13/06/2024 - Working together for the very first time, the two French filmmakers divulge the secrets behind the creation of a children’s film which is also a hit with adults

Ever since his unearthing via Persepolis [+see also:
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film profile] (co-directed with Marjane Satrapi and awarded the Jury Prize in Cannes 2007), Vincent Paronnaud has been navigating between animated films and live action movies, all the while leading a prolific career as a comic book author under the pen-name of Winshluss. Alexis Ducord, meanwhile, is notably responsible for co-directing Zombillenium [+see also:
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Cineuropa: Vincent, your comic book Angelo dans la forêt sombre et mystérieuse dates back to 2016. Where did the idea to adapt the book for the big screen come from?
Vincent Paronnaud: When I finished the comic book, I felt it had the potential to be adapted because it was an open work. It’s always the same thing: it’s harder to adapt Céline than Stephen King because certain literary works have very little give while others can be played around with far more easily. In this instance, it meant we were able to add situations and characters, and to keep the same flavour using different ingredients. Our producer, Marc Jousset (Je Suis Bien Content), then suggested that I adapt it. I’d received prizes from young juries, so I had a degree of credibility, because, ultimately, I come from more of an adult background. I accepted his suggestion, and we talked about a collaboration. Alexis came to mind, who I already knew and who had a good level of expertise in 3D, which I didn’t. That’s how it came about, in quite an informal way.

Alexis Ducord: Besides the comic book, which I really loved, I’d always followed Vincent’s work. I knew him well because he’d made a few short films in the Je Suis Bien Content studio where I’ve been working for 20 years. We’d never really worked together and I was really interested because it was mostly the working environment that attracted me, , even more so than the film. In this particular case, it involved pulling together a team consisting of Vincent, Je Suis Bien Content and Gao Shan Pictures. It’s at least as important as the end result, because you’re going to be working together for three or four years.

What was the aim of the film? How did you develop it when writing the screenplay?
VP: It’s clearly a film for children. So even if we’d wanted to make it more complicated, we needed a straightforward story. Alexis and I aren’t afraid of clichés and the book was already full of them, in terms of its fairy tale links and its ogres. But as a dad who likes to watch cartoons with his children, I’m terrified of getting bored, and some productions aimed at younger kids can sometimes prove quite painful from this viewpoint. When you’re targeting pre-teens, however, you can start to have fun, to slip a few references in, play a clever game which children suspect without necessarily being able to understand. The third step is to involve parents and make them complicit in the film, because we’re tackling subjects which are pretty funny but also pretty painful, like losing your grandmother, for example. Targeting children doesn’t mean you make something overly simple with adult grandstanding and then think you’re going to teach children something.

The film has a very direct narrative with events which happen in quick succession, but there are also three levels to the story: Angelo’s misadventures when he’s lost in the forest, his forays into his own imagination, and his parents’ journey which carries on without him.
VP: The comic book is a picturesque, Pinocchio-style initiatory tale: this little guy goes about his life, experiences a few adventures and, in the end, he’s changed. When it came to the film, we needed more drama, to create a crescendo, which helped us to add "complexity", and to include shorter subplots, such as not losing your family, for example. So we had to create another story within the story, including moments exploring their relationship with GPS (and its existential crises) in Angelo’s parents’ car, exploring the topical subject of Artificial Intelligence, which was less significant when we thought up this storyline a few years ago.

Ecology remains the main subject within the film.
VP: It’s hugely important for children because it’s their generation who are hearing that it’ll soon be the end of the world. And what we’re witnessing all over the planet is absurd: everyone wants to save the world, but nothing is ever done about it; in fact, quite the opposite is happening. The naivety of what’s explored in the film is precious, because, at this point in time, we’d like nothing more than to return to a state of naivety and innocence. We wanted to use Alexis to deliver a very simple message: if we’re not careful, the toy will break and if the toy breaks, there’s nothing left to play with. That’s why there’s the parallel with the grandmother: if we save nature, maybe nature will save us.

AD: It’s a message which has featured in a fair few children’s films for twenty or so years, and it’s important to stick to a guiding line when you’re telling a story.

VP: Over and above ecology, there’s the character of Ultra who is ultra-totalitarian or ultra-liberal, depending on how you look at it. He represents a presence that we see all around us: lots of powerful people looking after their own interests. It’s nothing new, it’s not a brand-new situation. We wanted to broach this subject innocently with Alexis, with simple messages like "tolerance is essential", "take care of nature", "don’t lose hope". They’re a bit like the messages you find in fortune cookies [laughter] but now is definitely the time to find a bit of energy and light, going by our conversations with children.

(Translated from French)