What a heavenly cake!
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | What a heavenly cake! |
| Original title | Ce magnifique gâteau! |
| Country of production |
Belgium France Netherlands |
| original language |
French Dutch Yaka Maninka |
| Publishing year | 2018 |
| length | 44 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Emma De Swaef Marc James Roels |
| script | Emma De Swaef Marc James Roels |
| production |
Steven de Beul Ben Tesseur Koen Vermaanen Mathieu Courtois Jean-François Le Corre |
| camera | Marc James Roels |
| cut | Emma De Swaef Marc James Roels |
What a heavenly cake! is an animated short film directed by Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roels from 2018. The film is divided into five chapters and shows the experiences and effects of colonization from a variety of perspectives, including that of the king, a fled bankrupt, of exploited locals and an army deserter.
action
1) The King's Dream / Le rêve du Roi: The king is woken up by noise at night and follows the noise into a greenhouse , where he comes to a fountain with his face. Suddenly the fountain starts to bubble and splashes him wet. The king wakes up from his dream, he has wet himself. A little later, in 1885, his real dream comes true and he founds a colony in Africa. When the proclamation is made, the king hiccups . The clarinetist's playing sounds similar shortly afterwards , whereupon the king forbids the musician to continue playing.
2) The Hotel Pygmäe / Le pygmée de l'hôtel: The colony in Africa has been founded and a hotel is being built on the riverbank for travelers to Europe who stay in the hotel. The local Ota has found work in the hotel, but because of his small stature he is used as an ashtray holder by those entering the country. The hotel guests show bizarre, rude behavior. The clarinetist who plays carefully on his instrument is forbidden to play. He retreats into the jungle with his instrument. Shortly afterwards Ota is struck dead by a piano that a child has made to roll.
3) The fate of Van Molle / Le destin de Van Molle: The Belgian bakery Van Molle is bankrupt because the owner's eldest son fled to the French colony in Africa with the money. He has bought a huge villa here and exploits the locals as porters , regardless of their death. In the house he gets drunk without restraint and befriends a snail, which he follows behind the facade of his house into an underground world. When the snail dies through his guilt, the man honestly mourns her and believes in the drunkenness that he can recognize his family in the underground rock formations.
4) The lost porter / Le porteur perdu: One of the porters exploited by Van Molle, who fell into a raging river through his fault, managed to save himself on the bank. While he ponders how he can find his way back to his village, the clarinetist emerges from the jungle behind him and plays on his instrument. The porter fell to the ground, hitting his head and passed out in the river. The musician withdraws, frightened, into the jungle.
5) Der Deserteur / Le deserteur: Louis wants to desert, is caught and flees to the colony in Africa. On the crossing, he meets Van Molle's nephew, who stole the family's fortune. The young Pierre now wants to confront him in Africa. Louis and Pierre become friends, and Louis decides against his plan to work in a brick factory in Africa and instead follows Pierre. He dies on the way to the uncle's villa and Louis ends up there alone. The villa is huge, sparsely furnished and empty. Three weeks later, Louis finds a secret passage from a safe. He lands on a frozen river and sees a hut in the snow in the distance. His parents are in the hut, welcoming him home. Louis goes to bed and has no logical explanation for what happened. He resolves to tell the king about his African adventure and imagines the king calling him a good boy.
production
What a heavenly cake! is the second film after Oh Willy… from 2012 that Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roels worked together. The title of the film goes back to a quote from Leopold II , who also wanted to “cut a piece of the wonderful African cake” in the course of colonization. As inspiration for what heavenly cake! served Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roels in addition to the illustrated book Congo (Belge) by Carl De Keyzer and Louis-Ferdinand Céline's novel Reise zum Ende der Nacht . The plot of the film takes place in the Belgian Congo , but is surreal.
The commentary is spoken in the German version by Christoph Köhler, in the original the speaker is Paul Huvenne . The film is animated in stop-motion , with the dolls made from wool by Emma De Swaef. The scenery also consists largely of textile materials such as wool and felt.
What a heavenly cake! premiered on May 14, 2018 as part of the Quinzaine des réalisateurs at the 2018 Cannes International Film Festival . In Germany, the film was shown for the first time on September 16, 2018 at the Oldenburg International Film Festival .
Awards
What a heavenly cake it was at the 2018 Cannes International Film Festival ! 2018 nominated for the Prix Illy; At the Festival d'Animation Annecy , the film won the Prix André-Martin for Best French Short Film in 2018. At the Festival du Court-Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand he received the Grand Prix in the national competition in 2019 and was nominated for an Annie Award in the category Best Animated Independent Feature in the same year .
What a heavenly cake! was nominated in 2020 for a César in the category Best Animated Short Film.
Web links
- What a heavenly cake! in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- What a heavenly cake! on marcandemma.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ This Magnificent Cake! on siskelfilmcenter.org
- ↑ Quoted from Ruth Kinet: Between Cooperation and Confrontation: Colonial State and National Mission in the Congo Free State 1876–1908 . In: Ulrich van der Heyden, Holger Stoecker (ed.): Mission and power in the change of political orientations: European mission societies in political areas of tension in Africa and Asia between 1800 and 1945 . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2005, p. 187.
- ↑ Short circuit - making of - what a heavenly cake! on arte.tv
- ↑ Chris Robinson: Marc James Roels and Emma De Swaef Return with 'This Magnificent Cake' . awn.com, June 21, 2018
- ^ Ce magnifique gâteau! on fantoche.ch
- ^ Ce magnifique gâteau! on annecy.org