Shown at Annecy following its Cannes premiere, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain [+lee también:
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entrevista: Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho …
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Cineuropa: You really capture the sensory feelings we experience so intensely as children.
Maïlys Vallade: We wanted to focus on the gaze of a child. There was a brainstorming session with the whole team, and we were looking for old memories from when we were children. That’s where this spinning toy made of lychee came from.

Liane-Cho Han: I remembered the feeling of coming back from the beach, with everyone asleep in the car. Just feeling that silence. Maïlys and I have been working together for ten years on different projects, including Long Way North [+lee también:
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Amélie enters the age when memory is forming. One of the topics of the movie is the transition between early and later childhood. We know about the switch from children to teenagers, or teenagers to adults, but we forget about the moment when kids believe they’re the centre of the universe and then realise they’re not. It happens gradually, usually between two and three years old. That’s why we call it the “terrible twos”: they’re trying to resist it [laughs].

After what you’ve said, the film’s beginning makes much more sense. At first, it seemed like a fairy tale, with this little girl convinced that she’s a god.
LCH: Maïlys has three children; I have a boy. We observe them, we live with them and, yes, at one point, they all think they’re gods. A lot of it is also based on our own lives. Every child goes through it, but Amélie is still special. That’s how she’s described in the book, but in quite a realistic way. We could have made it more surrealistic.

MV: Amélie Nothomb likes metaphors, and it was a challenge to translate this philosophical and very metaphorical literature in a way that would be understandable to a child. Then again, it’s probably her only book written for younger readers. It recounts things chronologically, but we looked for a different structure and changed some of the characters to focus on the subject of death, all these new sensations and Japanese culture.

LCH: We also follow Amélie and her emotional evolution through the visuals. At the beginning, the colours are brighter and more vivid. Then, she experiences disillusion, and they are more toned down. When you understand you are not God, it’s not the end of the world – but it’s still a big deal for a child. It leads to something much better, however: you’re opening yourself up to the world.

As children, we have intense friendships that we forget about later on. But her relationship with Nishio-San is certainly character-forming. Why did you find it so interesting?
MV: When you’re that young, you are so generous with others. And also, they really are soulmates. There’s something magnetic about the way they understand each other. Amélie chooses to speak Japanese before French. She hides it, but she chooses her identity through Nishio-San. The whole structure of the film is centred around their connection.

LCH: Nishio-San is special, just like Amélie. She lost her parents during World War II – there’s all this history, but when you think about the scene of them reading a book, she’s able to turn Amélie’s grief into something else. She diverts her rage.

There’s the character of the neighbour, and Amélie finds herself in between these two women. Nishio-San is about opening up to the future, to the sun; the other one is closed off and stays in the past. Amélie needs to decide: what’s better? Moving ahead or staying behind, or underwater? She makes her choice because of Nishio-San.

MV: Nishio-San’s kindness protects her.

And she needs it because there are many things that feel threatening – all the stories of war and of violence. I didn’t know that book, but I knew Nothomb and expected a much darker film. Did you want it to feel accessible?
MV: We wanted to say that in life, things can be hard, but we find a way forward. We wanted to say it to children and to adults. We may fall, but we can also get up. We love dark stories. We have that in common with Amélie Nothomb.

LCH: Maïlys and I are both activists when it comes to challenging kids. We believe they can handle serious topics, like death, for example. We always want to protect them, and to us as adults, death has a different meaning. But they see the world differently. I remember watching some movies when I was little, and they just pierced my heart. That’s what you want. You want them to remember it afterwards. There’s a fight at the end, between two women, and we were told it was too scary – but my son was captivated by it!