John C Reilly spoofed it in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, but there’s a formula to biopics that works every time. You start with an older character forced to reminiscence about the past for one reason or another, preferably while perched at some kind of crossroads. Then, music soars and flashbacks begin, usually jumping all the way back to early childhood. In A Magnificent Life [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], Sylvain Chomet’s animated biopic of writer and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol – shown as a Cannes Special Screening – what sets it all in motion is a simple assignment. For Elle magazine.

It might sound simple, but the elderly Pagnol (voiced in the film by Laurent Lafitte, this year’s Master of Ceremonies at Cannes) isn’t looking forward to it. He’s not exactly “hot” right now, and his last play’s doing badly. You “can’t blame anything on the oil crisis” – Pagnol has clearly lost his way with the audience. Desperate for ideas, he needs to face his much-younger self. Literally. The curtain lifts again. Welcome to A Magnificent Life.

Chomet’s best-known film, Belleville Rendez-vous [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], also celebrated the past, but it was an unhinged, crazy ride – this one is calm and traditional. It’s obvious that he wants to celebrate a fellow creative, but also to reintroduce him. Pagnol, who passed away in the 1970s, is hardly an international celeb any more, and this film digs deep. Maybe too deep at times, as there’s a lot of information, but it’s playful enough for time to fly by. Chomet might admire this man’s work, but that doesn’t stop him from showing Pagnol’s humiliations. “I won’t live with an embittered country boy,” he hears from a wife who’s finally leaving him, this dupe who doesn’t even know that Gare de Lyon is in Paris. But he’ll learn. This is a story of growth.

And it’s a tale of a certain hunger for more, always more. “One must know when to bow out,” it’s said here, but do artists really retire? Pagnol’s life is one of constant reinvention. Pop stars get credit for that today, but he’s also had his “eras”. He was a playwright, a filmmaker, a writer. His move into cinema is particularly fun here, with scenes full of one-liners. “A director is more respected when he’s from abroad, like liars. He’s often a liar himself.” Amen.

Pagnol’s climb, though not without slips and romantic missteps – “Bank on a modest love” is one piece of advice that he can’t seem to take – is interrupted by war. War, loss, unimaginable grief – this life might be magnificent, but it’s also damned hard. Chomet’s latest, while not explicit, is a film for adults. They will understand the ambition, the drive and the melancholy – not to mention all the horrific heartbreak. But don’t worry, just like in every self-respecting animation, there are talking animals here, too, screaming: “Pagnol, faster!” because he’s already late for that Elle deadline.

A Magnificent Life was produced by What the Prod, Picture Box (France) and Bidibul Productions (Luxembourg), and co-produced by Walking the Dog (Belgium). Its sales are overseen by Elle Driver.