Four stars. Rated PG-13, for dramatic intensity
By Derrick Bang
The Academy Award nominees in the
Best Animated Film category always include one or two obscure surprises, and
this year’s roster is no exception. American viewers well acquainted with Zootopia and Moana are apt to raise their eyebrows at the inclusion of Ma Vie de Courgette, which is unlikely
to achieve wide release in the States ... and more’s the pity.
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| Smitten by the captivating girl who has just joined the rest of the children at the orphanage, Courgette makes a card that he hopes will express his feelings. |
Indeed, the closest venues to the
Sacramento market appear to be in Berkeley and San Francisco, where venues are
scheduled to open the film on March 3. Check the official web site for details.
Animated films, as with any other
genre, are a rich and varied international affair; the annual Oscar contenders
are a timely reminder of this fact, even if American viewers are loathe to
embrace such diversity. I still mourn the lamentable fate of 2012’s Ernest et Célestine, a French charmer
that absolutely deserved to win the year that everybody went crazy for Frozen. Even with the publicity
generated by its nomination, Ernest et
Célestine couldn’t crack our market.
I’d hate to see the same thing
happen to Ma Vie de Courgette. Aside
from celebrating the patience and artistic skill with which Swiss filmmaker
Claude Barras has created this film, via stop-motion animation, we also must
applaud the narrative — adapted by Céline Sciamma from Giles Paris’ 2002 novel,
Autobiographie d’une Courgette — as a
deeply moving saga of children who fall through society’s cracks.
Indeed, the genius of this film
lies in the very animated medium employed to tell its story. A live-action
presentation, with actual children living these roles, would have been quite
difficult to endure. By “distancing” us with colorful stop-motion puppets,
Barras makes the same telling points in a kinder, gentler — but no less
powerful — manner.
Barras even employed untrained
children to voice these characters, which adds considerable intensity to the
drama. These young performers deliver the same sweet, natural sincerity and
stumbling uncertainty that characterized the kids hired to voice Charlie Brown
and his friends, when A Charlie Brown
Christmas became the first prime-time Peanuts TV special, back in 1965.
(Using children was innovative then, when animated characters always were
voiced by adults.)
Unfortunately, the
English-language dub of Ma Vie de
Courgette — released here as My Life
as a Zucchini, a somewhat misleading translation — clearly involved veteran
voice performers, which somewhat diminishes the film’s magic. Try, if possible,
to catch the film in its original form.
