Cinema
A Brief History
Scurtă istorie
Ion Popescu-Gopo · 1957
Synopsis
The Sun, overheated, sneezes, and its fragments scatter through the space where the planets are born. According to Gopo's own account, a little man drawn in a few lines, taken from one of these fragments, comes to life and sets out on the evolution of humanity, from discovery to discovery: some find and invent, others do not, and evolution is never general. Playtech sees in it a meditation on the human condition and a fresco of the evolution of man, which the Timișoara festival describes as condensed into a very short film.
Context
At Cannes, in 1957, the film won out over twenty-eight others according to Digi24, and became the first Romanian film so distinguished. Gopo said that his character came to him while drawing that scattered sun, from which he had chosen one ray. Georges Sadoul, cited by Digi24, writes that the film piles up poetic ideas in ten minutes; according to Playtech, critics found it owed nothing to Disney or to the European or Soviet schools. The annual Romanian film trophy, the Gopo, bears the little man's name.
Who it is for
A short animated film, to be shown to children as well as adults, which sums up the history of humanity in a few strokes.
Prizes and reception
Palme d'Or for short film at the Cannes Film Festival in 1957, the first won by a Romanian filmmaker.
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