Anatole’s Little Saucepan is a touching, sweet and perfectly delicate short film with which anyone who comes across it will identify. It’s impossible not to appreciate the authenticity of this story about solitude and determination, which, ultimately, can apply to everybody. Disabled? Isolated? Different? Why is Anatole so alone with his saucepan? And why a saucepan? No answer to that is provided, for there is no pigeon-holing here: all interpretations are possible – and that is what makes Eric Montchaud’s film so smart. What matters is to listen to Anatole and his little saucepan, as they have much to tell us. And that’s what a big person who crosses his path eventually does, and some outside help is always welcome!
Anatole has loads of qualities: he is sensitive and has great artistic instincts, so why is he the victim of so much prejudice? The film raises the issue of how we judge people. Life is a learning course full of obstacles and only by overcoming them do we grow and become independent. Anatole comes to understand that well!
The animation technique using cardboard puppets – we don’t really know whether they are human or animal characters – is particularly well done and very close to the drawings in the book by Isabelle Carrier that inspired the film. Although the background in the book consists solely of the whiteness of the page, the film director chose to use simple blue-hued sets that lend a bit of light and tenderness to the characters’ surroundings. The female narrator also has a soft voice that almost sounds like an author reading her book or a mum telling a bedtime story. In contrast to all this mellowness, the percussive music and clattering sounds – which evoke saucepans and Anatole’s discomfort – make the atmosphere denser and more complicated. What’s more, the little boy’s every step is accompanied by the dragging or clanking sound of the saucepan - with onomatopoeic words written on the screen to reinforce the image.
Anatole’s Little Saucepan is a lovely short film, full of deftness and wisdom. It can be enjoyed by young and old (even very old!) viewers alike.
