An interview with Joris Clerté, noted down by Daniel Bickermann.

How did you become a filmmaker?

I gratuated from Fine Arts School of Poitiers in the section "images composites" ("mixed images").
The year of my diploma, I started working for La Sept (before ARTE) with the director Philippe Truffault. It confirmed that I wanted to be a director.

Do you feel that your background is typical for your generation of French filmmakers?

I don't know... That's hard to say there is a typical background to be a filmmaker, even a French filmmaker. Background doesn't count, ideas do. The important thing is to have a good idea. It's better to have a good short film with a strong idea than a feature with a poor one!

UNE PETITE HISTOIRE DE L’IMAGE ANIMÉE seems on paper to be a collaborative effort between you, Anne Jaffrennou, the animator Philippe Massonnet and several others. Please tell us how this project came to life and who was the first one involved.

This film started out in 2007 as a greetings card of the post-production company Mikros. The artistic director at the time, Christian Janicot, asked Anne Jaffrennou to write the screenplay and asked me to be the director. I like working with both of them. Doncvoilà, the creative and animation studio I founded with Virginie Giachino, hired the animator Philippe Massonnet. It took only a month and a half to do the film from A to Z.

There are numerous nods and allusions to other films and artists in your short film, both on the textual as on the visual level. How and at what stage of the production did they come up?

It comes up at the beginning, with the idea of the film. Anne Jaffrennou wrote the screenplay thinking of the images I could find. We worked together to find the proper ideas, images and words.

Tell us something about the reception of this film, especially where in your country it has been shown and what the reactions were.

The film has been selected in more than thirty festivals and won three awards. I was very happy the film was selected in Annecy 2007, an important animation festival in France but also worldwide. In general, people of every age find the film very funny and learn in less than four minutes the keys of the history of animation.

What are your next projects?

Today, with the authors and the production we are working on a global media project called “Des petites histoires de…“ (“Brief histories of…“). This is a project about general knowledge for viewers of all ages. Each episode attempts to present the history of a fascinating topic from the dawn of time to the present day. And right now we are producing twelve one-minute-films for the Cannes Festival.

Links

• A TALE ABOUT THE ANIMATED IMAGE (F 2007. Joris Clerté)
• Let there be animation! – Daniel Bickermann about A TALE ABOUT THE ANIMATED IMAGE
• Cinema’s Birthplace – Werner Busch about the French film market