Gerald Potterton (12)
Gerald Potterton
A native of London, England, and student of the Hammersmith Art School, Gerald emigrated to Canada in 1954 to work alongside the pioneers of NFB animation. He created animation for NFB films in the fifties before directing his own classic shorts, including the Stephen Leacock adaptation My Financial Career (1962) and Christmas Cracker (1963, co-directed with Norman McLaren, Jeff Hale and Grant Munro), both nominated for Academy Awards. Gerald also made his mark in live-action comedy with The Ride (1963) and the multi-award-winning film-without-words The Railrodder (1965), starring the great Buster Keaton in one of his last film roles.
Gerald returned to England to work on the animated Beatles feature Yellow Submarine (1968), followed by a collaboration with Harold Pinter on the innovative NBC TV special Pinter People, during which he began a lifelong friendship and collaboration with actor Donald Pleasence.
Back in Canada, he formed Potterton Productions, a prolific independent production house for film and TV projects, including his Oscar Wilde adaptation The Selfish Giant (1972), an animated short that netted him his third Oscar nomination.
Gerald directed the animated cult classic Heavy Metal (1981) for Columbia Pictures, supervising the work of more than 65 animators in Canada, England and the U.S. He also collaborated with the NFB again on his second Leacock adaptation, The Awful Fate of Melpomenus Jones (1983), and co-created the animated children’s series Smoggies (1987–1990).
In later years, he took up painting and was known for his historically accurate aviation paintings and extraordinary skies. He remained active and prolific into the 21st century, continuing to develop film and TV projects as well as pursuing other artistic endeavours from his farm in Knowlton, Quebec.
In 2020, he wrote and illustrated a popular children’s book about Joseph-Armand Bombardier, L’homme des neiges, published by Éditions Québec Amérique.
A member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, Gerald was selected by the World Animation Celebration in 1998 as one of “Ten Men Who Have Rocked the Animation World.” There have been over a dozen retrospectives and lifetime honours for his work in recent years, including at the Ottawa Animation Film Festival (1994) and the Seattle Film Festival (1997), as well as in India (2000).
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The Awful Fate of Melpomenus JonesGerald Potterton 1983 7 minThis amusing short animation tells of a polite and timid young minister with a major shortcoming: he just cannot bring himself to say goodbye, and this causes him great grief and considerable consternation. On the first day of his vacation to visit friends, Melpomenus somehow stays and stays until, on the last day of his holiday, he finally departs in an unexpected way. Based on the Stephen Leacock short story, the film is set to toe-tapping ragtime music. -
The RailrodderGerald Potterton 1965 24 minCe court métrage de fiction est l’un des derniers films de la très longue carrière du comédien Buster Keaton. Dans The Railrodder, celui-ci traverse le Canada d’est en ouest à bord d’une draisine. Faisant preuve de son sens du burlesque légendaire, Keaton se rend ainsi jusqu’en Colombie-Britannique, nous montrant au passage des scènes typiquement canadiennes. Film sans paroles.
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Christmas CrackerNorman McLaren , Jeff Hale , … 1963 8 minThis short animation consists of three segments that take a playful look at Christmas: a rendition of "Jingle Bells" in which paper cut-out figures dance, a dime-store rodeo of tin toys, and a story of decorating the perfect Christmas tree.
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Ma carrière financièreGerald Potterton 1962 6 minCourt métrage d'animation réalisé par Gerald Potterton. Les banquiers vous font-ils peur? Les problèmes d'argent vous rendent-ils malades? Dans l'affirmative, vous vous amuserez follement en voyant Ma carrière financière, d'après un texte de Stephen Leacock.
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La courseGerald Potterton 1963 6 minCe court métrage de fiction raconte l’histoire d’un chauffeur qui attend patiemment l’arrivée de son patron, un gros bonnet de la finance, lors d’une chaude journée d’été. Assis au volant de la Rolls-Royce de service, il se met à rêver. Soudainement, c’est l’hiver et la voiture se transforme en toboggan. Faisant appel à la pixillation, ce film évolue à la vitesse de l'imagination et de la fantaisie, sur une musique enlevante des années 1920.
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Hors-d'oeuvreGerald Potterton , Robert Verrall , … 1960 7 minCe court métrage rassemble une série de films promotionnels produits en 1959-1960 pour les services d’informations de la Société Radio-Canada, l’Office national du film du Canada et le ministère du Travail. Chaque sujet est accompagné d’un slogan et la plupart sont traités de façon humoristique.
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My Financial CareerGerald Potterton 1962 6 minAn animated film based on Stephen Leacock's witty account of a young man's first brush with banking. When he tries to make his deposit, he is so intimidated by the institution that nothing he says comes out right.
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The Quiet RacketGerald Potterton 1966 7 minThis short film tells the amusing tale of a man who feels the common urge to escape the city's noise for the weekend. Made without words, but with a wide range of other sounds, this film tracks our hero to a perfect haven of… pandemonium. The countryside, it turns out, is not as unspoiled and quiet as the poets proclaim.
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Hors-d'oeuvreGerald Potterton , Robert Verrall , … 1960 7 minThis film is a collection of 1-minute cartoons produced by NFB animators for government sponsors. Showcasing a playful selection of animation techniques, the clips include reminders about television programs, traffic safety rules, and admonitions from the Department of Labour.
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The RideGerald Potterton 1963 6 minFrom Gerald Potterton (director of the cult classic Heavy Metal), this short film depicts the daydream of a chauffeur awaiting his employer. On a hot summer day, he begins to imagine that it's winter—the residential street where he's parked transforms into snowy mountains, and a series of comic misadventures begin. As the car is replaced by a toboggan, it carries the tycoon away on a dizzying ride. The chase includes some unforgettable antics in the snow, including a piggyback ride on an incredulous skier.
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Caprice de NoëlGrant Munro , Norman McLaren , … 1963 8 minCourt métrage d'animation composé de trois contes festifs réalisés par des artistes et animateurs de l’ONF. Hôte parfait et fort sympathique, le bouffon traditionnel ouvrira ce divertissement des Fêtes et à la fin, tirera le rideau sur l'histoire d'un homme qui, au moyen d'un vaisseau spatial, cueillera la plus belle étoile au firmament.
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The RailrodderGerald Potterton 1965 24 minThis short film from director Gerald Potterton (Heavy Metal) stars Buster Keaton in one of the last films of his long career. As "the railrodder", Keaton crosses Canada from east to west on a railway track speeder. True to Keaton's genre, the film is full of sight gags as our protagonist putt-putts his way to British Columbia. Not a word is spoken throughout, and Keaton is as spry and ingenious at fetching laughs as he was in the old days of the silent slapsticks.
