LITTLE AMÉLIE © Maybe Movies, Ikki Films, 2 Minutes, France 3 Cinéma, Puffin Pictures, 22D Music
Amélie et la Métaphysique des tubes (Little Amélie): Amélie Nothomb’s bestseller comes to life in animation
Adapted from Amélie Nothomb’s bestseller, Amélie et la Métaphysique des tubes (Little Amélie) recounts the famous Belgian writer’s early childhood in animated pictures. The author’s dreamy recollections of happy years spent in Japan, in the Kobe region, alongside her best friend Nishio-San, are so beautifully brought to life on screen thanks to the talented work of Maïlys Vallade and Lian-Cho Han, and presented in Special Screening.
No interventionism needed for Amélie Nothomb. Excited immediately by the project of the film directors and the artistic director Eddine Noël, she gives them carte blanche, as if she were a “grandmother” whose role would be not to intervene in the education of her grandchildren. Set in the years from 1960 to 1970, the story focuses on young Amélie, a little girl under the age of three who is inseparable from her Japanese friend, Nishio-San.
“The challenge was, through a child’s eyes, to express all the life force of this little girl, Amélie, sometimes to very precise musical beats.”
Set to music by the Japanese composer Mari Fukuhara, the narration highlights the strong bond between the two “soulmates”. Designed and modeled in 3D by Eddine Noël, Amélie’s childhood home with her parents serves as a backdrop for this animated film. The dramatized adaptation unfolds over the four seasons covered by the story. “We made an artistic choice to give each character a reference color so that the viewer can understand who is being referred to throughout the story.” As designers or collaborators in the animated films Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Mark Osborne (2015), Tout en haut du monde (Long Way North) (2015) and Calamity, une enfance de Martha Jane Cannary (Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary) by Rémi Chayé (2020), directors Maïlys Vallade and Lian-Cho Han combine two skills: storyboarding and screenwriting.
