About this Event
This program is part of 7th House's OUT THERE: FAR-OUT INTERGALACTIC ANIMATION series. Series info below and series passes available!
OUT THERE: FAR-OUT INTERGALACTIC ANIMATION, 7th House's multi-month celebration of surreal and celestial animated cinema, blasts off with a double feature of restored classics by French animation visionary René Laloux! Laloux devoted his feature filmmaking career to science-fiction cinema—using the medium to explore distant worlds, speculative futures, and the outer limits of imagination. This special theatrical pairing brings together beautiful restorations of his two most celebrated works, THE TIME MASTERS and FANTASTIC PLANET, each a radically distinct yet deeply connected vision of distant worlds, strange civilizations, and alien realities. Across both films, Laloux fuses philosophical inquiry with surreal imagery, crafting cosmic fables that are as thought-provoking as they are visually transportive. Together, they offer a vivid glimpse into one of animation’s most imaginative and distinctive bodies of work.
THE TIME MASTERS (1982, 79 mins.)
Directed by the visionary science-fiction animator and designed by legendary illustrator Jean Giraud (a.k.a. Mœbius), The Time Masters is Laloux’s second feature following his arthouse animation breakthrough. A visually fantastic foray into existentialist space adventure, the film further expands his singular approach to speculative storytelling.
Adapted from a novel by French sci-fi author Stefan Wul and originally conceived as a series of animated television films before evolving into a feature, the film follows young Piel (voiced by Frédéric Legros), who survives on the dangerous planet Perdide by maintaining radio contact with Jaffar (Jean Valmont), a pilot transporting the exiled Prince Matton (Yves-Marie Maurin) and Princess Belle (Monique Thierry). Seeking a way to reach the boy, Jaffar turns to Silbad (Michel Elias), a cheerful old-timer who knows how to circumvent Perdide’s many hazards.
Produced at Hungary’s Pannónia Studio—also responsible for Marcell Jankovics’ Son of the White Mare, one of the most dazzlingly psychedelic animated films ever made—and propelled by Jean-Pierre Bourtayre’s striking electronic score, the film synthesizes Laloux’s philosophical approach to science fiction with Mœbius’s singular visual imagination—yielding a universe populated by brain-devouring insects, impish stowaways, and faceless, hive-minded beings, as well as the mysterious Masters of Time, who may hold the key to the travelers’ origins and fate.
FANTASTIC PLANET (1973, 72 mins)
Nothing else has ever looked or felt like René Laloux’s animated marvel Fantastic Planet, a politically minded and visually inventive work of science fiction. The film is set on a distant planet called Ygam, where enslaved humans (Oms) are the playthings of giant blue native inhabitants (Draags). After Terr, kept as a pet since infancy, escapes from his gigantic child captor, he is swept up by a band of radical fellow Oms who are resisting the Draags’ oppression and violence.
A landmark of 1970s counterculture cinema, Fantastic Planet announced Laloux as a singular voice in animation, merging philosophical inquiry with surreal, often unsettling imagery. Its tactile cutout animation and dreamlike visual logic lend the film an otherworldly texture that feels at once alien and deeply allegorical. Decades on, its vision of domination, resistance, and coexistence remains as potent—and strange—as ever.
With its eerie, coolly surreal cutout animation by Roland Topor; brilliant psychedelic jazz score by Alain Goraguer; and wondrous creatures and landscapes, this Cannes-awarded 1973 counterculture landmark is a perennially compelling statement against conformity and violence.
Dir. René Laloux, 1982 + 1973, Total Program Runtime 151 mins (presented w/ intermission), France, French w/ English Subtitles, Unrated — Adult Audiences Only, Digital.
Tickets: $15 | $45 Series Pass ($+60 value) (All Screenings Are In Person Only)
Please email [email protected] or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions.
OUT THERE: FAR-OUT INTERGALACTIC ANIMATION (April — June!)
This April–June, 7th House is picking up strange signals from distant worlds — hand-hewn visions of tomorrow dispatched from impossible planets and the furthest reaches of inner and outer space. Prepare for blast-off with OUT THERE: FAR-OUT INTERGALACTIC ANIMATION!
Animation, with possibilities as boundless as imagination itself, has long served as a vessel for the cosmic, the surreal, and the otherwise unknowable. This globe-spanning series gathers a constellation of visionary works that harness the medium’s unique power to conjure radically other worlds, from psychedelic galaxies to metaphysical dreamscapes.
Spanning France, Canada, the Soviet Union, Romania, Germany, and Japan (with a surprise special USA/North Korea transmission arriving soon..!), these films traverse distant planets and interior landscapes alike — mapping strange futures, alternate dimensions, and the fragile architectures of consciousness itself.
Discounted series passes available! Full listings and links posting shortly!
4/19 – René Laloux Double Feature!: THE TIME MASTERS (1982) + FANTASTIC PLANET (1973)
4/24 – ROCK & RULE (1983) (co-presented by Uh Oh Canadia at WHAMMY! Analog Media)
4/26 — Soviet Sci-Fi Triple Header! (LA PREMIERE!): MYSTERY OF THE THIRD PLANET (1981) + 2 by Vladimir Tarasov – THE RETURN (1980) and THE PASS (1988)
5/10 — THE CATHEDRAL OF NEW EMOTIONS (2006) + Shorts
5/24 — SON OF THE STARS (1988)
6/7 – NIGHT ON THE GALACTIC RAILROAD (1985)
— Plus Surprise June Screening Announcing Soon!
ADVISORY DISCLAIMER
With some exception, The Philosophical Research Society’s 7th House Screenings does not typically provide advisory warnings about potentially upsetting content or subject matter, as sensitivities are particular to each viewer. Please be sure to read event listings, research on the web, or visit Common Sense Media, IMDb, and DoesTheDogDie.com for thorough info on content and age-appropriateness. If you have any specific content advisory questions, please email [email protected].
CONTENT DISCLAIMER
The views, opinions, and thoughts expressed within exhibited works are solely those of their creators and may not represent those of the Philosophical Research Society (PRS), its affiliates, or any individuals associated with PRS. Screenings are intended for educational and entertainment purposes.
ACCESSIBILITY
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REFUND POLICIES
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In the event that PRS is forced to cancel an event entirely, tickets will be refunded or vouchers offered for a rescheduled event.
PARKING
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Philosophical Research Society, 3910 Los Feliz Boulevard, Los Angeles, United States
USD 17.85 to USD 49.87
