of the narration is omitted. *The scene where the explorer flies around the giants is cut. *Additional dancing between the explorer and the ball was taken out. *The ending is cut by 10 minutes which includes extra scenes of the immortals and both the ball and the explorer leaving Chronopolis.

References

External links

* 1982 animated films 1982 science fiction films 1980s French animated films Films about immortality French animated science fiction films Polish animated science fiction films 1980s stop-motion animated films French avant-garde and experimental films 1980s avant-garde and experimental films Polish avant-garde and experimental films {{1980s-animation-film-stub