CHICKEN FOR LINDA - CAMBRIDGE FILM FESTIVAL
If chicken soup is good for the soul and the flu, then chicken and peppers could be the recipe for motherly love. In the originally titled ‘Linda Veut Du Poulet’, the eponymous girl has angered her mama Paulette. Falsely accused of a domestic misdemeanour, Linda, an animated pre-teen, needs to be redeemed. Paulette will do anything to say ‘sorry’. That anything is a sizzling dish of chicken and peppers, Linda’s favourite. The problem is that there is a national supermarket strike and no one on the banlieue (could be Paris) can help. But a promise is a promise. And from a sketchy premise, film makers Sebastien Laudenbach and Chiara Malta build an intriguing and beautifully wrought piece of animated cinema. There is wonderful use of colour and an almost uncanny sense of dynamic movement in the characterisations. You will love the sneaky pet cat. Among the many innovations is the idea of colour coding the players (including the cat) in a vivid aura as they are glimpsed in long shot. The directors are not afraid of slipping effortlessly from the figurative to abstract and all manner of engaging visual legerdemain.
In Paulette’s desperate search for poultry, she ends up with a live bird, a theft and hilarious hi jinx involving a chasing flic. In the end this is a very human story of mother-child relationship – sometimes fraught, but tender and loving. Paulette, the single widowed mum, has her faults – for a start she has no idea how to cook. This isn’t a coming-of-age film – Linda is and remains a child and we see her world through that of a very young girl. We also see a very different side of the French urban sprawl – not here as a nest of crime, but rather a close community of hard-pressed but cooperative folk.
The film cleverly appeals to both children and adults alike – there is nothing to frighten the rocking horses here. But it avoids easy sentiment and is a celebration of the world of animation. Who needs chicken soup?
