This afternoon, the Princess and I went to see Azur et Asmar.
It’s the most beautiful film I have ever seen. My hopes were not inordinately high; it was a French language, animated film for children and, to boot, it looked arty. If I had known in advance that lots of it would be in arabic with no sub-titles, this would have confirmed my forebodings. It was fantastic. Within two minutes, I was fascinated and cajoling the Princess to stay (“I want to go home, I’m scared”). She was a little young for it but she stayed to the end and the ending was gorgeous and she came home babbling about the details, not all of which she understood, to her father.
Unfortunately, there is nothing I can write that would persuade me to go to this film, so I fear, I won’t be able to persuade you, but if you get a chance, you should really go, it’s spectacular and I know that people who go on about wonderful films they’ve seen are tedious but I have never seen anything like this before. Recommended as the critics say.