The Old Lady and the Pigeons (1997)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Better Late Then Never

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

"La vieille dame et les pigeons" ("The Old Lady and the Pigeons" in English) offers a comedic look at the lengths to which a person will go for self-preservation, as a malnourished policeman gets into the confidence of an old woman by dressing as a pigeon and getting her to feed him. But it turns out that he's not the only one who has plans in store.An interesting trick that Sylvain Chomet's Academy Award-nominated short uses is the lack of dialogue except for the beginning and end. The only speech comes from stereotypical tourists from the US (those scenes actually have French subtitles). But the point is that this is a clever animated short. I think that these animated shorts are more interesting than the animated features whose sole selling point is star power. I recommend it.

but one who works in great manner. because it is an embroidery of stereotypes and clichés. because the poor gendarme represents more than the story of starvation but the social parable of success.and its price. and the old lady is adorable.short, one of films who preserves the flavor of Paris. with each its pieces/ingredients, from tourists to the...pigeons. and, sure, the music, humor and the dishes.

"The Old Lady and the Pigeons" is a 25-minute animated short film from almost 20 years ago. It was done by Sylvain Chomet at a young age and, even if this film "only" won the BAFTA and did not win the Oscar (lost to Pixar)and was "only" nominated, he managed to build a successful career on this short movie. He was certainly not the most prolific filmmaker, but when he made a new movie, it was quite successful. For example he managed to get several more Oscar nominations and that is really not a given as he is not an American filmmaker and his movies never reached great audience figures outside of France.Now about his work here, I would say it is a good movie and he deserved the nomination all in all and a win may have been a bit too much. Maybe this film should only have run for 15 minutes as the basic plot is not really that much for almost half an hour. Still I have to say, it never dragged. With the basic plot I mean a guy who is starving realizes that a pigeon-feeding lady at the park has terrible eyesight and starts eating with the other pigeons from that day on. The woman also takes him home and makes him special meals. Is she really that stupid and blind? This is a pretty good film on the art of make-believe. But who is the artist in the end? Watch for yourself.

If you have ever wondered what Sylvain Chomet, the creator of Les Triplettes de Belleville did before that, then I can tell you: it's this, an entirely characteristic, shorter and considerably darker tale of pigeons and policemen, allied to a cruel dig at American tourists in Paris. The animator's Searle-like style is already fully formed and one or two of the beloved character types from Belleville (the dog, the diminutive mother) appear here too. Vieille Dame is not however merely a dry run for the fully fledged feature, more an extended taster of a unique talent. At only 20 mins it is still worth seeking out and is coupled on disc with three other animations laced with dark humour, although sadly not by Chomet. Only available from Amazon.fr apparently as part of a 50 minute DVD, and without English subtitles - although as only one of the four animation uses language to any extent, and the lesser of these too, this is not a real problem. Recommended.