Monday, May 30, 2016

My Life as a Courgette (Ma Vie de Courgette) (2016)

I had no expectations going into this film. In fact, I was going to attend a different screening at Debussy, but Gillian and Renee convinced me to accompany them to Courgette and I'm glad I did. It is a stop motion animation. The figures have enormous heads in proportion to their bodies. There is a sculpture of Courgette outside one of the hotels we've been passing by and now I know what it is. It is sort of the in the style of Coraline. It is a story of an orphaned boy finding his way. It has heart and the screenplay is touching. It makes lots of appropriate vegetable jokes because the boy's nickname Courgette means zucchini. And the ending made me cry. It is really sweet and funny and heartwarming.


What is interesting is that it doesn't have to be animated. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate a good stop motion film. A lot of the animations we see in the United States have screenplays that wouldn't work in live action, whether they're talking fish or monsters or superheroes or fantastical beings. But this is a simple story that could have been told with real people. The director simply chose to use the medium of animation to convey this story. What does the animation add to the story that real people couldn't tell? Maybe it just adds to the sweetness factor though I'm sure they could've found cute kids to empathize with. 

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