The Most Valuable of Goods is the first animated film by director Michel Hazanavicius. It was screened in competition at the last Cannes Film Festival. The author of The Artist andOSS 117 leaves behind comedy and lightness for a while by using Jean-Claude Grumberg’s novel to tell a story during one of the worst periods of humanity.
An impressive and meaningful film that lets in light and hope for a better world, on screens on Wednesday 20 November 2024.
“Once upon a time…”as in all tales, this is how the The Most Valuable of Goods. Carried by the very beautiful voice of Jean-Louis Trintignant, the narrator explains that no one can believe in Little Thumb, because no parent abandons their children when there is no more food to eat. “But then, why do we abandon our children? Sometimes, precisely, because we love them. That’s all“, says the film.
In this tale published in 2019, a “poor lumberjack” childless takes in a baby thrown from a train of deportees crossing the Polish countryside. The infant in question designated as a “heartless”because it comes from “the cursed race” (a term used by the Nazis to describe Jews), will nevertheless be saved thanks to the generosity of this woman, her husband, and a soldier with a “broken mouth”. As in all tales, there are bad guys and good guys, betrayals and devotion, drama and hope.
Against the backdrop of the Second World War, deportation and horror, Michel Hazanavicius’ story distances itself from History and focuses on the solidarity, mutual aid and resistance of this family of Righteous People. There is no moral to be drawn from this fable, just the wish not to let one of the worst horrors of humanity fall into oblivion.
Passionate about drawing since the age of 10 years ago, Michel Hazanavicius himself sketched the characters and landscapes. Its graphic story crosses the seasons and settings and is inspired by the painting of Gustave Courbet or Japanese sketches. At the height of the horror, we even detect a reference to Cri, the famous painting by Edvard Munch. The line, rather thick at the beginning, becomes more refined as the story progresses. The animation is refined and leaves room for sober illustrations, particularly to depict the concentration camps.
To bring the characters to life, the director called on the great voices of theater. That of Jean-Louis Trintignant first, as narrator. The actor, who died in 2022, plays his last role in the cinema here. While he was very ill, he agreed to record his score. “This story awakened moments from his childhood and his life in him. The recording was a very moving stage of the film,” confides Michel Hazanavicius. Dominique Blanc, Grégory Gadebois and Denis Podalydès complete the cast and give even more depth to the subject. If the dialogues are rare, Alexandre Desplat’s music takes up a lot of space in the narration and supports, sometimes unnecessarily, the dramaturgy. But The Most Valuable of Goods remains an important and beautiful film.
Genre : Animation/Historical drama
Directors: Michel Hazanavicius
Actors (voices): Jean-Louis Trintignant, Dominique Blanc, Denis Podalydès, Grégory Gadebois
Pays : France/Belgium
Duration : 1h21
Sortie : November 20, 2024
Distributer : StudioCanal
Synopsis : Once upon a time, in a big wood, there lived a poor woodcutter and a poor woodcutter. The cold, hunger, poverty, and war everywhere around them made their lives very difficult. One day, the poor woodcutter takes in a baby. A baby thrown from one of the many trains that constantly cross their forest. This little item will turn the lives of this woman, her husband, and all those who cross her path upside down, including the man who threw the baby from the train. Their story will reveal the worst as well as the best of men’s hearts.
