A young boy is sent to a children’s home in a frank and affecting animation about abused youngsters finding strength through solidarity
Last week, I swooned over Michaël Dudok de Wit’s The Red Turtle, a French-Belgian-Japanese co-production which was nominated for the best animated feature Oscar. Also recommended in that same category was My Life As a Courgette (or My Life As a Zucchini in the Us), a wonderfully affecting French-Swiss stop-motion masterpiece based on Gilles Paris’s book Autobiographie d’une courgette. Directed by feature first-timer Claude Barras from a screenplay by Girlhood writer-director Céline Sciamma, this tale of resilient children surviving abuse and abandonment may sound tough and unpalatable. Yet despite the spectre of parental alcoholism, drug addiction and worse, this beautifully tender and empathetic film addresses kids and adults alike in clear and compassionate tones that span – and perhaps heal – generations.
We first meet nine-year-old Icare,...
Last week, I swooned over Michaël Dudok de Wit’s The Red Turtle, a French-Belgian-Japanese co-production which was nominated for the best animated feature Oscar. Also recommended in that same category was My Life As a Courgette (or My Life As a Zucchini in the Us), a wonderfully affecting French-Swiss stop-motion masterpiece based on Gilles Paris’s book Autobiographie d’une courgette. Directed by feature first-timer Claude Barras from a screenplay by Girlhood writer-director Céline Sciamma, this tale of resilient children surviving abuse and abandonment may sound tough and unpalatable. Yet despite the spectre of parental alcoholism, drug addiction and worse, this beautifully tender and empathetic film addresses kids and adults alike in clear and compassionate tones that span – and perhaps heal – generations.
We first meet nine-year-old Icare,...
- 6/4/2017
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
Claude Barras’s Oscar-nominated debut, a lovely stop-motion animation set in a French orphanage, is expressive, subtle and beguiling
Here is a little miracle of gentleness, tenderness and intense, traditional Frenchness. It was an Oscar nominee for best animated feature earlier this year, losing out, probably unjustly, to Zootopia. The screenwriter Céline Sciamma has adapted the 2002 novel Autobiography of a Courgette by Gilles Paris for this beguiling stop-motion animation; director Claude Barras makes his feature debut.
Related: 'Ken Loach for kids': the mind behind My Life As a Courgette
Continue reading...
Here is a little miracle of gentleness, tenderness and intense, traditional Frenchness. It was an Oscar nominee for best animated feature earlier this year, losing out, probably unjustly, to Zootopia. The screenwriter Céline Sciamma has adapted the 2002 novel Autobiography of a Courgette by Gilles Paris for this beguiling stop-motion animation; director Claude Barras makes his feature debut.
Related: 'Ken Loach for kids': the mind behind My Life As a Courgette
Continue reading...
- 6/2/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Author: Stefan Pape
Profound drama My Life as a Courgette is emblematic of just how important word of mouth can be. Naturally, a French, low-budget stop-motion animation for adults, directed by a first-time filmmaker – and with a run-time of just over an hour, may be a somewhat tough sell. But it’s absolutely brilliant.
It’s not just us who think so either, for this Claude Barras production was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe this year, and now has finally made its way to UK cinemas. But it’s a journey that started a long time ago – as the aforementioned director explained to us during an exclusive interview in Paris earlier this year.
“I read the book 10 years ago and in the meantime I made six short films,” he said. “I developed the script and worked on it, which lasted six years, and I was looking for producers.
Profound drama My Life as a Courgette is emblematic of just how important word of mouth can be. Naturally, a French, low-budget stop-motion animation for adults, directed by a first-time filmmaker – and with a run-time of just over an hour, may be a somewhat tough sell. But it’s absolutely brilliant.
It’s not just us who think so either, for this Claude Barras production was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe this year, and now has finally made its way to UK cinemas. But it’s a journey that started a long time ago – as the aforementioned director explained to us during an exclusive interview in Paris earlier this year.
“I read the book 10 years ago and in the meantime I made six short films,” he said. “I developed the script and worked on it, which lasted six years, and I was looking for producers.
- 5/30/2017
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Chicago – Leave it to the Europeans to inject some realistic drama into the art of animation. The recently Oscar nominated “My Life as a Zucchini” is opening in Chicago this weekend, and tells the story of parental abandonment, orphanages and finding family. Co-produced by France and Switzerland, it uses a familiar claymation stop-motion style for more emotional resonance.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
The English dubbed version is cast with familiar names – Nick Offerman, Ellen Page, Will Forte and Amy Sedaris – and that adds even more connection to the material. The film is an adaption of a novel by Gilles Paris, and pulls no punches in its presentation of a group of orphans, telling the back stories of their circumstances with substance abuse parents, drunken parents, abusive parents and deported parents. The kids are all misfits, and need to rally to each other to get through their challenges. The story suffers a bit through a tipped off ending,...
Rating: 3.5/5.0
The English dubbed version is cast with familiar names – Nick Offerman, Ellen Page, Will Forte and Amy Sedaris – and that adds even more connection to the material. The film is an adaption of a novel by Gilles Paris, and pulls no punches in its presentation of a group of orphans, telling the back stories of their circumstances with substance abuse parents, drunken parents, abusive parents and deported parents. The kids are all misfits, and need to rally to each other to get through their challenges. The story suffers a bit through a tipped off ending,...
- 3/11/2017
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
MaryAnn’s quick take… Simply a lovely film, with some of the most striking — and haunting — animation I’ve ever seen, and full of a remarkable and palpable warmth and humanity. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
I have not read the source material
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
The animation style may be a bit of a tipoff: My Life as a Zucchini is not going to be an easy film. The haunting claymation features people with sallow faces and shadowed eyes on oversized heads, tragedy and pain made bloatedly manifest on their bodies. And these people are mostly children: orphans abandoned by life, which has turned them either bullying or neurotic or withdrawn or just plain sad. Some parents may feel that this is not a film suitable for children, but I disagree: kids’ sympathy (and that of adults,...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
I have not read the source material
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
The animation style may be a bit of a tipoff: My Life as a Zucchini is not going to be an easy film. The haunting claymation features people with sallow faces and shadowed eyes on oversized heads, tragedy and pain made bloatedly manifest on their bodies. And these people are mostly children: orphans abandoned by life, which has turned them either bullying or neurotic or withdrawn or just plain sad. Some parents may feel that this is not a film suitable for children, but I disagree: kids’ sympathy (and that of adults,...
- 3/6/2017
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
The past couple of years have featured many conversations about the need for fresh voices of all races and genders and sexual orientations in the movies. Consider it a healthy sign for the future that when this conversation comes up, there are dozens and dozens of young directors out there to champion. Certainly one of the most exciting newish female writer/directors working is Céline Sciamma in France. In the past ten years she's established herself as a revelatory voice in the genre of coming-of-age films, starting with her César nominated debut Water Lilies (2007) and reaching a new level of critical interest and popularity with Girlhood (2014). But, in something of a left turn -- which she says is no left turn at all -- she hasn't been behind the camera this past year but behind the screenplays of two acclaimed pictures.
She cowrote Andre Techine's well received Lgbt film Being...
She cowrote Andre Techine's well received Lgbt film Being...
- 3/1/2017
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
‘My Life As A Zucchini’ Review: This Oscar Nominee Is An Animated ‘Short Term 12’ That Keeps It Real
From “Oliver Twist” to “The Fault In Our Stars,” younger viewers have always had an affinity for melancholy. Call it a penchant for melodrama, unfettered access to emotions without shame, or maybe it’s taking comfort in life’s messier truths before social mores encourage them to project happiness at all times. Children often feel things more intensely than jaded adults; it follows that they would respond to narratives that are comfortable painting with shades of grey.
Which is not to say “My Life As A Zucchini” isn’t colorful. Visually, it uses a whimsical palette and exudes vintage charm. The figures, with their circular eyes and ruddy noses and ears have that certain stop-motion je ne sais quoi. The wide, circular eyes of the film’s mournful protagonist, Zucchini, are rimmed in blue to match his hair, painting his face with a pallor that mirrors the blues inside.
Read...
Which is not to say “My Life As A Zucchini” isn’t colorful. Visually, it uses a whimsical palette and exudes vintage charm. The figures, with their circular eyes and ruddy noses and ears have that certain stop-motion je ne sais quoi. The wide, circular eyes of the film’s mournful protagonist, Zucchini, are rimmed in blue to match his hair, painting his face with a pallor that mirrors the blues inside.
Read...
- 2/23/2017
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
If comforting hugs could be delivered in visual form, My Life as a Zucchini would be the warmest of them all. Kindhearted but not sugarcoated, Claude Barras’ first animated feature has quickly become a global phenomenon, winning many international awards and now an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. Its most delightful victory, however, is in dealing with hardship and tragedy with honest tactfulness wrapped in colorful design. Social realism filtered through the magical physicality of stop-motion is the recipe at the root of this touching adaptation of French scribe Gilles Paris’s novel, for which Girlhood director Céline Sciamma […]...
- 2/23/2017
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
If you're wondering about that movie with the funny title – the one nominated for an Academy Award as Best Animated Feature against such biggies as Zootopia and Moana – here it is. My Life as a Zucchini is a French-language stop-motion cartoon, blessed with both a Swiss director (Claude Barras), and an ambition not to do anything the conventional way. As if the story of a nine-year-old orphan named Courgette – that's French for zucchini – who's sent to a group home after the death of his alcoholic mother, could be considered even slightly conventional.
- 2/22/2017
- Rollingstone.com
It’s exactly what you need this week.
This is fast becoming a disturbing and sad week for news, politics, and life in general. There’s no one right way to combat the insanity, although lighting your computer on fire and tossing it out a window comes close. Before you do resort to that, I offer up this absolutely delightful trailer for My Life as a Zucchini. May it sooth you as it soothed me.
https://medium.com/media/ea013257878d6fa8ee9236a84197801d/href
If you haven’t heard of My Life as a Zucchini yet, this would be the part where I would make some sort of joke about how it isn’t about becoming a vegetable (haha!), but we’re all film fans here. It would be hard to miss this film as it’s been making incredible headlines since its debut at the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes last spring.
Adapted...
This is fast becoming a disturbing and sad week for news, politics, and life in general. There’s no one right way to combat the insanity, although lighting your computer on fire and tossing it out a window comes close. Before you do resort to that, I offer up this absolutely delightful trailer for My Life as a Zucchini. May it sooth you as it soothed me.
https://medium.com/media/ea013257878d6fa8ee9236a84197801d/href
If you haven’t heard of My Life as a Zucchini yet, this would be the part where I would make some sort of joke about how it isn’t about becoming a vegetable (haha!), but we’re all film fans here. It would be hard to miss this film as it’s been making incredible headlines since its debut at the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes last spring.
Adapted...
- 1/11/2017
- by Siân Melton
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Regardless of country, language, budget size or subject matter, five international directors confirmed one thing on Monday night: Making a film is hard.
At “Eyes on the Prize: Foreign Language Oscar Directors in Discussion,” the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s annual panel, the directors behind titles on the Oscar shortlist talked about the painstaking process of bringing their films to life and the ups and downs of festivals and awards season.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg moderated the evening’s talk, which included Asghar Farhadi (“The Salesman”), Xavier Dolan (“It’s Only the End of the World”), Claude Barras (“My Life as a Zucchini”), Erik Poppe (“The King’s Choice”) and Hannes Holm (“A Man Called Ove”). (Farhadi and Barras delivered their responses via respective interpreters.)
Read More: ‘My Life as a Zucchini’ Exclusive Featurette: British Animator Peter Lord Discusses The Stop-Motion Animated Film
Nearly all of...
At “Eyes on the Prize: Foreign Language Oscar Directors in Discussion,” the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s annual panel, the directors behind titles on the Oscar shortlist talked about the painstaking process of bringing their films to life and the ups and downs of festivals and awards season.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg moderated the evening’s talk, which included Asghar Farhadi (“The Salesman”), Xavier Dolan (“It’s Only the End of the World”), Claude Barras (“My Life as a Zucchini”), Erik Poppe (“The King’s Choice”) and Hannes Holm (“A Man Called Ove”). (Farhadi and Barras delivered their responses via respective interpreters.)
Read More: ‘My Life as a Zucchini’ Exclusive Featurette: British Animator Peter Lord Discusses The Stop-Motion Animated Film
Nearly all of...
- 1/10/2017
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
GKids has released the first official U.S. trailer for the stop-motion animated film “My Life as a Zucchini,” and it’s likely to melt your heart.
Originally titled in French “Ma vie de Courgette,” the Swiss film is about a blue-haired 9-year-old boy who prefers to be called “Courgette” (French for “zucchini”) instead of his birth name of Icare. After his mother’s sudden death, Zucchini is befriended by a police officer named Raymond, who takes him to a foster home filled with other orphans his age.
Read More: British Animator Peter Lord Discusses ‘My Life as a Zucchini’ in this Exclusive Featurette
At first, Zucchini struggles to find his place in this strange, at times even hostile environment, where other kids pick on him. But he quickly makes new friends, eventually learns to trust and may even fall in love.
This English-language version of the film stars Will Forte...
Originally titled in French “Ma vie de Courgette,” the Swiss film is about a blue-haired 9-year-old boy who prefers to be called “Courgette” (French for “zucchini”) instead of his birth name of Icare. After his mother’s sudden death, Zucchini is befriended by a police officer named Raymond, who takes him to a foster home filled with other orphans his age.
Read More: British Animator Peter Lord Discusses ‘My Life as a Zucchini’ in this Exclusive Featurette
At first, Zucchini struggles to find his place in this strange, at times even hostile environment, where other kids pick on him. But he quickly makes new friends, eventually learns to trust and may even fall in love.
This English-language version of the film stars Will Forte...
- 1/10/2017
- by Yoselin Acevedo
- Indiewire
The Campaign Begins: Inside the First Weekend Push to Woo Academy Voters with Food, Swag, and Celebs
Truth is, while there are about 6,000 voting Academy members, it can take only 300 or so Oscar votes to get a movie nominated. Hence all the relentless campaigning, which is in full gear, as distributors, foreign countries, and Oscar-whisperers plan and execute relentless rounds of screenings with public appearances — at lunches, Q&A panels, premieres, DVD launch parties, and “holiday” fetes.
Check out this slice of the past few days to get a sense of all the wining and dining that goes on. Academy members are being constantly wooed, just like the Hollywood Foreign Press Association who vote on the Golden Globes, with yummy food, drink, music, and celebrities —despite various attempts by the Academy to monitor and limit the scale of all this campaigning.
On the animation side, for example, this past week saw a Friday Academy screening of Universal/Illumination’s animated contest musical “Sing,” directed by live-action director...
Check out this slice of the past few days to get a sense of all the wining and dining that goes on. Academy members are being constantly wooed, just like the Hollywood Foreign Press Association who vote on the Golden Globes, with yummy food, drink, music, and celebrities —despite various attempts by the Academy to monitor and limit the scale of all this campaigning.
On the animation side, for example, this past week saw a Friday Academy screening of Universal/Illumination’s animated contest musical “Sing,” directed by live-action director...
- 12/5/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The Campaign Begins: Inside the First Weekend Push to Woo Academy Voters with Food, Swag, and Celebs
Truth is, while there are about 6,000 voting Academy members, it can take only 300 or so Oscar votes to get a movie nominated. Hence all the relentless campaigning, which is in full gear, as distributors, foreign countries, and Oscar-whisperers plan and execute relentless rounds of screenings with public appearances — at lunches, Q&A panels, premieres, DVD launch parties, and “holiday” fetes.
Check out this slice of the past few days to get a sense of all the wining and dining that goes on. Academy members are being constantly wooed, just like the Hollywood Foreign Press Association who vote on the Golden Globes, with yummy food, drink, music, and celebrities —despite various attempts by the Academy to monitor and limit the scale of all this campaigning.
On the animation side, for example, this past week saw a Friday Academy screening of Universal/Illumination’s animated contest musical “Sing,” directed by live-action director...
Check out this slice of the past few days to get a sense of all the wining and dining that goes on. Academy members are being constantly wooed, just like the Hollywood Foreign Press Association who vote on the Golden Globes, with yummy food, drink, music, and celebrities —despite various attempts by the Academy to monitor and limit the scale of all this campaigning.
On the animation side, for example, this past week saw a Friday Academy screening of Universal/Illumination’s animated contest musical “Sing,” directed by live-action director...
- 12/5/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Claude Barras’ engaging, bittersweet stop-motion movie,”My Life as a Zucchini” (both the Swiss foreign language Oscar entry and a Gkids animated feature contender) immediately brings to mind Francois Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” for its naked truth about adolescent pain. In fact, the first-time feature director (who’s made such shorts as “Chamber 69” and “Land of the Heads”) said he was inspired by the audition footage of Jean-Pierre Léaud trying out for Antoine Doinel on “The 400 Blows” DVD.
Read More: Record 27 Animated Features Vie for Oscar Nods
“I fell in love with Gilles Paris’ book, ‘Autobiography of a Zucchini,’ a tender and poetic coming of age story [adapted by Celine Sciamma],” Barras said. “The story and its tone brought me back to my childhood and reminded me of my first emotional flutters as a moviegoer…. With this animated film adaptation, I wanted to share with today’s public a bit of these...
Read More: Record 27 Animated Features Vie for Oscar Nods
“I fell in love with Gilles Paris’ book, ‘Autobiography of a Zucchini,’ a tender and poetic coming of age story [adapted by Celine Sciamma],” Barras said. “The story and its tone brought me back to my childhood and reminded me of my first emotional flutters as a moviegoer…. With this animated film adaptation, I wanted to share with today’s public a bit of these...
- 11/16/2016
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Distributor adds feature animation to Lff slate that also includes Toni Erdmann and Paterson.
UK distributor Soda Pictures has acquired Claude Barras’s debut feature animation My Life As A Courgette ahead of the film’s berth at the BFI London Film Festival (Lff)
The film, which premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight programme, is Switzerland’s submission to this year’s Oscar race.
The acquisition rounds out a strong looking line-up for Soda at this year’s Lff, with the company’s slate also featuring Cannes favourites Toni Erdmann and Paterson, as well as Terence Davies’ A Quiet Passion, documentary David Lynch: The Art Life, Marco Bellocchio’s Berenice Bejo-starring drama Sweet Dreams and French fantasy animation Phantom Boy.
The stop-motion feature tells the story of nine-year-old Icare, nicknamed Courgette, who has to find his way in an orphanage after his mother’s death, eventually being taken in by a policeman.
It is based...
UK distributor Soda Pictures has acquired Claude Barras’s debut feature animation My Life As A Courgette ahead of the film’s berth at the BFI London Film Festival (Lff)
The film, which premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight programme, is Switzerland’s submission to this year’s Oscar race.
The acquisition rounds out a strong looking line-up for Soda at this year’s Lff, with the company’s slate also featuring Cannes favourites Toni Erdmann and Paterson, as well as Terence Davies’ A Quiet Passion, documentary David Lynch: The Art Life, Marco Bellocchio’s Berenice Bejo-starring drama Sweet Dreams and French fantasy animation Phantom Boy.
The stop-motion feature tells the story of nine-year-old Icare, nicknamed Courgette, who has to find his way in an orphanage after his mother’s death, eventually being taken in by a policeman.
It is based...
- 10/7/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
The stop-motion animation written by Céline Sciamma premiered at Cannes in Directors’ Fortnight.
Switzerland has selected Claude Barras’ animated feature My LIfe As A Courgette (Ma Vie De Courgette) to compete for the Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 89th Academy Awards in 2017.
The stop-motion feature tells the story of nine-year-old Icare, nicknamed Courgette, who has to find his way in an orphanage after his mother’s death and is eventually taken in by a policeman.
It is based on the novel Autobiographie d’une Courgette by Gilles Paris and was adapted for the screen by French screenwriter Céline Sciamma (Girlhood).
It was produced by Rita Productions in co-production with Blue Spirit Production, and is director Barras’ first full-length animation film
My LIfe As A Courgette had its world premiere in May at Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.
It won both the Cristal for Best Feature and the Audience Award at the Annecy International Animation...
Switzerland has selected Claude Barras’ animated feature My LIfe As A Courgette (Ma Vie De Courgette) to compete for the Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 89th Academy Awards in 2017.
The stop-motion feature tells the story of nine-year-old Icare, nicknamed Courgette, who has to find his way in an orphanage after his mother’s death and is eventually taken in by a policeman.
It is based on the novel Autobiographie d’une Courgette by Gilles Paris and was adapted for the screen by French screenwriter Céline Sciamma (Girlhood).
It was produced by Rita Productions in co-production with Blue Spirit Production, and is director Barras’ first full-length animation film
My LIfe As A Courgette had its world premiere in May at Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.
It won both the Cristal for Best Feature and the Audience Award at the Annecy International Animation...
- 8/10/2016
- ScreenDaily
A timid 9-year-old boy with blue hair and eyes as big as ping pong balls ends up in an orphanage in My Life as a Courgette (Ma Vie de Courgette), the stop-motion animated film and feature debut from Swiss-born director Claude Barras. This lovingly told and gorgeously rendered story is based on French novelist Gilles Paris’s Autobiography of a Courgette and yes, that means that the pint-sized protagonist is nicknamed after a summer squash. Though not as dark as the book that inspired it, nor as directly critical of the French welfare state — it’s
read more...
read more...
- 5/8/2016
- by Boyd van Hoeij
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: My Life As A Zucchini is written by Tomboy and Girlhood director Céline Sciamma.
Indie Sales has acquired international rights to feature-length stop motion film My Life As A Zucchini, based on a screen adaptation by filmmaker Céline Sciamma of a popular novel.
The Paris-based company will launch sales on the film at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) alongside another new acquisition, Pierre Jolivet’s new project The Night Watchman, starring Olivier Gourmet.
My Life As A Zucchini is the first feature-length film by Swiss director Claude Barras after a series of well-received animated shorts including Chambre 69 and Land of the Heads.
It is a Swiss-French co-production between Rita Films in Switzerland, Blue Spirit Productions in Paris and Gebeka in Lyon. Gebeka will also distribute in France.
The film is an adaptation of Gilles Paris novel Autobiography of a Zucchini about a young boy adapting to life in a children’s home after his mother...
Indie Sales has acquired international rights to feature-length stop motion film My Life As A Zucchini, based on a screen adaptation by filmmaker Céline Sciamma of a popular novel.
The Paris-based company will launch sales on the film at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) alongside another new acquisition, Pierre Jolivet’s new project The Night Watchman, starring Olivier Gourmet.
My Life As A Zucchini is the first feature-length film by Swiss director Claude Barras after a series of well-received animated shorts including Chambre 69 and Land of the Heads.
It is a Swiss-French co-production between Rita Films in Switzerland, Blue Spirit Productions in Paris and Gebeka in Lyon. Gebeka will also distribute in France.
The film is an adaptation of Gilles Paris novel Autobiography of a Zucchini about a young boy adapting to life in a children’s home after his mother...
- 9/1/2014
- ScreenDaily
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