Rosa Rosa

Alors qu'une guerre gronde aux portes de la ville, Rosa et l'homme qui lui a fait une enfant vivent les premiers moments de leur vie commune. Ils tenteront, malgré les inquiétudes qui les habitent, de préserver leur fragile bonheur. Oeuvre d'espoir et de lumière, Rosa Rosa dévoile l'entrecroisement des destins individuels et collectifs, à travers l'intimité d'un couple qui se raconte simplement. Félix Dufour-Laperrière nous propose, avec ce film d'animation élaboré à partir de photographies retravaillées, un univers graphique singulier dans lequel se chevauchent les espaces intimes et publics.

In the vestibule of a hospital room, a young boy waits to see his dying mother. The clamor and spiralling movements of bodies around him intensify, forming a grotesque circus-a cacophonous circle that pushes the child back, depriving him of one final touch of his mother's hand. Using rotoscoped drawings suggestive of charcoal sketches, as well as 3D and object animation techniques, The Circus compels viewing with its unsettling realism. Colour is employed metaphorically to subtly express the promise and the memory of maternal affection. Nicolas Brault's highly personal film, suffused with poetic modesty, casts a poignantly sincere gaze on the heartbreak of a child facing the fearful, mysterious experience of his mother's death.

This animated film is above all a love story told with emotion and delicacy. A man loves a woman; both of them love literature. We discover the murmur of their lives, the harmony of their feelings-and we learn how their affection for novels and poetry marks their existence beyond death. The fruitful alliance of filmmaker Félix Dufour-Laperrière's imagery and the words of Quebec poet Hélène Dorion results in a subtle, sensitive film that resonates in the viewer's heart and mind. In its hybridization of styles and techniques, The Day Is Listening is also a most modern and daring work: its director has deftly expanded the spectrum of traditional hand-drawn animation, incorporating mosaics of real images that express a myriad of intertwining memories as well as the pulse of urban life.