At this year’s Cannes, many were surprised seeing two young France filmmakers showing their love for Vietnam through an animated movie featuring life in Hanoi.

A scene from the animated movie "Red River" by François Leroy and Stephanie Lansaque. the movie featurign the life in hanoi was screened at t the Cannes 2012’s International Critics' Week., Photo: studio-wasia.com

François Leroy and Stephanie Lansaque had captured around 1,000 pictures and numerous videos focusing on the atmosphere of the streets in the capital city, then adapted them to their cartoon titled “Fleuve Rouge” (Red River).

“We always carry with us a small camera and a microphone,” François Leroy talked about his process of making the movie depicting the lives of people who moved from the countryside to the city with the hope of a better life. “We need to have different angles so that we can tell our story vividly,” he added.

This is not the first time the pair made a film about Vietnam. In 2005, their animated movie “Bonsoir, Monsieur Chu” capturing the life of people in Vietnam’s most crowded city, Saigon, also received positive response.

Asked why they chose Vietnam as the main theme of their two first movies, the pair said they were not sure if they chose Vietnam or Vietnam chose them.

“Before coming to Vietnam, we hadn’t made any movie. The love for Vietnam and the will to make movies came at the same time.”

Explaining about the their strong love for the country, François said his love of Vietnam is like the love of a man for his lover while Stephanie shared the country is her love at first sight.

“It's difficult to explain why we love Vietnam so much. It's like loving someone, you love the good sides and the bad sides at the same time,” François stated.

“We felt comfortable here even if we couldn't say a word in Vietnamese and we didn't know much about the culture,” Stephanie added. “Here we feel like kids having a big playground with so many things to discover, to learn and understand. We never felt bored.”

That love brought the two young French filmmakers enough patience to spend a year and a half just travelling, shooting and filming at the Red River and Long Bien bridge area, the two symbols of Hanoi to get footage for the movie.

To Stephanie, that passion even made her strong enough to quit her job as an art director in France to concentrate on making her first movie about Saigon, “Bonsoir, Monsieur Chu.”

After the movie “Fleuve Rouge” was screened at the Cannes 2012’s International Critics' Week, the passions of François Leroy and Stephanie Lansaque seemed to continue.

“We are writing 2 new stories, both taking place in Ho Chi Minh and a short film about a young woman selling coffee on the side walk,” they shared. “And a feature film project but we still keep it secret as we didn't finish writing it.”

The whole movie can be watched at www.studio-wasia.com
 

Source: Tuoi Tre