GKIDS, distributor of high profile animated films for adult and family audiences, has announced key U.S. release dates for French animator Jean-Francois Laguionie’s acclaimed feature The Painting (Le Tableau); a co-production of France’s Blue Spirit and Belgium’s Be-Films. The English-language version will open in New York on May 10, followed by an expansion kicking off May 24 to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta and other major cities.
Laguionie’s latest work, The Painting is an inventive, original parable which takes place in a kingdom set within the canvas of an artist’s studio, which is divided into three castes: the fully painted Alldunns in their majestic palace; the incomplete Halfies; and the shunned Sketchies–frail charcoal outlines who are banished to the cursed forest. Chastised by her forbidden love for an Alldunn, Halfie Claire runs away to the forest. Pursuing her, her beloved Ramo and best friend Lola journey to the very edge of the painting, where they tumble of into the outer world of the studio strewn with paintings–each containing its own animated world.
