Interview with directors of Ernest & Celestine.
Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Sat 10 Nov only
Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar & Benjamin Renner / France / 2012 / 80 min
It’s ironic that Pixar, a once independent and untried animation producer, has become the studio to rival all studios. Ernest et Célestine is a reminder of how simple and traditional styles of pencil animation still elicit emotional storylines with a wholesomeness sometimes lost even in Pixar films.
Taken from the original series of children’s stories by Gabrielle Vincent, the film tells of the forbidden relationship between bumbling bear Ernest and cutesy mouse Célestine. Ernest lives above ground as a poor musician, raiding bins and robbing stores to get by; Célestine meanwhile lives below ground and is informed about how mice and bears can never be friends. It’s a harsh old world in children’s literature. Directors Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar, who many will remember from their plastic adventures in A Town Called Panic, are joined by Benjamin Renner to produce this loving realisation, utilising watercolour techniques that Vincent was initially known for. Without getting lost in sentiment, the directors have instilled the grand ideas present in many of the author’s stories. It is animation of intelligent, cherishable and erudite merit, imbued with Dickensian class struggles, hints of unrequited love, beauty and deep moralising on justice and autonomy; at times gorgeous and joyful, other times heartbreaking and cruel.