Hayao Miyazaki has been delighting young and old for decades with his cartoons with a rich and unique universe, both murky and enchanting, between shadow and light. From what sources does his dreamlike imagination draw, populated by resourceful children and strange supernatural creatures? What is his message? And how does this animation magician work? It is these questions and a few others that Léo Favier's documentary answers Miyazaki the spirit of natureto be seen on Arte.tv until March 19, 2025.
Born in 1941, Hayao Miyazaki grew up in a Japan devastated by the Second World War. His first memories are linked to the violence of the bombings in his country. He is scarred for life. Now, “mHis creations come from ideas I had during my childhood”explains the master in this film rich in archives, analyzes and testimonies from loved ones. A childhood that he says he regretsnot having taken advantage as much as I could have“.
Deeply worried about the state of the world and pessimistic about humanity and its capacity to reform itself, the director has always wanted to comfort children and give them hope with his films. However, “given the reality they are going through, encouragement is no longer enough”he estimates in the mid-90s.
This pessimism will give rise to the formidable ecological fable Princess Mononoke (1996), which made him known throughout the world, after being a major success in Japan, even though the director was over 55 years old. The latest animated film of this scale, entirely hand-drawn and painted frame by frame (144,000 in total!), this dark and violent film in which forest deities battle against humans who threaten to destroy nature, “ccontain both his most political convictions and his most intimate doubts”.
The documentary starts from this feature film to tell us the story of this long-time convinced environmentalist. From its beginnings, with The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) et Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) – whose success in Japan led Hayao Miyazaki to create Studio Ghibli with Isao Takahata in 1985 -, then with the masterpieces The Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988) et Ponyo on the cliff (2008), he has continued to raise awareness among young people of the necessary preservation of the planet.
Here we see this perfectionist at work, Oscar winner for best animated film in 2003 for Spirited Away (2001), feverishly drawing and rectifying his boards, thinking, doubting and finding inspiration as he goes along, without knowing in advance how his films will end, condemning his collaborators to work tirelessly.
Fascinated by trees, Miyazaki thinks that “we are all born from the forest” and his entire work questions our relationship with the living. In his films, which are often initiatory fables, the human being is part of nature and is no different from the other organisms that populate it, whether they are living or inanimate like stones.
In his universe, nature, from forests, to winds and oceans, has a soul, and he suggests that humanity should maintain a collaborative and respectful relationship with it, as equals. A profoundly Japanese animist vision. Because “in Japan, nature does not exist as an entity external to humans”explains the anthropologist Philippe Descola, evoking “a rural Shintoism”.
Scorned and disfigured by greedy humans and their industrial society, nature takes revenge: generous, it can also be fierce. By shedding light on the context in which the master's films were made, Léo Favier shows that they often corresponded to a catastrophe, whether it was the mercury pollution of Minamata Bay or the deadly earthquake. from Kobe.
“I hear Ghibli is sweet and comforting. I have an overwhelming urge to destroy that ideaexplains Miyazaki. If we don't address the current issues of our time, making films makes no sense.“Elsewhere, he adds:”Regardless of the degree of chaos, we have no choice but to continue living“. In this regard, his wonderful films are of deep support to us.
“Miyazaki, the spirit of nature”, documentary (2024) by Léo Favier (1h22) is available until March 19, 2025 on Arte.tv
