The Necktie - An Animation Short Film by Jean Fancios Levesque

The celebrated short animation by Jean Fancios Levesque

A mixture of puppet and hand-drawn animation, The Necktie is the story of Valentin and his quest to find meaning in his life. Stuck in a dead-end job, he has forgotten all about the things that used to bring him joy. Years pass, and boredom replaces all his aspirations and hope for the future. It is only on his 40th birthday, when he rediscovers an old accordion hidden in the depths of his closet, that he regains his lust for life.

Filmmaker Jean-François Lévesque has a superb eye for detail and directs his story with subtlety and aplomb. The ingenious mix of puppet animation and animated drawings reinforces the contrast between Valentin — a human, likeable character — and his colleagues and boss, a two-dimensional cardboard cut-out.

The Necktie is a critical look at the apparently immutable powers-that-be, the dehumanizing nature of futile work, and hope reborn after all.

Watch The Necktie - The Animated Short Film

National Film Board of Canada official web site The Necktie

An Interview with the filmmaker Jean Francois Levesque

The following is taken from Wikipedia.org - the free Encyclopedia of the Internet

The Necktie (French: ''Le noeud cravate'') is a 2008 animated short by Jean-François Lévesque about a man with a dreary job who rediscovers his old accordion at age 40, and with it, his joy for life.[1]


The film uses a variety of animation techniques. The central character is a puppet filmed in stop-motion, inside miniature sets. His co-workers are animated with traditional animation drawings on paper, digitally integrated into shots but designed to give the appearance of being 2D cardboard cutouts.[1] The Necktie was produced in Montreal by the National Film Board of Canada.

The film garnered the Jutra Award for best animation, the Fabrizio Bellochio Prize for Social Content at the I Castelli Animati Festival as well as the Best Short Film Award and the Audience Prize for Best Canadian Short Film at the Montreal World Film Festival.[2][3]

Originally from Saint-Gabriel, Quebec, Lévesque lives and works principally in Montreal. As a child, he had participated in animation workshops in the Carrousel international du film de Rimouski children's film festival; in 2009, he was named its honorary co-president.[3]

read more at wikipedia.org/wiki - The Necktie