Paul Grimault was born on March 23, 1905, in Neuilly-sur-Seine. He began his career at 25, directing advertisement spots. In 1936 he directed his first short movie, "Monsieur Pipe fait de la peinture" (M. Pipe is doing some painting), whose script was writen by Prévert. That same year he played a small part in "Le crime de Monsieur Lange" (The crime of M. Lange) by Jean Renoir, for which Jacques Prévert had also taken part in the script and dialogs writing . He founded an animation studio, "Les Gémeaux", that he would leave in 1950 because of a disagreement about the making of his long movie "La bergère et le ramoneur" (The shepherdess and the chimneysweep).

In 1947 an other short movie went out, "Le petit soldat" (The little soldier), whose script was still by Prévert. This movie would share in 1948 the international award of the best animation feature with Walt Disney's "Melody time" at the Venice festival. Still in 1947, Grimault began to work with Prévert on "La bergère et le ramoneur", from the tale by Andersen. They built up one of the biggest animation team in Europe. But the project wasn't finished in time, money went rarer and rarer. They were fired by the production team who finished the movie without them in 1953, in a version that Prévert nor Grimault acknoledged.

In 1951, Grimault founded a second studio, "Les films Paul Grimault". He survived with advertisement spots and, in 1966, managed to buy the ?? of "La bergère et le ramoneur". He remade the movie and his masterpiece, "Le roi et l'oiseau" (The king and the bird), went out in 1979. The movie received the Louis Delluc award that same year. In 1988, Grimault directed his last long movie, "la table tournante" (The whirling table), which was a combination of his short movies with comments said by Grimault himself. Jacques Demy, who had begun as an assistant of Grimault, directed the real-life shots. Paul Grimault died on March 29, 1994.

Filmography

1939: Go chez les oiseaux
1942: Le marchand de notes
1943: L’épouvantail
1946: Le voleur de paratonnerres
1947: Le petit soldat
1953: La bergère et le ramoneur
1956: Enrico
1958: La faim du monde
1970: Le diamant
1988: La table tournante