LE RENARD ET L'ENFANT (THE FOX AND THE CHILD)

France, 2007, 92 minutes, Colour.
Bertille Noel -Bruneau.
Narrator: Isabelle Carre. Narrator, English version: Kate Winslett.
Directed by Luc Jacquet.

After his long and painstaking time in Antarctica for The March of the Penguins, director Luc Jacquet has returned to his home countryside (with some help with sequences shot in woods in the Italian Abruzzi) to tell a tale that is something of a memoir of his childhood, of his own love of the woods and of his encounter with a fox.

As with the visit to Antarctica, the photography is extraordinarily vivid, especially as the story takes place over the four seasons, each of which is captured in its characteristic beauty.

The story is very simple. A ten year old girl who loves walking in the forest and is content with her own company spies a fox and falls in love with it. At first she cannot gain its trust but, during the winter, she discovers its lair and discovers that it is a vixen and that she has a litter. The film shows in detail the little girl’s passion for the fox, playing with it, partly taming it, getting into trouble from her parents (whom we do not see) for staying out too long with it. The film is what one would describe as lyrical with its woodland innocence (despite a grizzly bear turning up, a vicious lynx stalking and a pack of wolves pursuing the fox).

However, the little girl has to discover that the fox has a life of its own and playing inside her room with the door shut is a fearful experience for an animal from the wild.

Bertille Noel -Bruneau is perfectly credible and is attractive as the girl. The English version has a voiceover by Kate Winslett as the little girl does not speak much at all though she does sing. As with most voiceovers, some will find it may say too much or state the obvious which we are looking at.

If some films are bad for us, this is one that is positively good for us (but may be too gentle and genteel for children who are fast action-oriented).

1.The work of Jacquet and his films about nature? The contrast between Antarctica and the penguins and France/Italy and the fox and the wildlife in the woods?

2.The colour photography, the beauty of the mountains and the woods, the fields, the river, the waterfalls? The audience appreciating nature? The animals and wildlife in this context? The photography of the animals, the close-up of the fox, its expressions? The other animals, the bear, the birds? The musical score and its atmosphere?

3.The use of the narrator, the adult child? The reflections on the experience? (And based on the experiences of the director as a child?) The wordiness of the narration, the invitation to the audience to feel what the little girl was feeling? Observing the little girl?

4.The little girl, her age, living alone, not seeing her parents, hearing her comment on them and their discipline, especially when she was away with the fox? Her father returning home from work? The character of the little girl, introspective? Her delight in the woods, going for the walks? The encounter with the fox? Her descriptions of the fox, her feelings, pursuing the fox, befriending the fox? Learning about it, discovering that it was a vixen, the little foxes? The interactions, play? The dangers of the play, crossing the chasm with the water? Climbing the trees? The pursuit of the wolves? Bringing the fox in to the home, playfulness, closing the door, the fox and its feeling confined, it berserk breaking of everything, leaping out the window? Her reconciliation with the fox?

5.The importance of the seasons: the photography of each of the seasons, the changes in the woods, the autumn leaves, the winter snow, the brightness of spring, the placid summer?

6.The character of the fox, seeing it on its own, the two foxes and the mating season, the litter of little foxes? The fox and its pursuit of food? The threat by the lynx? The threat of the wolves and its going up the trunk? The bear? The expressiveness of the fox, playfulness, protectiveness of the young?

7.The interactions between the little girl and the fox? Her naming the fox? Her very subjective comments about the fox’s behaviour? Talking about the fox getting its own way? The reality of the little girl getting her own way, trying to bring the fox into the house, playing the game of hide-and-seek, the bewilderment of the fox? The fox’s wariness afterwards?

8.The little girl learning her lesson about nature, the freedom of the fox?

9.The film as a piece of nostalgia for the countryside, the wildlife, the delights and innocence of childhood?