Director of Best Animated Feature Nominee Links Film to Bizarre 2015 Electropop Music Video

The Academy Award-nominated masterpiece Arco transports audiences to a stark vision of 2075. In this future, humanity grapples with an unhealthy obsession with technology while the planet suffers under the weight of ecological collapse, marked by relentless wildfires. At the heart of the story is Iris, a young girl sinking into isolation whose world is revitalized by the arrival of Arco—a time-traveling explorer distinguished by his vibrant rainbow attire. This film represents the feature-length debut of French auteur Ugo Bienvenu, who spent years refining his illustrative, painterly aesthetic through acclaimed short films and music videos. According to a behind-the-scenes featurette released by distributor Neon, the film’s celebrated visual identity is deeply rooted in Bienvenu’s earlier musical collaborations.

In the short documentary “When Félix & Ugo first met,” Bienvenu and co-screenwriter Félix de Givry discuss their creative origins, having met on the set of Mia Hansen-Løve’s 2014 drama Eden. Their first joint venture was the 2015 music video for Jabberwocky’s electropop hit “Fog.” As de Givry highlights in the clip, several elements from that project served as a blueprint for Arco. The video features early prototypes of the film’s iconic imagery, most notably the characters falling through the air and the prismatic, rainbow-tinted eyewear that would eventually be worn by the three brothers in the feature film.

Revisiting Jabberwocky’s “Fog” reveals the striking DNA shared with Arco. The opaque, multi-colored glasses are instantly recognizable, but the most impressive parallel is the fluid animation of figures plummeting through space, their clothes caught in the wind. The featurette offers a side-by-side comparison that proves just how influential these early experiments were; the music video almost feels like a high-concept animation test for the movie itself.

Beyond the Jabberwocky connection, Bienvenu notes that Mikki, the robotic nanny featured in Arco, originally debuted in the music video for Antoine Kogut’s “Sphere of Influence.” This recurring character has appeared in nearly all of the director’s projects to date, becoming a signature element of his evolving cinematic universe.

Source: Polygon