All children are gods in their own perspective, until they discover their own human nature. Belgian novelist Amélie Nothomb expanded on this idea in her novel “The Character of Rain,” published in 2000, in which the author recalled the first three years of her life growing up as a diplomat’s daughter in late 1960s Japan. From being a simple “digestive tube, inert and vegetative,” Little Amélie discovers language, parents, brothers and sisters and the ability to influence the world around her.
Focusing on Nothomb’s earliest friendships, especially with her guardian Nishio-san, “The Character of Rain” is a short yet powerful novel about the passing of seasons and time, with its happy moments and tragedies.
A book that touched animator-director Liane-Cho Han at the age of 19, and stayed with him ever since. As a student, Han dreamt of an adaptation that he never thought would come to life. Yet this story returned to Han’s mind after the birth of his son. Seeing the same godliness attitude in his child, Han decided to reignite the project and bought the book for his long-time colleague and co-director Maïlys Vallade, who also fell in love with the character.
“Little Amélie” was first presented in 2021 at Cartoon Movie, the main European animated feature co-production forum, by French co-producers Maybe Movies and Ikki Films. After premiering at Cannes, the film is now part of Annecy Animation Festival’s Official Competition. Just before the festival, Gkids announced they had acquired North American rights to this “tale which stunned us with its emotional intelligence and visual creativity,” according to Rodney Uhler, Gkids director of acquisitions and development.
Ahead of Annecy, Variety spoke with directors Vallade and Liane-Cho Han about this subtle and tender adaptation, and what it meant for them sharing this story through the animated medium.
How did you approach the adaptation process of such a singular story?
Maïlys Vallade: Throughout the years, we had created a small animation family around films such as Rémi Chayé’s “Long Way North” and “Calamity, A Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary,” and collaborating together and with talents such as storyboard artist Marietta Ren or writer-artistic director Eddine Noël. So we had many people on board. Everyone was truly invested in this adaptation and each and everyone brought part of their own passion in this project. It’s a universal topic treated in a very singular way, which led to many passionate debates.
Liane-Cho Han: One of the biggest challenges of this process was finding the right tone to match our target audience. Nothomb’s works are mostly adult-oriented, even if “The Character of Rain” is maybe her most family-friendly novel. Achieving such a project with a family audience in mind took a lot of time and energy and we had discussions about the film’s tone until the very end.
Is that what guided your artistic choices as well?
Vallade: It’s funny because as a visual artist, I’m giving much more importance to content over form. To me, art has to make you grow, as a viewer but also as an artist. Our friend and colleague Rémi Chayé is very good at finding such stories, and that’s what inspired me to give it all on this metaphysical, almost biblical, existential project.
Of course, we take our own sensibility, style and palette and we infuse it in the visuals of such a project, but this identity is all dedicated to tell this story the best way. “Little Amélie” is a very rich and deep narrative told from a child’s point of view in a realistic way, and that connected with me.
Han: I completely agree with Maïlys, substance is what drove me to this story. Being able to depict the transition between infancy and childhood – a topic rarely brought to screen – tells something unique and very humane about the memories we leave behind, memories that few of us can truly recall.
As parents, we see them in our children as they gradually understand that the world does not revolve around them. There’s a kind of mourning in this transition, and it’s something the film deals with in various ways. Sometimes, some things must be lost in order to discover even more beautiful ones. That’s life, and that something that also drove our artistic choices to a heartwarming visual style, retaining proximity with our main character throughout her ups and downs that also manifest in the film’s palette.
Your cast also plays a huge part in the film’s energy, how did you meet with them, especially Louise Charpentier who gives so much life to Amélie?
Vallade: We found them thanks to our amazing casting director Céline Ronté, who also convinced us to rely much more on the actors’ personalities and talent. Louise Charpentier, whom we discovered early in the process, stayed with us the whole time even though the film took seven years to make! She’s an amazing narrator and has a very distinctive voice that really brought life to Amélie.
We’re also incredibly thankful to all the supporting cast, as each of them brought complexity and depth to their characters.
What were the biggest challenges during production?
Han: Definitely the writing, which —as I mentioned earlier— took an enormous amount of work. But thanks to the fact that we had a great team, with whom we had already worked for years, this process was a beautiful collaboration. I sincerely believe that it’s this animation family we’ve created that helped us complete the film.
Without this artistic group, and the connection we already shared, it would not have been possible.
Vallade: And that’s why it was so important for us to perpetuate this teamwork. Granted, our collaborative method was also at the heart of the production issues, but I also believe that if we hadn’t followed through on this path we’ve built over the years as a team, we would not be able to share “Little Amélie” with global audiences today.
As Liane-Cho said, it’s our little family of great talents who know each other inside out, who learned the pitch by heart and were able to navigate through our whole pipeline who made “Little Amélie” come to life.
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