Peter Foldes

Peter Foldes (Budapest, 22 August 1924 – Paris, 29 March 1977) was a Hungarian-British director and animator.

Peter Foldes
Born(1924-08-22)22 August 1924
Budapest, Hungary
Died29 March 1977(1977-03-29) (aged 52)
Occupation(s)Film director, producer

Biography

Budapest-born Peter Foldes was one of a number of Hungarian artists (another was the film's composer Mátyás Seiber) who ended up working with fellow countryman John Halas on the latter's animated films after he moved to Britain in 1946. After leaving Halas, Foldes made a number of animated films in collaboration with his British wife Joan (b. 1924), starting with the allegorical Animated Genesis (1952), On Closer Inspection (1953) and A Short Vision (1956).[1]

A Short Vision became one of the most influential British animated films ever made, when it was screened on US television as part of the popular Ed Sullivan Show. Although children were advised to leave the room while it played, it still caused outrage and alarm with its graphic representation of the horrors of nuclear war. In the film, wild creatures flee in terror as a strange missile flies overhead. As it passes over the sleeping city, the world's leaders and wise men look upwards. The missile explodes, destroying humans, wild creatures and the Earth itself. It caught the mood of the times, since the mid-1950s was the height of both the Cold War and nuclear paranoia.[1]

Foldes later moved to Paris, where he became an early pioneer in computer animation.[1] Foldes was one of the first animators to use the Tweening method. In the 1960s, he worked for the Research Service of the ORTF. He is one of the pioneers of computer animation with his film Hunger, which received the Jury Prize in the "short film" category at Cannes Film Festival as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film at the 47th Academy Awards in 1975. In 1997, scientists Nestor Burtnyk and Marceli Wein earned an Academy Award for their technical achievement in computer animation with Foldes for their "pioneering work" on Hunger.[2]

Filmography
  • 1952 : Animated genesis, animated short film
  • 1953 : On Closer Inspection, animated short film
  • 1956 : A Short Vision, animated short film [1][3]
  • 1964 : Appétit d'oiseau, animated short film
  • 1965 : Un garçon plein d'avenir, animated short film
  • 1965-1971 : Dim Dam Dom, television series
  • 1966 : Plus vite, short film
  • 1967 : Éveil, short film
  • 1968 : La Belle cérébrale, short film
  • 1969 : Je, tu, elles...
  • 1971 : Metadata, animated short film
  • 1971 : Narcissus-Echo, animated short film
  • 1974 : Hunger, animated short film
  • 1977 : Rêve, animated short film
  • 1977 : Envisage, animated short film

Paintings
  • « Histo - Art N°1 », 1962, oil on canvas, 161 x 129 cm[4]

References
  1. Brooke, Michael. "Short Vision, A (1956)". BFI Screenoline. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
  2. "Retired NRC Scientists Burtnyk and Wein honoured as Fathers of Computer Animation Technology in Canada". Sphere (National Research Council of Canada) 4. 1996. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
  3. This short animated film is Peter and Joan Foldes' second and last film together. Its bleak subject - the end of the world caused by a nuclear apocalypse - reflects a widespread preoccupation in 50s Britain which would soon lead to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).The film is composed mostly of still drawings, creating a terrifying effect amplified by a sombre commentary spoken in the style of the Bible. The film had a very strong impact on audiences, in particular across the Atlantic, where it was shown on primetime television to millions of American viewers and reportedly produced one of the biggest reactions since Orson Welles' 'War of the Worlds' broadcast in 1938. (Christophe Dupin)
  4. Reproduction in "Beaux Arts magazine" n°72, October 1989, p. 20
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