Le Herrison

If you are a regular reader of this blog, back when I covered a book a day, asking people, "What are you reading?" you already know I loved the book The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery.  Last night I got to see the film based on it, Le Herrison, or The Hedgehog, at the fabulous restored Normal Theatre.

Lovely, sweet, funny film. Punches you in the heart.

I love it when a film does its own thing well, letting the book stand alone and do its own thing well. I love the book To Kill a Mockingbird, which does one thing, and my favorite movie ever is To Kill a Mockingbird, which does its own thing, a little different, necessarily condensing the book. Compare/contrast is natural, but they each do it well, one on literary terms, the other on cinematic terms.

Likewise with Le Herrison. The film works fine without a central narrative from a central character's past and without all the existentialism. I loved the philosophy in the book, but I did not miss it in the film. The film made me all the more curious about the Japanese film loved by Renee Michel; we see a clip. It made my experience of the book even richer without causing any problem at all for viewers (husband, friend) who had not read the book.

Trailer here.

I am such a slattern, I did not post yesterday, nor do anything but laundry and teaching today....  Oh, that is not even very slatternly...  Sigh, I'm such a lousy slattern.