SYNOPSICS
Le renard et l'enfant (2007) is a French movie. Luc Jacquet has directed this movie. Bertille Noël-Bruneau,Isabelle Carré,Thomas Laliberté,Camille Lambert are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2007. Le renard et l'enfant (2007) is considered one of the best Drama,Family movie in India and around the world.
Riding her bicycle on her way to school, a dreamy, ten-year-old, red-haired farm girl decides to take a shortcut through a ruddy and luscious autumn forest, somewhere in the mountainous region of eastern France. Unexpectedly, the young girl encounters a bright-eyed red fox, however, the untamed wild animal flees in an instant, leaving her longing to meet again. Since then, a whole winter has passed and still no sign of the elusive fox, but with the arrival of spring, the girl determined to find the animal, finally locates its den and an ambitious effort to grow accustomed to each other begins. As we witness a succession of compelling scenes, lost inside the enchanting and breathlessly exquisite landscape, we observe the bond between a human and a savage animal grow gradually stronger, yet, a wish and question emerge. If only we, humans, could talk to the wild beasts, and if we could, could we ever become friends?
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Le renard et l'enfant (2007) Reviews
Beauty
The very first image of the movie shows a mountain ridge in early morning autumn mist, and my thought was: "This is almost too beautiful." And it goes on like this: Images of landscape and animals that look like a series of romantic paintings, each of them perfect in every detail. Even the girl's room, her father's car - everything is nostalgic, romantic, beautiful. This could seem outdated and escapistic, but it fits a story that is itself of silent beauty, happening on the border between life and fairy tale, between Dian Fossey and Le Petit Prince. I enjoyed every minute of it. The extreme parsimony of the movie, having a simple, slow story, just one actor and hardly any special effects, exerted a strong magic. I therefore find it deplorable that this parsimony is given up in the last minutes, when suddenly two additional actors (the girl as a grown-up woman, and her son) are introduced. Another shortcoming is the music, which is often intrusive, Hollywood-like, and sometimes inappropriate: I couldn't bring an English pop-song together with French mountain glory. I went to the movie together with my two small daughters, but I recommend it to adults as well, given that they appreciate this kind of movie. Obviously, not everybody does.
The direction of the animal characters is brilliantly executed -- as good as you will find on any of Attenborough's efforts.
THE FOX AND THE CHILD is the latest film from MARCH OF THE PENGUINS filmmaker Frenchman Luc Jacquet. The movie, which boasts just one human being in its cast, young actress Bertille Noël-Bruneau, tells the story of the rather rare, though seemingly believable relationship between a child and a wild fox. Part-nature documentary, and part-fairy tale, the film focuses on L'Infant, the child, who on her way to school one day comes across the path of a wild fox in a picturesque setting, possibly France, though the exact location is never mentioned. Over the coming weeks the child revisits the place where she found her fox hopeful that one of said days she will see said fox, who she begins to call Lily, once again. And so it goes on. Days turn to weeks, and then the summer disappears, turning to fall and then winter, promting some superb cinematography of the sweeping, white winter landscape. Eventually, spring comes around again, and the young child finds her fox, and indeed does strike up a friendship with the animal. And so on. I had little to no expectation for THE FOX AND THE CHILD. I had seen MARCH OF THE PENGUINS and was simply in awe at the film-making contained in that movie. Luc Jacquet is a hugely talented, and indeed rare film-maker, and I was expecting some superb, breathtaking cinematography, sweeping vistas and brilliant footage of the wildlife. This was delivered in spades. But here Jacquet has a screen writing credit, and not knowing anything about the movie prior to the screening, I expected something a little different than what had previously been seen in 'March'. A fictional story. The child and the fox And the story is simple. A young, seemingly lonely child lives in a house in the middle of nowhere and walks to school, seemingly on her own, every day, seemingly without a care in the a seemingly perfect world. Without the hint of an adult in sight. Brilliant. So she strikes up a friendship with a fox. With a film like this, you have to dismiss your own opinion of the movie and put yourselves in the shoes of the target audience. This is a film which is aimed directly at children from the age of, I'd say, six and up. Or to families who fancy a trip to the cinema with their breed one wet Sunday afternoon. Not a 31-year-old male who gets his kicks from films like the recent, brilliant WANTED and the like. But, me being the newbie London critic, I put myself in the shoes of an excited eight-year old girl for the 95 or so minutes of THE FOX AND THE CHILD. Now, I have a few problems with this film. As a 31-year-old lad, and loyal lover of all things cinematic, I loved the wildlife and landscape photography. It's visually stunning. The direction of the animal characters is brilliantly executed -- as good as you will find on any of Attenborough's efforts. As an impressionable, short attention spanning eight year old, I loved about the first half hour -- then I lost interest. It's a little repetitive and in places quite harrowing and bloody scary for a younger child, particularly the rather dark ending. As a 31-year-old male -- I was a little frightened in places. Wuss. So, it's not a child's film. It's not really an adult film and I felt a little let down. Is it a good family film. Depends. It's educational maybe, and the film carries a message. It's definitely not a film I would pay the hard earned green to go see and I'm racking my brains to try and recommend it to a certain type of film goer. It's hard, but I know some will go see and fall in love this film. It's very European in feel and certainly if you are a fan of wildlife themed flicks, give it a try. Unsure? Well I'd wait for the DVD for a wet Sunday afternoon in then. -- Paul Heath, http://www.thehollywoodnews.com, July 2008.
A Nutshell Review: The Fox and the Child
From the filmmakers who brought us The March of the Penguins, I guess that came with plenty of expectations for The Fox and the Child. From the harsh winters of the South Pole to the lush wilderness in France, the narrative now becomes part documentary and part fairy tale, which tells of the friendship between the two titular characters, Renard the fox and its friendship with the child who christened it, played by Bertille Noel-Beuneau. The story's frankly quite simple, and at times this movie would have looked like the many Japanese movies which children-miscellaneous animals striking a friendship after the development of trust, and how they go about hanging around each other, dealing with respective adversaries and the likes. Here, the child meets the elegant fox near her home up in the mountains, which provide for plenty of beautiful picture-postcard perfect shots that a cinematographer will have to go into overdrive to capture. But while we indulge in wistful scenery, the characters don't get to establish that level of trust from the onset, and we have to wait a few seasons to past, and 45 minutes into the film, before they find a leveler in food. The child persistently attempts at striking a bond with the objective of taming the creature for her own amusement, but the fox, well, as other notions of course. While I thought the narrative was pretty weak, unlike March of the Penguins which has that human narrative interpretation of what's happening on screen, what excelled here were the documentary elements of the movie, tracing the life and times of the fox as both a predator, and a prey. Between the two, more tension and drama was given to the latter, especially when dealing with traditional foes like wolves, and granted, those sequences were fairly intense especially when the child got embroiled in it. Otherwise, it was plain sailing and quite a bore as the two of them go about their playing with each other, in shots that you know have undergone some movie magic editing. There were surprisingly dark moments in the movie that weren't really quite suitable for children, as those in the same hall attested to it by bawling their eyes out suddenly, so parents, you might want to take note and not let your toddler disturb the rest of the movie goers. As a film, I would've preferred this to be a complete documentary ala The March of the Penguins, but I guess the way it was resented, probably had the objective of warning us not to meddle with nature, and that some things are just not meant to be, and should stay as such. Decent movie that leaned on the strength of the chemistry between Bertille Noel- Bruneau, and the multiple foxes that played Renard.
Visual poetry, and a great lesson for life...
This movie gave me a magnificent end for winter vacations... A real visual poem, and a simple, fascinating story with a so meaningful message that left me with happy, copious tears: the friendship between a little girl and a fox from the forest. A beautiful, timeless fable concerning the value of friendship, love... and the risk of confusing these feelings with the selfish possession of friends or loved ones, because, as the narrator says: "I understood that I wouldn't retain it if I bound it to me". It's just great: the story, the photography, the music, the characters... I remembered so many moments of my childhood through the little girl that opened her innocent eyes to wilderness and its fascinating world, and I wept happily for those times I tried to retain somebody to me, and finally I had to let him/her go. It makes you smile, weep, think, and grow. A 20/10 to French cinema for this sweet masterwork. See it, admire it, make it yours... It will become one of your favorites.
An Appealingly Simple Story, and A Sumptuous, Glorious Visual Masterpiece...with one major flaw.
Directed by Luc Jaquet, who previously - and most famously - bought us "March of the Penguins," here subsequently brings us "The Fox and The Child." The plot is quite slight, as you could describe it in one sentence: A young girl encounters a fox in the forests surrounding her home, and so tries to get closer to it. Of course, this one sentence plot is deceptively simple. By trying to get closer to the fox, the young girl wants to get literally close enough to the fox to touch, but also close enough to it for it to be her animal friend. But as well as that, the plot allows room for such subject matter as fox hunting, domesticity vs. nature, coming-of-age, and the folly of trying to tame forces beyond your control. The crisp, highly defined photography of the forest, the mountains and its wildlife inhabitants is absolutely astounding. Just utter jaw-dropping, breathtaking, knock-out beauty that can scarcely be believed. To merely describe the sights seen in this film would be an injustice. They must be seen to be believed. For any children that watch this, the film will delight them to no end. For adults, this is equally true. The fox of the title - or foxes, as there were numerous foxes used to portray just the one - is, without speaking or emoting in any human terms, quite a fantastic fox. (But not a Mister, as it's a female fox. Just, y'know, FYI.) But a problem that I DID have with the film is its narration, read by - in the English version - Kate Winslet. To me, the narration is far too story bookishly read, and a bit clunkily written, too. As a personal preference, I'd have rather the film had no narration at all, and just let the wonderful images speak for themselves. Or if not that, I wish the narration had at least been written a bit better. Other than that big flaw of the film, it's a joyous experience of a film that anyone can enjoy (up until a certain dark, morbid and tear jerking bit near the end, which needs to be there) and that if you can catch it, you should most certainly give it a go. =))