“Even if your tears fall along the way, you will see how good it is to live” wrote in 1941 a child from the Terezín concentration camp, not far from Prague. If it is in the eyes of the little ones that one can find a reason for love for life in the ocean of death and horror that was the Holocaust, then the Day of Remembrance organized by the Novecento Museum takes on a particular value. Because it is the fate of the little ones that he watches A very valuable commodity, the new film that Michel Hazanavicius is working on, of which the director has five Oscars (won in 2011 for The Artistt) will speak today at 6 pm in the Sala d’Arme of Palazzo Vecchio together with Giorgio van Straten (president of the Alinari Foundation) and Francesco Ranieri Martinotti (director of “France Odeon”), with an introduction by Cristina Di Domenico (editor-in-chief of the Tgr Toscana). From 10 to 20.30, the preparatory drawings made by the French director for his new animated film, dedicated to the Shoah, will be screened. Hazanavicius, an extraordinarily talented draftsman, thought through images to tell the story of a poor woodcutter and her husband who live deep in the Polish forest. Cold, hunger and misery are their life. There are freight trains that run non-stop, back and forth from Auschwitz. One day the woman notices that something is thrown into the snow. A sack that turns out to be like a gift from heaven: a child, the son of deportees who choose to entrust him to chance rather than death, the son he had been waiting for a long time, to save whom he will end up sacrificing his own life .
How did the idea of making an animated film about the Holocaust come about?
«Some time ago I was offered to make an adaptation of the book of the same name by Jean-Claude Grumberg, even before its release in French bookstores. I know the author well because our families have known each other for decades, it was almost natural to approach this work. Also because Jean-Claude and I share many things, we are both of Jewish origin and we know what it means to face this tragedy. The challenge was to try to take new paths and drawing is the most immediate form in which I express myself ».
Looking at the drawings, one perceives on the one hand the desire to fully restore the horror of persecutions, but on the other hand the desire to bring out the strength of life against death …
“That’s it! The book and the film have a common trait, which is to show how even in the most horrible situation one must find the ability to react through the power of love and life. It is this thrust that saves humanity. Love for one’s children, for the people close to each other and above all for others, especially those who do not know each other and who meet by chance or by destiny. Just like the protagonist, the custodian of an immense feeling that comes out in the most tragic and unpredictable situation. The story is set during the Shoah, but there is nothing morbid about it, it is a beautiful story ».
IS the first time he directs an animated film …
«I drew the characters myself and thought of“ editing ”the various episodes that make up the story. A team then took care of the lights, the sets and the details. They are very simple drawings, which focus on the looks, on the faces, on the bodies, because I want the film to reach the viewer in the most immediate way possible. Compared to the works I made previously, perhaps the only real big difference is that the characters do not correspond to real actors to direct on the set ».
There are more and more episodes of anti-Semitism, the latest in Venturina, with a child offended and beaten by two girls because he is a Jew. What should families, schools and institutions do?
«The question is very complex. In France, anti-Semitism is a crime, but it is very complicated, it is difficult to punish everyone, especially when there are people who think that it is an opinion, that you have the right to think what you want, in the name of freedom of expression. I believe that anti-Semitism is the symptom of a society that is doing badly, that we must continue to educate, not let it spread, punish it and continue to fight on the various political fronts. The whole world is being seduced by the new fascisms, but unfortunately I believe that there is no miraculous solution. My job is to make films and tell stories, this is my way of contributing to this battle ».
The theme of memory is very present in his cinema. We are thinking above all of films like “The Search”, which deals directly with the tragedies of the war, but also of “The Artist”, which is a film about “old” Hollywood in the early twentieth century …
“I have never thought about this aspect, but it is undoubtedly true … I don’t know if there is a real reason, perhaps it is due to the fact that I come from a family that had to” invent “its own memory, build it by itself, as my grandparents were originally from Lithuania. The story of my family begins with the Shoah, and comes from a country, from a city and from landscapes that I do not know. So I continue to think that memory is a “form” in which to try to reconstruct one’s identity. But that’s not all, I also have a great passion, for example, for old books and antiques (laughs ed)».
He often came to Florence as a guest of France Odeon. Do you like being back here in the city?
“Yes a lot! During the days of the festival there is a beautiful atmosphere of exchange between two cinemas and two cultures that have always been close together. And then Florence always remains one of the cradles of our civilization, custodian and guardian of a modern spirit. The challenge is to try to project it into the present and into the future as well. But it’s not easy, as happens for all cities that have a great history ».
January 27, 2022 | 08:12
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