Amélie Poulain. Hard not to invoke his name as soon as the character of Miss Bella Brown is presented to us, with his fancy bitch, but also his comfort zone. A bubble of fairy tale that begs to be pierced so that she can open up to the world. Bella Brown suffers from “chlorophobie” ; the plants are reluctant. A shame, because its neighbor to the green hand is dying to see his garden wither. THIS BEAUTIFUL FANTASTIC is the story of their meeting and owes much to the performance of the two actors (Jessica Brown Findlay and Tom Wilkinson for the neighbor). They arrive to give to their archetypal layers of emotions that make us want to believe in their relationship. The supporting roles are more exaggerated and are used mainly as a function well defined too, to give them an aura similar.
THIS BEAUTIFUL FANTASTIC ahead on the wire very thin, which separates the naivety of the wonderment. Rarely, it happens to the filmmaker Simon Aboud , falling into an excess of vapidity (this rainbow marshmallow, argh); most of the time the film messes here and there a poetry bucolic unadorned.
“In THIS BEAUTIFUL FANTASTIC, the story of Bella is, therefore, to mirror that of its neighbor, to understand how to grow a garden (in itself as in the world).”
What is it that prevents so THIS BEAUTIFUL FANTASTIC to fall into naivety ? The art direction in the first place, is exemplary. From costumes to decorations to the organisation of the garden or the grounds of the drawings of Bella, the slightest visual detail makes sense. You could almost be in the Wes Anderson, if it is only ever the context or the movement of the camera emphasises the harmony. Here or there a visual effect reminds us of a certain Michel Gondry, but the illusion wants to be too discreet to fall into lucid dreaming. Rather than reveal the Art as separate from the real world, Simon Aboud wants to convince us that he is already incarnate, everywhere around us. There is only the artist “dysfunctional” who doesn’t realize that his inner world and the outer are one. The story of Bella is, therefore, to mirror that of its neighbor, to understand how to grow a garden (in itself as in the world).
Beyond the quarrel fairly anecdotal between the two neighbours, THIS BEAUTIFUL FANTASTIC , could be closer to the “novels of learning” (“Bildungsroman”), which have flourished since the Germany of the 18th century. If there is a bit of fantasy and not romance in THIS BEAUTIFUL FANTASTIC, this is not to transport us into another world, but we learn to live one down here. Through the eyes of Bella we see then that the strangest and most mysterious creatures around us.
Thomas Coispel
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