Marc Caro | |
|---|---|
 Caro atSci-Fi-London in 2009 | |
| Born | (1956-04-02)2 April 1956 (age 68) |
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Marc Caro (born 2 April 1956) is aFrench filmmaker and comics artist, best known for his projects withJean-Pierre Jeunet.[1]
Marc Caro was born inNantes, the native town ofJules Verne, who made a great impact on him, influenced his love forscience fiction and his artistic style. During the 1970s he worked as an editor and designer atMétal hurlant, drew comics forL'Écho des savanes andFluide Glacial along withGilles Adrien who would also join Caro on his movie projects.[2][3]
In 1974 Caro met and befriendedJean-Pierre Jeunet at theAnnecy International Animated Film Festival which led to a long-lasting collaboration.[2][4] Together they directed two animated shorts,L'évasion (The Escape, 1978) andLe manège (The Carousel, 1980) which was awarded theCésar Award for Best Animated Short Film at the6th César Awards in 1981.[5] Same year they wrote and co-directed a shortart filmLe Bunker de la dernière rafale (The Bunker of the Last Gunshots) where the pair also worked as cinematographers, editors, set decorators, costume designers, even actors.[6] Caro also produced shorts, ads and music clips on his own.
In 1991 they directed their first feature film, a dark comedyDelicatessen[7] which launched their careers: the film won the Gold Hugo at theChicago International Film Festival and Tokyo Gold Prize at theTokyo International Film Festival in 1991, César Awards for Best Debut and Best Writing at the17th César Awards (1992) and the Best Director award at theSitges Film Festival (1993).[8][9] As Caro described their working process,
"Jean-Pierre handles direction in the traditional sense of the word, that is, the direction of the actors, etc., while I do the artistic direction. Beyond that, in the day-to-day workings of the shoot of preproduction, it's obviously much more of a mixture. We write together, film together, edit together. According to each of our specialties, sometimes we'll be drawn to what we do best. There's a real complicity between us.[4]
The success ofDelicatessen allowed them to return to their early project — ascience fantasy film,The City of Lost Children, which they conceived in the early 1980s, but were not able to produce due to the lack of funding.[2] It was released in 1995 and entered the1995 Cannes Film Festival.[1][10] The friends were then suggested to direct the fourthAlien installment,Alien Resurrection, and while Jeunet agreed, Caro refused to work on a film over which he lacked creative control, although he was persuaded to spend three weeks inHollywood working on costume and set design.[4] This movie marked the end of their creative partnership.
During the next 10 years Caro contributed to various projects as an art director, character designer and actor, often collaborating withJan Kounen on his films. In 2008 he releasedDante 01, his firstfeature film as a solo director which went almost unnoticed.[11][12] In 2009 he directed a 53-minute documentaryAstroboy à Roboland based on theAstro Boy franchise. He returned to directing only in 2018 with a 5-minute shortLoop.
In 2011 he became one of the initiators of the joined French-Japanese 3D animated movieWindwalkers: Chronicle of the 34th Horde working as an art director and visual effects supervisor, with Kounen attached as a director. The movie was based on the top-selling French novelLa Horde du Contrevent byAlain Damasio and received a budget of €18 million ($23.4 million), but after American distributors requested to "marvelise" the script which they found "indigestible and too complicated", Caro and Kounen left the project which was eventually frozen in 2015.[13][14]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Storyboard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | L'évasion | Yes | No | No |
| 1981 | The Bunker of the Last Gunshots | Yes | No | No |
| 1984 | Pas de repos pour Billy Brakko | No | Yes | No |
| 1991 | Delicatessen | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 1995 | The City of Lost Children | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 1997 | Alien: Resurrection | No | No | Yes |
| 2008 | Dante 01 | Yes | Yes | No |
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