Adapted from Stefan Wul’s 1958 science fiction novel L’Orphelin de Perdide, and originally released in 1982, The Time Masters wobbles somewhat incoherently back into view in this 4K restoration.
This by turns intriguing and insufferable animation directed by René Laloux (Fantastic Planet), and co-written by Wul himself, is perhaps best viewed as a curio, a time capsule containing a certain sensibility. The main attractions here are the art and designs of Jean ‘Mœbius’ Giraud, whose imprint on science fiction is frequently compared to that of HR Giger.
A young boy, Piel, is stranded on the alternately menacing and twee planet Perdide. Generic galactic hero Jaffar picks up a distress call from Piel’s dying father, who has crashed his rover on Perdide and is prey to giant, brain-eating hornets. Jaffar is accompanied by exiled Princess Belle, the aging alcoholic Silbad and the ambivalent Prince Matton. They pick up a pair of telepathic and synesthetic homunculi who comment on and explain the action. If you’ve seen Lars von Trier’s Kingdom, you’ll be amused for the wrong reasons.
The Time Masters suffers from being caught between two audiences: one for naive children’s animation, and the other for a kind of broad-brush metaphysics. The faceless collective of “angels” bring a sinister respite from all the sentimentality, but the hornets are shoddy. Laloux and Mœbius’ take on Wul’s narrative aspires to surrealism and existentialism but falls short of both.
There is, of course, the appeal of seeing Mœbius’ work on a cinema screen, although it lacks the signature detailing of his strip work, or his designs for, say, Jodorowsky’s Dune—an adaptation better left unmade. And against these backgrounds the protagonists are horribly rendered. This is simply not a visionary film, even by the standards of the early 1980s. It leaves one wondering for whom it was made. You might wish for the restoration of your time spent watching it.
3
+ Moments of style
- Everything else
The Time Masters
Directed by Laloux
Center for Contemporary Arts, NR, 78 mins