One of the lesser-known side effects of the COVID pandemic has been the proliferation of films and animated series, so “simple” to make in times of confinement and remote work. And if several projects that were in their preliminary stages were put aside when filming was again possible, those that have been completed have blossomed in recent months on the small and big screen.
This is the case of the very beautiful, touching and funny feature film by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre which, mixing documentary and fiction, tells the friendship which united Jean-Jacques Sempé, who died earlier this year, and René Goscinny, disappeared 45 years ago; and the birth of a character occupying, since the end of the 1950s, a unique and dear place in the childhood of millions of French speakers. In response to the subtitle Little Nicholas. What are we waiting for to be happy?we could answer “this film”.
Everything begins alternately, between the Paris of Goscinny and that of Sempé. The first is typing at the typewriter and the second is at his drawing board. They meet in a cafe, talk footballthen Sempé mentions this kid he created for Southwest Sunday and which the newspaper asked him to develop. And to ask his friend, “word magician”, if he would like to work with him on this. Brainstorming ensues and little Nicolas, his parents, his friends, his mistress, his world, what, “draw” quickly. And become so real for the two creators that the little guy soon comes out of the page slipped into the typewriter and the one placed between the brushes and pencils, to ask his dads questions.
The initial project of the two directors was to produce a documentary combining archive images of the tandem with the stories of the Little Nicholas. But fairly quickly, the idea of a 100% animated film took hold. And it was the right thing to do. The ideal setting to see, for the first time, the kid come to life several times embodied in films in live action.
Two strands
Especially since, knowing and mastering the whole of the work, Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre perfectly recreate the style of the books. In the scenario, taking up the childish tone so just, so straight to the point, so (im)relevant of naivety planted by Goscinny. And in the image, in the line as in the way that Sempé had not drawn all of the sets — an obvious adaptation… which wasn’t that much: the edition works on the vertical; the cinema, on the horizontal.
This “Nicolas” section overlaps with “Sempé and Goscinny”. Here, the place is left to the more colorful, fuller, fuller style that the illustrator used in his humorous drawings published in The New Yorker, The Express, Le Figaro, Paris Match, etc. As for the content, it sheds a lot of light on the little-known story of its two artists. From that, we would have taken more in this film where the transition from one visual style to another and from documentary to fiction is done with an absolutely enchanting fluidity and naturalness.
Thus, the humor of the kid and that of his dads cohabits perfectly with the touching. And very moving. Because this deep friendship which lasted ten years on paper was brutally mowed down when René Goscinny died on November 5, 1977, at the age of 51. Life had caused the paths of the two men to diverge, but fate watched over their friendship: they had seen each other ten days before the tragedy. Then goes out the voice of Alain Chabat, who had slipped with warmth, gentleness, roundness and humor into that of Goscinny. Worn by Laurent Lafitte, the pain of the surviving dad goes straight to the heart. Same thing for that of Nicolas, now half orphan: the young Simon Faliu excels from the beginning of the film to its very end.
The little Nicolas. What are we waiting for to be happy? is a beautiful tribute to two great artists and their common work. A tribute of total fidelity to their respective styles. The humor of one, the elegance of the other. The intelligence of both.