The Painting

In this wryly inventive animated parable, a kingdom is divided into the three castes: the impeccably painted Alldunns who reside in a majestic palace; the Halfies who the Painter has left incomplete; and the untouchable Sketchies, simple charcoal outlines who are banished to the cursed forest. Chastised for her forbidden love for an Alldunn and shamed by her unadorned face, Halfie Claire runs away into the forest. Her beloved Ramo and best friend Lola journey after her, passing between the forbidden Death Flowers that guard the boundaries of the forest (in one of the film's most radiantly gorgeous scenes), and arriving finally at the very edge of the painting—where they tumble through the canvas and into the Painter's studio. The abandoned workspace is strewn with paintings, each containing its own animated world—and in a feast for both the eyes and imagination, they explore first one picture and then another, attempting to discover just what the Painter has in mind for all his creations. Directed and co-written by Jean-François Laguionie. In English.