When we talk about animated films here in the States, the conversation often gets stuck in the worlds of Disney and Pixar. Those powerhouse studios and their imitators have largely defined the big-screen cartoon for American crowds, and while their successes have brought more and more attention to the genre, their particular styles are hardly the last word on the matter.
For most animation buffs, the first name that comes to mind when looking beyond our borders is that of Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, maker of Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and many other landmarks of animation — to call him only an animator would be a disservice to the depth of his films. But look beyond Miyazaki and there is a wide world of wonderful work out there.
In particular, I’m thinking of the French. For quite a while now, French animators have produced some of the world’s most distinctive work, with films like The Triplets of Belleville and The Illusionist carrying on the country’s rich tradition of animation. (Animation trivia: a French film called The King and the Mockingbird helped inspire Miyazaki and his partner to found their own studio, leading directly to those wonderful films mentioned before.) This week, Valley filmgoers have a chance to catch a modern classic on the big screen.
It happens Saturday morning at 10 a.m. — set your alarms — when Amherst Cinema screens Ernest & Celestine, a story of an animal friendship that goes against all the norms of nature. Ernest is a bear, fresh from hibernation and looking for a tasty morsel to jumpstart the old metabolism; Celestine, a mouse, is almost that morsel. Instead, her dreamy optimism and quick tongue turn Ernest into a friend. Rather than devouring Celestine, he follows her to a pastry shop, where better treats — they’re in France, after all — await. From there, the pair travel together as an oddball Bonnie and Clyde, off on their own adventure that neither of their clans can understand, while mice and bear police squads set out in pursuit.
The art here feels delightfully Old World, like the ink-and-watercolor illustrations in a beloved children’s book. And like a tale from an earlier time, the message here is one of hope, acceptance, and love — not in spite of our differences, but because of them. The show is technically a part of the theater’s $5 Family Film Series, but if you don’t have a family to bring, don’t let that stop you.
Also this week: Two classics come to area theaters for special screenings. First up, and also at Amherst Cinema, is Steven Spielberg’s indelible 1975 film Jaws. The fish story that launched a thousand fish stories — and each time the shark got bigger — this was in many ways the first true summer blockbuster. The story of a small New England town besieged by a ravenous Great White shark, it had enough of an effect on this reviewer — who grew up on a New England island in the 1970s — that I swore off not just ocean swimming, but also baths for weeks after seeing it. Catch it on Sunday and Wednesday in Amherst.
For something a bit lighter, head out to Hadley’s Cinemark theater for Sunday and Wednesday showings of Airplane!, the zany Zucker brothers comedy about an airliner heading for a crash landing. Parodying the disaster film genre and mixing in visual gags and slapstick routines, it’s a film that, depending on your proclivities, can change your concept of comedy or fall as flat as a pancake. If you’re not sure which of those describes you, now is the time to find out.•
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.
