La Joie de Vivre is a key work of French animation. This modern, floral ballet made by Anthony Gross and Hector Hoppin in 1934 falls within the modern aesthetics of the interwar years, strongly influenced by art deco.

Anthony Gross (1905-1984) engraver, water colourist and English painter was fascinated by the world of manual work. His father of Hungarian origin was a printer and his mother, a writer, belonged to the Suffragette movement. The painter Alfred E. Orr furthermore did a portrait of Gross in 1926, where it strangely resembled the cyclist from La Joie de Vivre with a beret and a shirt with rolled up sleeves. Settled in Paris, Gross first of all did a series of paintings on people leaving factories. Tempted by animation, he joined Hector Hoppin, American photographer and financier within the Animat production company in 1932. There he drew his first films: Une Journée en Afrique then Funérailles. Two years later La Joie de Vivre received a lot of attention on its release in Paris, London and New York. The Museum Of Modern Art bought it straight away. In the same breath Gross and Hoppin signed with producer Alexander Korda and worked on the adaptation of Around the world in 80 Days by Jules Verne, which was interrupted by the war.

La Joie de Vivre paradoxically fluctuates between a "hymn to progress" and a "pastoral symphony". The paintings of the same name by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso put natural and harmonious elements such as nudity, dance and music more to the fore. Only the work of art by Robert Delaunay assumed modernism and colour. Here Gross played around with all the influences of his era: Fauvist, cubism, art deco. His mastery excelled in the episode of the chase through the luxuriant countryside. The nymphets in Olympic form passed through tunnels of vegetation, while the cyclist zigzagged, tireless. The game on the plains created relief and depth. All the black and white nuances showed the reflections, transparency and perspective wonderfully.

A happy-go-lucky attitude and lightness prevailed, despite a few worrying musical tempos worthy of the Rite of Spring by Stravinsky. In 1934 Europe was hit by crisis. Fascism and Nazism conquered Italy and Germany and leagues of the far right were stirring in France. This animation went for optimism and translated a certain spirit of emancipation, which lifted the Popular Front to power in 1936. La Joie de Vivre benefited from being re-released at the height of the war, while Gross had just sailed for Bordeaux on one of the last boats heading for London. He returned to painting and became official war artist for the British crown in 1942. He covered the campaigns in Africa, the Near East and the Pacific in colour and watercolour.

The film was restored in 2005 from a nitrate print. A duplicate for the image and a negative for the sound had to be made.