ADVENTURE; 1hr 34min
STARRING: Bertille Noël-Bruneau; narrated by Kate Winslet
Curiouser and curiouser: Noël-Bruneau
When a 10-year-old girl (Noël-Bruneau) encounters a fox in the woods near her home, “I had no idea,” narrator Winslet as the girl all grown up recalls, “that it was the beginning of a great adventure.” As her eyes meet those of the startled animal, the girl feels that a pact has been made.
Anything seems possible in these pristine ranges: inspired by his own childhood encounter, film-maker Luc Jacquet (The March of the Penguins) shot much of the originally French-spoken movie Le Renard et l’Enfant in France’s Ain region where he grew up. Its magical forests — burnished by sunshine in summer, Narnia’s frozen kingdom in winter — teem with wildlife. In this natural order, the fox is as much prey as predator, and knowing this the bedazzled girl is as patient in her pursuit as any scientist. She is rewarded by a deepening bond as the skittish creature takes her to places she had never imagined exploring. Jacquet combines an artist’s eye with a naturalist’s precision to take audiences with her, all the way to the boundlessly surreal.
