Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is as much about animation as an artform as it is an adaptation of Belgian author Amélie Northomb’s book The Character of Rain (2000).
The French animated feature, co-directed by Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han, makes sophisticated use of animation style to interrogate the formation of the self in early childhood.
The film begins with Amélie telling us that she began as a god – a tube-like god – before being born into a “vegetative” state as a baby girl. After a spectacular time-lapse montage, Amélie recounts awakening as a toddler in the Kansai region of Japan in 1969 when an earthquake shocks her into being. This is her first true memory of being in the world.
