With “Forbidden to dogs and Italians”, the Annecy Festival remakes history – Liberation
Movies-colossi
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Spanish flu, suicided women, murdered innocents… At the animation film festival, Tuesday, on a cringe in front of “Charlotte” and on a cry of tenderness in front of the very beautiful “Forbidden to dogs and Italians” by Ughetto.
It’s in the middle of a dodger that we land in Annecy on Tuesday noon, for the Animation Film Festival, at a time when, on the Paul-Grimault esplanade, hordes of anim students gobble up sweaty sandwiches de mayo of an industrial chain close to the Bonlieu center where the films in competition are screened. In the city and around the lake, a teeming crowd made up of tradespeople and tap dancing families on the lookout for outdoor projos for children, a joyfully schoolboy atmosphere in the halls.
The contrast is striking between this atmosphere and the three films that we see in the course of the afternoon: dead children, Spanish flu, grieving mothers, women who committed suicide, innocent people murdered, don’t throw away any more. Twice ten films are in competition, selection “l’Officielle” on one side and “Contrechamp” on the other. It was in the Official that we drew this hand – in order of viewing: Forbidden to dogs and Italians by Alain Ughetto, Nayola by Jose Miguel Ribeiro and Charlotte by Eric Warin and Tahir Rana. Three monumental undertakings, three colossal films that resemble pieces of great history, World War I, World War II, civil war in Angola, and depict families fragmented or even amputated by these conflicts. And a question that arises throughout the afternoon and becomes haunting at the end of the day: why do we cringe with Charlotte as we sob…