Temple Caché’s animation for new Gérald Toto track explores love and loneliness

Temple Caché, an award-winning French video production company has joined up with fellow French musician Gérald Toto to animate a track from his latest album Sway, titled You Got Me.

The new music video, courtesy of animators Marion Castéra, Lia Bertels and Gwendoline Gamboa, is a beautifully bright creation. Teeming with bold illustrations that depict everyday situations, we enter a fictional neighbourhood “soaked with desire, pleasure and stolen moments,” says Gerald.

The inhabitants cook, kiss, dance and smoke their way through the animation, interacting intimately with their environment and others; set against backdrops of rooftops, starry skies, rolling hills and volcanoes.

Propelled forward by the wonderful vision of art director Kelzang Ravache, food also takes centre stage as casseroles are prepared, chillis fall from the sky, and watermelons are consumed to create a luscious combination of “colours, humour and earthiness”.

With a pink, green and white colour scheme, the video has a relaxed pace that allows the soft pastel drawings to move perfectly in rhythm with the reggae-esque track, following Gerald’s soothing lyrics. But the naive style of the illustrations belie the underlying themes of longing and loneliness. “As in cooking, love and the romantic relationship require generosity, presence and time. We must make ourselves consciously available, consent to the vulnerability of laying bare and let go,” Gerald explains.