My Life As A Courgette (2016 Switzerland/France) Cert. PG – subtitled

Director: Claude Barras

Stars: Gaspard Schlatter, Sixtine Murat, Paulin Jaccoud

Following the sudden death of his mother (no plot spoilers here) the orphaned Icare, who likes to be called Courgette, is befriended by a police officer, Raymond, who takes him to his new foster home.

Here, he meets other orphans his age, but struggles to find his place in the hostile environment while searching for a new family of his own.

Courgette embarks on a journey of self-discovery as he learns to trust and love his fellow inmates, who all have back-stories at least as grim as his own.  And into this questing comes Camille….

With screenplay by Celine Sciamma (Girlhood), Courgette flaunts striking character designs and expressive stop-motion animation that bring its story to life.

Here is a link to the Review in The Guardian.  The Guardian also brings us this interview-analysis of the sensibilities of the writer (Sciamma) and director – “like Ken Loach for kids”.  And yes, there are some plot-spoilers in there.

Now we get complicated.  There are alternative versions, including a dubbed English language version marketed in the US as “My Life as a Zucchini”, the original (French language) “Ma Vie de Courgette”, a version of that with English subtitles – “My Life as a Courgette” – and the English dubbed version also marketed in this country as “My Life as a Courgette”.  As we are bringing you the ‘French-with-English-subtitles’ version, here is the  Trailer for that: [fvplayer src=”https://youtu.be/4d9N5Y_sN8Q”]

(the trailer for the English-dubbed version is linked in the Guardian review.)

David Lean Cinema, Croydon on Saturday 22nd July 2017

Show starts at 2.30PM, Ticket prices: £8.00 & £6.50 (concessions)

– click on the time to make a booking Cookie Error? See here…….