‘Little Amélie,' World Premiering at Cannes, Lets Us See the World Through a Young Girl's Eyes (Trailer With English Subtitles)
In their feature directorial debut, directors Maïlys Vallade (The Lighthouse Keeper; layout and storyboard artist on I Lost My Body and Calamity) and Liane-Cho Han (animation director on Calamity and Long Way North) adapt the short novel The Character of Rain by popular Belgian author Amélie Nothomb based on a script that the duo wrote with Aude Py and art director Eddine Noël.
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Until the age of two and a half years old, Amélie, a Belgian girl born in Japan, is in a vegetative state. Then, she falls into childhood. 'Thanks to her friend Nishio-san, life is a succession of adventures and discoveries,' including language and interactions with her family, according to a synopsis. 'But on her third birthday, a single event changes everything. Because for Amélie, this is the age where everything hangs in the balance: happiness as well as tragedy.'
The 75-minute feature from Maybe Movies and Ikki Films, produced by Henri Magalon and Claire La Combe for Maybe, and Edwina Liard and Nidia Santiago for Ikki Films, will have its world premiere in Cannes' Special Screenings section before going on to the competition of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
Rendered in illustrative 2D, its French voice cast features Loïse Charpentier, Victoria Grobois, Laetitia Coryn, Yumi Fujimori, Marc Arnaud, and Emmylou Homs.
Little Amelie will get a French cinema release from Haut et Court from June 25, with international sales being handled by Goodfellas.
'I'm 41 now, but I discovered the book when I was 19,' Han shares with THR. 'I come from pop culture – Japanese anime, video games and such stuff, but when I read this book, I could really feel a lot of things, a lot of great images, a lot of great emotions. Despite all the metaphorical, philosophical aspects that I didn't really understand at that time, I could really see the main story was very emotionally touching. And right away, I had this fantasy to adapt it.'
He was just learning the craft of animation back then, but has now made this dream come true with a group of creatives with a shared vision. When he worked with Vallade on Rémi Chayé's Long Way North and Mark Osborne's The Little Prince, they clicked and ended up becoming creative partners, 'almost like an artistic family,' he says.
The film is full of expressive colors and plays with light. Its visuals 'became much stronger during the phase of production,' recalls Santiago. 'In animation, it is so, so important to tell the stories with images, and this book is all about feeling. It's all about how Amélie feels, and kids have this special way of feeling things.'
For Vallade, it was all about allowing audiences to see the world through a child's eyes. 'We really want to give to people the generosity of the look of a child at this age. They are little persons and already have a great mind at this age, and we want to show this with this movie. I think that's the heart of the movie.'
Magalon lauds the creative team's vision, conviction and patience. 'These are two first-time filmmakers, and taking on an adaptation of this book was nearly a mission impossible' and took seven years, he tells THR. 'But they completed it and created a wonderful movie.'
The first trailer with English subtitles, which THR can exclusively reveal below, features, among other things, nothingness, white chocolate, a burst of colors, and, of course, rain. Watch the trailer below.
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