Jazzy music in the watercolor Paris of Sempé serves as a setting for a little boy who comes to life cheerfully, just out of the typewriter of the future father of Asterix.
On the eternal refrain of Trenet, the first images of the animated film by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre,
Le Petit Nicolas.
What are we waiting for to be happy?
, dive with delight into the world of Sempé and Goscinny.
Leaning over a large white sheet, somewhere between Montmartre and Saint-Germain-des-Prés, René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé passionately discuss the creation of a character who could live hectic adventures, and thus bear witness to childhood. of its two creators… This laughing and mischievous boy is, of course, Little Nicolas.
Between camaraderie, arguments, fights, games, nonsense, and punishments galore, Nicolas lives a childhood full of joys and learning.
Intimate wounds
But this seemingly joyful film does not just tell the carefree life of a young French schoolboy.
It also shows under the grain of the paper and the transparency of watercolor the resilient destiny of brilliant creators.
That of a beaten little Bordelais, gone to Paris with his sketches under his arm, or of a globetrotter exiled to escape the Shoah.
For Jean-Jacques Sempé and René Goscinny, creating
Le Petit Nicolas
was a way to heal the wounds of a dented childhood.
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While staging the idealized France of the mid-20th century, the warm setting of their joint works, this film shows how the two men drew inspiration from their intimate wounds to create the mischievous boy, the best friend of generations of readers. , whose albums have sold 15 million copies.
When he met Sempé in the Paris of the 1950s, Goscinny was a young man who had already rolled over: he left for Argentina with his parents to escape the Holocaust, he then traveled to the United States, where he dreams of working. with Walt Disney and met there in particular Morris, the creator of Lucky Luke, before returning to France.
Alain Chabat slipped into the shoes of René Goscinny with great ease.
And Laurent Lafitte embodies with equal conviction the voice of Sempé,
Screened in the official selection at the last Cannes Film Festival, winner of the Cristal d'or at the Annecy Festival, this luminous and light animated film seems to have been conceived by an inspired creative team.
“Initially, seven years ago, this project was to be a documentary on René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé
, says the tandem Benjamin Massoubre and Amandine Fredon.
We had to use stock footage and animation.
Over time, we decided to incorporate the characters of Sempé and Goscinny inside the animated narrative structure.
We then recounted their life, interspersed with the exploits of Little Nicolas.
But our biggest challenge was to recreate the apparent simplicity of Sempé's style,”
they analyze.
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Faithfully recreating Jean-Jacques Sempé's elegant line while adapting it to the screen was a real challenge.
"To be faithful to his universe, we started from his drawings and we made files: restaurants, bars, parks, trees"
, tell the young directors.
"But let's be honest, it's very hard to do Sempé"
, they admit.
The story of a beautiful friendship
Throughout the story, Little Nicolas slips into the workshop of its creators and challenges them with humor.
Sempé and Goscinny tell him about their meeting, their friendship, their journeys, their secrets and their childhood.
The scenario, entrusted to Anne Goscinny and Michel Fessler, rings true.
René Goscinny's daughter has put her passion, her talent, and the correct knowledge of the facts experienced by her father and Jean-Jacques Sempé into it.
"Sempé was associated with the project to the extent of his fatigue
, she explained to
Figaro
shortly after Sempé's death on August 11, 2022.
He had been very moved by the project."
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This film is therefore also the story of a friendship.
Beautiful, authentic, and which will have stood the test of time.
It bursts in the form of a creative UFO, as poetic as it is joyful.
Shortly before his death, Sempé had been able to take a look at this new transposition of his work.
In his Paris studio, he was surprised to discover himself there, represented at the age of 20.
Thanks to Petit Nicolas, Sempé and Goscinny benefit from a formidable fountain of youth, that of the creation of a timeless character who cheerfully crosses the decades without ever getting bored.
It's nice!
The Big Story of Little Nicolas. The Unpublished Archives of Goscinny and Sempé, by Aymar du Châtenet, at Imav Éditions, 256 p., €39.90.
"The little Nicolas. What are we waiting for to be happy?”. Animation by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre. With the voices of Alain Chabat and Laurent Lafitte. Duration 1h22.
Le Figaro
's opinion
: 3/4