The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art hosts a free, outdoor screening of Jean-François Laguionie’s animated film, “The Painting,” at 8:30 p.m. July 24.

Shown in the University of Oregon’s Memorial Quad, outside the museum’s front entrance, this screening features the English version of the family-friendly French film. Free non-alcoholic beverages will be provided.

In this parable made in 2011, Laguionie designed the characters himself; they include homages to painters Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.

The story involves a kingdom that is divided into three castes: the impeccably painted Alldunns, who reside in a majestic palace; the Halfies, who the Painter has left incomplete; and the untouchable Sketchies, who are portrayed through simple charcoal outlines and banished to a cursed forest.

Chastised for her forbidden love for Ramo, an Alldunn, and shamed by her unadorned face, Halfie Claire runs away into the forest.

Her beloved Ramo and best friend, Lola, journey after her, passing between the forbidden Death Flowers that guard the boundaries of the forest, and arriving finally at the very edge of the painting – where they tumble through the canvas and into the Painter’s studio. They explore first one picture and then another, attempting to discover just what the Painter has in mind for all his creations.

Born in 1939 in Besançon, French animation auteur Laguionie developed a passion for drawing in his youth.

After completing graphic studies at the Arts Appliqués, he met the legendary French animator Paul Grimault, who introduced him to the art of animation. They shared a workshop for ten years, where Languione worked as a solitary craftsman on his first animation shorts and studied under the master.

His work was met with critical praise, leading up to “Rowing Across the Atlantic,” which received the Cannes Festival Palme d’Or for best short film. In 1979, tired of working alone, Laguionie established a studio and created his first feature film, the poetic and trance-like “Gwen, or the Book of Sand.”

“The Painting” is Laguionie’s fourth feature film.

- from the UO's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art