Michel Ocelot

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michel Ocelot (possibly a pseudonym,[1] real name unknown) was born in 1943 in Villefranche-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera. He went on to spend much of his childhood in Guinea, West Africa, his teenage years in Anjou, and now lives in Paris. He is mostly known as the writer and director of animated films, but has also worked as a production designer, actor, editor, and cinematographer. His films are almost always fairy-tales (either little-known or of his own invention) and are visually characterised by a rigid use of only side-on, straight-on and ¾ viewpoints[2], highly influenced by the silhouette films of Lotte Reiniger. He was president of the Association international du film d'animation (ASIFA) from 1994 to 2000.

While already a household name in France, Spain and Scandinavia, and greatly respected by Studio Ghibli's Isao Takahata (who has directed the Japanese dubs of his films), his success in the more conservative markets of the UK, U.S. and Germany has been restricted by a mixed reaction to the realistic and non-sexual, but nevertheless omnipresent nudity in his breakout film Kirikou et la sorcière. Although all of these countries' boards of film classification have approved it as being suitable for all ages, cinemas and TV channels have been reluctant to show it due to the possible backlash from offended parents. In 2007, he gained some further recognition within the English-speaking world by directing a music video for the Icelandic musician Björk, the lead single from her album Volta.