The Trenches

Cloutier, Claude, (film director.). Chénier, René, (film producer.). Bertrand, Marc, (film producer.). National Film Board of Canada (Montreal), (film producer.).

Summary: A young man is getting ready to fight at the front. On the battlefield and in the depths of the ditches, the recruits are dreading the order to attack. It's war. The roar of explosions moving ever closer forebodes a spectacle of horror. Anxiety tightens its grip. The signal is given. The soldier leaps out of the trench and into a hellish expanse where the earth engulfs both the living and the dead as far as the eye can see. Using brush and India ink to contemporize archival World War I images, Claude Cloutier pulls us into the inner reality of his protagonist through half real, half surrealistic scenes that reveal the symbolic importance of the earth. The Trenches is an intense cinematic experience, a powerful anti-war film that asks the question: Why? The dirty war that raged nearly one hundred years ago is no different from all those erupting today that reduce men and women to mere canon fodder.

Record details

Physical Description: 1 streaming video (5 min., 54 sec.) : sound
remote
access
Publisher: Montreal : National Film Board of Canada, 2013.
Copyright: ©2010

Content descriptions

General Note:	Agency - French program:.Animation and Youth Studio.
Restrictions on Access Note:	No restrictions.
Creation/Production Credits Note:	Script, Claude Cloutier ; animation, Claude Cloutier ; direction, Claude Cloutier ; editing, José Heppell ; sound design, Olivier Calvert ; camera, Éric Barbeau ; costumes, Francesca Chamberland, Sylvie Charbonneau, Sylvie Guillard ; re-recording, Serge Boivin ; recording, Geoffrey Mitchell ; music editing, Geoffrey Mitchell ; foley, Lise Wedlock ; digital imaging specialist, Pierre Plouffe, Susan Gourley ; special advisor, Marcel Jean ; historical research, Jocelyne Perrier ; executive producer, René Chénier ; producer, Marc Bertrand.
Participant or Performer Note:	Actor, Gabriel Boileau-Cloutier ; voice, Marc-André Bélanger, David Laurin, Martin Watier, Patrick Chouinard, Alexandre Fortin, Guillaume Champoux.
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:	Recorded 2010.
Target Audience Note:	10-13.
System Details Note:	Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Awards Note:	Best Animation, 2010 Anima Mundi Itinerant Award- with a cash prize of $700 BRL (approx. $400 CDN), 2011
Source of Description Note:	Description based on online resource; title from title screen (National Film Board of Canada, viewed 2024-03-01).