Jungle Book
This small program aims to repair an injustice: the lack of importance given to the animal world in the Cinémathèque québécoise’s programming since its foundation in 1963. However, cinema has since its beginnings and even before, among the precursors (Muybridge), granted with infinite patience a capital importance to the living phenomenon, placing of course at its center the recording of all animal appearances, in a documentary perspective. However, singular fictions have developed over time where the animal takes a role in the strong sense of the term, switching forever into the world of cinematographic representations. This is the first entry in a multi-part series devoted to animals.
A young boy raised by jungle animals tries to adapt to human life after being taken in by a woman in a village. Rudyard Kipling's famous book is adapted here by the Korda siblings: Zoltán as director, Alexander as producer and Vincent as art director.
Zoltán Korda
Zoltan Korda (June 3, 1895 – October 13, 1961) was a Hungarian-born motion picture screenwriter, director and producer. He made his first film in Hungary in 1918, and worked with his brother Alexander Korda on film-making there and in London. They both moved to the United States in 1940 to Hollywood and the American film industry.