(France 1934 9 min)
Directors Anthony Gross, Hector Hoppin
by Stephen Russell-Gebbett
They, every inch the good time gals, bounce and sway with fresh white smiles. He, top to toe the dapper chap, pursues them. Oh no, it’s not like that at all. He just wants to give them back one of their shoes. La Joie de Vivre is a frolic, a race to the next adventure, a bike chase, a chaste romancing of life itself.
Over these nine minutes, that feel like only a couple, you get the impression that the girls don’t want to be caught because that would mean the end of the fun. When he does eventually catch up with them it is on their terms. Eventually they just flow and fall into each other’s company.
Until then, they hide behind bushes, in bushes or become bushes, their skirts morphing into voluminous voluptuous petals. It is as if the girls are at one with the world. They are able to manipulate it at will and Hoppin and Gross more than once have them play with the illusion of 3D in 2D space. They even float about a power station, zapped by lightning and captured in a flash.
In another life they would be lounging in a Bauhaus hall, advertising the Orient Express or the World’s Fair or taking part in a Fauvist, Cubist dream. For now they have complete unadulterated freedom. Maybe a freedom from Men too. This is a freedom that was very much on the contemporary political agenda, a freedom that is itself sensual and sexual : pulling levers, chugging trains and intimate tandems.
The film is both a paean to the simple joys of the old ways and a headlong rush into a new world of technology and change. It’s funny but the image that springs to mind is of salt and pepper, liberally sprinkled.
La Joie de Vivre has an alluring Deco style with crisp and smart blacks, greys and whites. Despite the flamboyant imagination of this marvellous short film it is never too much. Too much animation (hand-drawn shorts especially) is drunk on the possibilities of this malleable form, and indulges in the empty transformation of colours and shapes. These can be incontinent show-reels of uninhibited experimentation. They abuse the medium because they have nothing to say, only to show – show what can be done.
La Joie de Vivre is a flight of fancy and a well-dressed confection but it also makes us feel it. Maybe too it makes us want to dance, like them, for joy.
* * *
Anthony Gross (to be CBE), Half-Hungarian British, was first and foremost an engraver and watercolour painter, and an acclaimed one. He became attracted to the work of Hector Hoppin, a wealthy American photographer, and so they went on a brief foray through the animated world similar to that of their heroines. The Fox Hunt (1936) would follow Joie de Vivre. They would both go there separate ways soon after, with Gross accompanying the D-Day landings with his sketchbook and depicting scenes of war that would be exhibited across Europe.
Taking into account these experiences and his wide range of talent, one can perhaps understand why he had quickly become disillusioned with the medium of animation.
* * *
Joie de Vivre is a film that brings to mind what came before and what came after. In that spirit here are a couple of images that convey a flavour of the film (which is embedded below), though they are not from it.
World Fair New York 1939 Poster
- The Orient Express – Poster
The following are works by Anthony Gross before and after the release of La Joie de Vivre:
Sortie d'Usine 1931
Disembarking - 1941
The Church of St Jean among the Ruins of Caen, Normandy - 1944
Finally a couple of images from the work of Anthony Gross’ grandson, also named Anthony Gross. He is an animator/ computer game maker/ sculptor. An artistic family legacy.
Stephen, many thanks for introducing and providing this remarkable film.
There are myriad instances of chic French design from the early twentieth century, but this animated production discovers a special ineluctable gentleness about the frisson that haunted so many artists at that time.
My pleasure Jim. Glad you liked it.
This was Ok, interesting, but found it lacking something, don’t know.
I suppose one could call it a little one-dimensional in tone and emotion. That’s not a drawback for me, but one potential criticism I could imagine people making.
Well Stephen, this is perhaps your most breathtaking presentation, what with the beautiful display of cells, posters and lithographs, and the all-encompassing historical and artistic examination. It may well be one-dimensional, but I think you gone the distance in validating it’s significance and influence. I found it wholly engaging.
Thank you Sam!
I’m glad you appreciated the extras. I think one can get bogged down concentrating on one film, or one aspect of an artist’s career. I wanted to see it within its context.
So chic. Thanks, I really enjoyed this… can’t wait to watch it again when I get home and can listen to the sound (had to mute it here in the office). I’ll comment further then.
“So chic”
Indeed. I’m glad you enjoyed it. That’s the most enjoyable part of all this, introducing works that make an impact on people.
“I’ll comment further then.”
It was the same with me. I saw it first without music (not realising there was sound). I look forward to your full thoughts.
Not one-dimensional at all!
From the beginning, the women are surrounded by beautiful, happy things as well as bad things, like a flower eating an insect. The overall sense is that they are happy because they know where to look.
They seem to be running away from the boy (whom I think of as danger boy) because he is, for them, an embodiment of where they are not looking, the entrance that in big letters says danger.
For him, on the other hand, they represent these quasi-angelic figures of happiness and jollity; he chases them, he chases their happiness, unwitting of the fact that by doing so he is entirely missing the point.
This dichotomy set up, the end blows it up in our face to give it an air of resolution.
I, however, have the feeling there will be another chaser who will be eventually admitted, and another, ad infinitum, because there’s always more to learn, more of the world to accept.
Ah! You’ve put a different complexion on it, Ronak. I’m going to watch it again with your points in mind.