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The Thief and the Cobbler

The Thief and the Cobbler

Richard Williams

  • 1993 - 2013
  • USA
  • Animation
  • 1h32mn
  • Original version with French subtitles
  • Color
Exclusive
A tale in the manner of 1001 Nights, involving a penniless cobbler and an unlucky thief.
A cursed film because of production problems — spanning three decades since 1964 — that led to its incomplete state, The Thief and the Cobbler is THE dream project of Richard Williams, known for his animated titles (he created the credits for Casino Royale). After an awful Disneyesque edit by Miramax in 1995, the film finally found salvation thanks to this workprint version thoroughly reconstructed by the author and the Academy Film Archive. As it is, the result is stupefying, somewhere between Chuck Jones and Edmond Dulac, with its innate sense of humor, its almost abstract graphic obsessions - checkers, dizzying perspectives, colorful patterns - up to its almost infernal finale. And Vincent Price’s voice as the evil vizier is unique. Restored by the Academy Film Archive.

Flying Lotus

The Thief and the Cobbler is a really beautiful piece of animation and I only saw it recently and it blew me away. I saw it and couldn’t believe I hadn”t seen or heard of it before. I was just so taken aback by how gorgeous the colors were and how trippy, out there, everything was. I just wished it could go on forever. I’m just so happy to see it on a big screen, it's just so cool.

Screenings

13/09 • 21h30 • Screen 500
Screening presented by Flying Lotus
Restored by the Academy Film Archive

Credits

  • Voiceover by : Vincent Price, Anthony Quayle, Hilary Pritchard, Felix Aylmer...
  • Screenplay : Richard Williams, Margaret French
  • Photography : John Leatherbarrow
  • Editing : Richard Williams, Peter Bond
  • Music by : Robert Folk, David Burman, Peter Shade, David Cullen
  • Production : Richard Williams, Imogen Sutton