Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "The Man Who Planted Trees" is as motivational as 30 minutes can be. It is about a lonely shepherd who dedicated his life to planting trees. In the end we found out that this green area which was no longer a desert thanks to the shepherd became the home of many many people after World War II. Booth big wars are referenced in this short movie, but only so that we can put it in a certain time. The narrator is not the shepherd, but a man who met the shepherd during this long-lasting endeavor. It was the task of his life and it is great if you found such. I have to say I enjoyed the narration a lot. It was incredibly poetic, which is certainly not everybody's taste. Yet it manages to be never or almost never only the slightest bit of pretentious. I personally did not like the animation that much, maybe the weakest aspect for me. The writer is Jean Giono and the director is Frenchman Frédéric Back, who got his second Academy Award for this movie, six years after the first. Back died during the holidays two years ago, which means that he got as old as the title character in here. The original version is also French and narrated by Philippe Noiret, great actor by the way. The English version is narrated by Academy award winner Christopher Plummer. By now, this film is almost 30 years old already. I personally do not agree with its really really high rating on IMDb, probably one of the highest of all short films with over 1,000 votes, but still I believe it is a good watch. And yes, it's a good trigger to get going if you want to achieve something. Really motivational movie. Recommended.

bob the moo This short film is 30 minutes long and it is pretty deceptive in how it works because on the face of it the story is very simple, a little bit "pat" in the message and also quite long compared to the average length for short film animations. I say it is deceptive because in every way it appears it manages to be the opposite. So it looks like it should feel long, but yet it moves quite quickly as it tells the story. Likewise it appears that the story being so simple and delivered in a patience even tone means that it will be dull or eel like it is moving too slowly but yet the opposite is the case as the story draws you in, engaging you and taking you with it.The dialogue does this by having lots of personal detail and phrasing that means it never sounds like a dry description so much as it does the actual memories of an actual person. It is simple to describe this difference but hard to pull off and the film does it well. The nature of the telling is also very important and credit to whomever cast Plummer because his rich warm voice fits the dialogue like a glove, softly drawing us in with a gentle approach. The animation completes the film and indeed operates like the whole by virtue of appearing simple but yet being more than it appears at first glance. We are used to very detailed CGI etc when we watch animated film now, so the more traditional style here doesn't impress in an instance, but overall it is really well done with great colors, nice movement of the viewer's eye over landscapes and some beautiful images.I was not greatly moved by the film but I was touched by it in an affectionate and gentle fashion. No one part of it will knock your socks off, but as a whole package the film works very well as a story, gently and effectively told.

ackstasis Frédéric Back's 'The Man Who Planted Trees (1987)' is the one short film that has been fervently recommended to me above all others, and I'm surprised that it took me so very long to get around to it {fortunately, my stubbornness proved beneficial, since I was able to hold out for a high-quality copy}. My only previous experience with Back was his first Oscar-nominated effort 'All Nothing (1980)' in May 2007, and I enjoyed its artistry, even if the basis in Creationism kept me distanced from its central themes. This effort, arguably Back's most celebrated, tells the story of Elezeard Bouffier, an old shepherd who singlehandedly created a forest through decades of planting seeds. Though I initially assumed that Bouffier was a real-life figure, he was, in fact, a fictional creation of author Jean Giono, who apparently perpetuated the misconception. Either way, this shepherd's story is powerful and inspirational, Back's animation giving life to Giono's uplifting tale.When I recall Frédéric Back's work, the first contemporary animator who comes to mind is Aleksandr Petrov, whose paint-on-glass animation allows similar dream-like visuals that morph from one image to another like a shifting desert landscape. 'The Man Who Planted Trees' doesn't resemble a moving oil painting, as does Petrov's work, but instead bears a slightly more minimalistic pastel-sketching style. Even so, the attention-to-detail is simply staggering. For the film's opening half, the colour palette is largely sepia-toned, emphasising the sheer barrenness of the desert, with bare rocks and coarse weeds lashed by a dry, bitter wind. As Bouffier plants his trees, Back gradually introduces colour into his work, symbolising the physical and spiritual rebirth of the region. My single slight criticism with the film is that the narration should probably have been used more sparingly. As warm as I found Christopher Plummer's voice, I think that some scenes would have proved more powerful had the viewer been left to his own accord, to absorb for himself the breathtaking beauty of Back's animation.'The Man Who Planted Trees' serves, I think, as a fine counterpoint to Back's previous short film, 'All Nothing.' In the latter, a dissatisfied Mankind rapes and pillages the life that his Creator has placed upon the planet. In this film, Mankind gives back to nature; rather than destroying life, Bouffier creates it himself, even as two World Wars rage overhead. On at least two occasions, the narrator {Christopher Plummer in the English-language version, Philippe Noiret in the French} remarks that what Bouffier accomplished makes him something akin to God. Indeed, the government officials who arrive to observe his forest can think of no other explanation for the miraculous rebirth, declaring it an astonishing natural phenomenon. Nobody can believe that all this joy could have been created by the hand of a single man. I interpreted this as a touchingly humanist statement. After all, if an old shepherd like Elezeard Bouffier can give rise to such life, why, indeed, do we need a God at all?

adam-celinsky This movie is absolutely the best short movie I've ever seen. In only about 30 minutes shows the spirit of a "holy" man, his power, his endurance, his hope to make world beautiful and happy. He turns dead to life, rock to tree, madness to happiness and joy.At the beginning I though, that it will be another nice, interesting made, movie, but as the time continued I revealed a great global idea, which make this movie so optimistic.This picture attacked me strong and at the end I had to take my tears from my eyes. Person without "heart on the right side" can't understand it. This is a story for all "busy"ness and fast-living people of nowadays.My advice is: See it, after you'll understand it!"