French screenwriter and director, Julien Rappeneau signed in 2021 the Treasure of Little Nicolasthe latest episode of the film adaptation of the universe created by Sempé and Goscinny after the little Nicolas (2009) et Little Nicolas Holidays (2014) directed by Laurent Tirard.
“I read a lot the little Nicolas when I was a child but also Marcellin Caillou, I particularly liked this character who blushes all the time and who meets René Rateau, a boy who sneezes constantly. But the whole universe of Sempé has always seduced me with this unique blend of great delicacy of line, an extraordinary sense of observation, a perfectly adjusted art of gag. We can’t transcribe that as it is in the cinema, and moreover the adaptation didn’t try to do it visually at all, it’s just impossible but I tried to keep the spirit of it, this poetic dimension of childhood. In the foreground, we see a fight of tiny children in a vacant lot and it is inspired by his so recognizable way of creating effects of disproportion between the decor and the characters.
“Even if I don’t compare them from the point of view of sensitivity and their own universes, there is the same genius in Hergé and Sempé in this way of drawing on very personal, intimate things and giving a translation of them. stylized that becomes both universal and timeless. You can take a drawing from 50 years ago, and anyone anywhere can relate to it, recognize themselves in it as if by a strange effect of enchantment.
“I only met Sempé very briefly after a screening of the film. We shook hands and I was struck by the sparkle in his gaze, something mischievous and that I definitely associate with childhood. It grabbed me…”