Budapest Classic Film Marathon 2024: The Masters of Time

Director: René Laloux

Written by Stefan Wul
Screenplay by René Laloux, Jean Giraud (Mœbius)
Director of photography: Zoltán Bacsó, András Klausz, Mihály Kovács, Árpád Lossonczy
Music by Jean-Pierre Bourtayre, Pierre Tardy, Christian Zanesi
Cast (voice): Frédéric Legros, Jean Valmont, Michel Elias

Hungarian Animation 110

The Masters of Time is a confusing film: perhaps your reviewer is not alone in being astonished at the time it debuted (when people still smoked on spaceships), it was an unforgettable watch even though they did not understand a word of what was going on. One of the designers was Mœbius, one of the greatest cartoonists. This is no children’s film in realization or topic: to what extent and how time affects our mind, our imagination, our childhood, our identity. And it also covers trauma processing. Right at the beginning, Piel’s father dies. Piel is left alone with Miki, the talking egg…

Supporting film: Gobble-Gobble (6)
Hungarian animation, colour, 1977, dir: István Bányai, no dialogue, 6’

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