Animated cinema is definitely on the rise. In particular the original feature films, signed by real authors, off the beaten track both from the point of view of the scenario and the visual aesthetics. As evidenced by The Wild Robotby the American Chris Sanders, Flowfrom the Latvian Gints Zilbalodis, and The Most Precious of Goodsby Frenchman Michel Hazanavicius, in 2024. A godsend to see another gem arrive on the big screen in January, this time from Australia, which naturally won first prize at the last Annecy Festival: Memoirs of a snailby Adam Elliot. We might as well say it straight away: you risk shedding your first tears of the year, as this initiatory fable for adults is so sublime and heartbreaking.
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Here is the story of Grace and Gilbert, twins unfortunately separated by social services when their father, who had been raising them alone since the disappearance of their mother, suddenly died. They are placed with foster families on both sides of the country, a situation that the two fusional and marginal premature babies cannot tolerate. Then begins an epistolary relationship, while waiting to perhaps meet again one day. Grace decides to collect snails, until her saving encounter with a dynamic old lady who teaches her to love life, to come out of her shell and move forward… Pure emotion, here is the promise of this absolutely masterful independent film which handles the humor of despair like no other.
Like his American counterpart Tim Burton with whom he shares an obsession with death, a predisposition for melancholy and an immoderate taste for the bizarre, Adam Elliot carefully composes a creative universe teeming with a thousand and one details for a chronicle where the marvelous and the dark, tenderness and cruelty, poetry and lucidity coexist, to address several social subjects such as the aberrations of the administration or religious fanaticism. The filmmaker made his mark in 2009 with Mary and Max, a little gem which featured two solitudes consoling themselves together. But he was not completely unknown since he had won the Oscar for best short film five years earlier for Harvey Krumpet ! With the specificity for this free electron of 53 years, totally resistant to technology, to remain faithful to the traditional technique of stop motion, the frame by frame animation of clay figurines, which he made in an artisanal way with his own hands.
Despite a hereditary pathology, a physiological tremor inherited from his mother. “I’m betterhe reassures. I am following appropriate medical treatment. I’m just afraid that it will get worse as I get older… Involuntarily, it has become my artistic signature: the asymmetry, the clumsiness, the imperfection. »
“Stop motion is a game of patience, but offers absolute control”
Like his heroes, brother and sister with faults and torments that immediately make them human and endearing. Adam Elliot carried out a veritable Stations of the Cross to climb Memoirs of a Snail. “I benefited from a budget of 4.2 million euros after eight years of efforts to obtain financinghe says. At one point I didn’t believe it anymore, so I directed a twenty minute short filmErnie Biscuit (2015). My path was strewn with pitfalls with the arrival of Covid, then my father left us. He was a clown, acrobat and actor. With my uncle, they went on tour all over the world, from Paris to Tokyo. I pay tribute to him today. » The work was colossal, from the design of the storyboard with 1,500 drawings to the manufacturing of the characters, sets and accessories. “Everything would have been simpler if I had chosen minimalismhe admits. Stop motion is a game of patience, but offers absolute control. I think I’m God! »
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Memoirs of a Snail ***, by Adam Elliot. 1h34. Released Wednesday January 15.
