The Human Plant

The Human Plant (French: La Plante humaine) is a Canadian animated feature film, directed by Pierre Hébert and released in 1996.[1] The film stars Michael Lonsdale as Mr. Michel, a lonely and isolated widower who spends all his time at home watching television, but is driven to nightmare visions by the constant bombardment of negative and frightening information.[2]

The Human Plant
FrenchLa Plante humaine
Directed byPierre Hébert
Produced byYves Leduc
Freddy Denaës
Written byPierre Hébert
Anne Quesemand
StarringMichael Lonsdale
Sotigui Kouyaté
Music byRobert Marcel Lepage
CinematographyMichael Cleary
Michel Dubois
Raymond Dumas
Barry Wood
Edited byFernand Bélanger
Production
company
Release date
  • September 13, 1996 (1996-09-13) (TIFF)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageFrench

The film was a coproduction of the National Film Board of Canada and commercial film studio Arcadia Films.[3] It grew out of an experimental stage animation project that Hébert undertook with composer Robert Marcel Lepage in the 1990s, in which Hébert would draw improvisational animations while Lepage performed a live score.[4]

Its voice cast also included Sotigui Kouyaté, Domini Blythe, Joseph Rouleau, Michelle Allen, Laurent Chabot, Marisa Corriols and Denis Karegeya.

The film premiered at the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival.[5] It was subsequently screened at the Ottawa International Animation Festival[6] and at the Festival du nouveau cinéma.

Lepage received a Genie Award nomination for Best Original Score at the 18th Genie Awards in 1997.[7] The film won the Prix AQCC-SODEC from the Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois in 1997.[8]

References

  1. Marcel Jean, Pierre Hébert, l'homme animé. Laval, Les 400 coups, 1996. p. 195.
  2. Sonia Safarti, "La vie intérieure d'une plante humaine". La Presse, November 23, 1996.
  3. Georges Privet, "Gravure d'ombres". Le Devoir, November 14, 1996.
  4. Andrea Martignoni, "The Burgeoning of a Project: Pierre Hébert's La Plante humaine". Animation World Network, April 1997.
  5. Kim Heinrich Gray, "Mehta film to launch Perspective Canada". The Globe and Mail, July 24, 1996.
  6. Jay Stone, "Toon Town: Film-makers and cartoon fans will flock here next week for the city's best-kept secret: The Ottawa International Animation Festival". Ottawa Citizen, September 28, 1996.
  7. "Sweet Hereafter leads the Genie award pack". The Province, November 5, 1997.
  8. "La Plante Humaine wins best feature-film honors at Rendez-vous du Cinema Quebecois". Montreal Gazette, March 10, 1997.
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