The Other Kids’ Castle whisks us off to a world both familiar and strange, and which any viewer who has seen Pierre-Luc Granjon’s other films will have no trouble recognising. Starting with a mundane event – a school trip – the director wreaks havoc with the expectations of the viewers and the main character, a small boy who gets separated from his group and has to wander through the castle corridors by himself. The statues wink and it’s not clear where the stairs lead – suddenly the castle turns into a kind of ghost train and something akin to the castle from Beauty and the Beast. The director deploys all the tricks of the cinema to show this little shift, an experimental parallel trip for the child: he plays with light and sound (the footsteps as the mattress moves away speed up like a bouncing marble and then gradually disappear), and also with proportions, colours (warm before entering the castle, then cold as the child wanders around lost) and materials. The director chose to make his world out of papier mâché, opting for some shapes that are familiar and others that are alarming. Thus, in just a few minutes, the film presents a common childhood situation – the sudden feeling of fear and being alone when we lose our bearings and reality seems hostile and contorted – before the music comes back and we see comforting forms again. Young (and not so young) viewers will no doubt find this film brings back memories...
