There are many reasons that Céline Sciamma (Girlhood) has ascended to the apex of coming-of-age cinema – the French writer/director’s empathetic but never candy-coated view of growing up ranks among the most powerful. It should come as little surprise that the latest film boasting her involvement, the animated My Life As a Courgette (Ma vie de Courgette), radiates an abundance of compassion for its youthful characters and their efforts to cope with their difficult situation. Sciamma may have adapted Gilles Paris’ young adult novel into a script for Swiss illustrator turned first-time filmmaker Claude Barras to direct (with the contributing writing assistance of Germano Zullo, Morgan Navarro, and Barras himself); however her influence is still felt in every word spoken.
Hers is a distinctive perspective, and an important one, seeing growing up as the multifaceted experience that it is. She doesn’t shy away from expected hallmarks of narratives about encroaching maturity that have become so established they’re now considered clichés, and yet she doesn’t pander to expectation either. The journeys of the protagonists she pens remain grounded in realism, as something as simple as the appropriate choice of words to capture a child’s attempt to deal with tougher concepts can convey. Accordingly, when a nine-year-old boy is orphaned and sent to a facility filled with others with similarly troubled pasts, he may make friends, have feelings for a girl, giggle with his new pals about sex, participate in pranks and eventually secure a new kind of family; but working towards a happy ending isn’t his defining characteristic.
While that arc may comprise the bulk of Icare’s (voiced by Gaspard Schlatter) tale, it’s the smaller moments that happen along the way, and the details stressed in the process that prove pivotal to the film. As the shy kid who clings to the nickname, Courgette (a nickname his mother gave him), he learns to gain solace in knowing he’s not alone, his interactions with those around him – including a motley crew of peers such as the bullying Simon (Paulin Jaccoud, The Little Bedroom), timid Alice (Estelle Hennard), and externally more resilient Camille (Sixtine Murat), as well as the kindly police officer Raymond (Michel Vuillermoz, The Sweet Escape) who oversees his case – don’t merely flesh out his personality or further a familiar story. They also offer a multilayered examination of how a fragile soul tries to find their path, be they a pre-teen whose prized possession is an empty beer can left behind by his mother, or anyone in the watching audience.
Though working with eye-catching stop-motion animation rather than live action, Barras approaches My Life As a Courgette in a manner similar to his primary screenwriter, with perfecting the right tone of particular importance. Both sweet and sombre developments and sentiments lurk within a film that allows the two to co-exist rather than seesawing back and forth between extremes. In fact, carving out a middle ground recurs as one of the movie’s key considerations – not through compromise, but acceptance. Consequently, the feature warmly and welcomely tugs at heartstrings by embracing the clash of happiness and sadness inherent in everyday life, including for parentless children snatching slivers of joy, humour and hope when and where they can.
Visually, too, the film continues to mine a wellspring of melancholy in its aesthetic choices. As shot by David Toutevoix (a veteran of Barras’ short Land of the Heads), edited by Valentin Rotelli (Horizontes), and scored by Sophie Hunger (Zimmer 202), My Life As a Courgette searches for the right balance between its cute and complicated components. In its expressive imagery as in its earnest emotions, the end result is an offering that gracefully navigates darkness with a light but never trivialising touch, as repeated glimpses of the orphanage’s mood board – adorned with weather-like images for Courgette and the gang to relate their interior state – exemplify in one of its most apt and affecting touches. When the movie comes to an end after 68 swift minutes, the endearing effort plays out in the just the concise manner needed, and yet leaves a yearning for more delightful slices of these figures’ lives, as well as a reminder that being gifted such a tender and thoughtful observation of childhood is all too rare unless Sciamma is involved.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
My Life As a Courgette (Ma vie de Courgette)
Director: Claude Barras
Switzerland | France, 2016, 68 mins
Melbourne International Film Festival
28 July – 14 August 2016
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