Animation: “total freedom” for Patrice Leconte

Patrice Leconte presents an animation film in Cannes Junior: The Suicide Shop. A feature film with undertones of black humour, adapted from the novel of the same name by Jean Teulé.

“I loved Jean Teulé’s book,” admits Patrice Leconte. “What I found engaging is the way it is very dark and yet very joyful at the same time.” The Tuvache family runs a prosperous shop in a grey, morose and sad imaginary village. The suicide shop is the store that sells every imaginable means of making the transition from life to death. Ropes, poisons, traps, there are so many methods in this city where people have lost their zest for life. But a crisis befalls this almost-happy family: the birth of their third son. A disgrace for the Tuvache clan, because this chid is not normal: he loves life…

“With this kind of film, you have complete freedom. If you want to frame a shot at an altitude of 500 metres, you need a crane, or a hot air balloon. Here, you don’t need anything, my camera goes wherever I want it to go,” says the director of Ridicule (the opening film at the Festival de Cannes in 1996). This freedom, as well as the many innovations that animation films offer, attracts many directors such as Wes Anderson and his Fantastic Mr Fox.

QP