Comments on The Trouble of Naughty Nicholas and The Movie Naughty Little Nicholas

The story of "Naughty Little Nicholas" was born after the war. In 1950s, France, the social system has been restored, and it is preparing for the "golden age" of economic take-off after political stability. 1959 On March 29th, in Southwest Sunday Daily, René Cosine, the story king, and Jean-Jacques Sang Bei, the illustrator, wrote a short story called Easter Eggs. Once published, it was well received by readers. This is the first time Nicholas Jr. has met the readers. At the strong request of everyone, Cauchy wrote a sequel, which was published in another newspaper, Pilot, a few months later, and it was out of control. This new newspaper has also become a mischievous paradise for little Nicholas. Just like Herge's Tintin magazine, Cosine also served as editor-in-chief and led children to discover the world until he died of a heart attack two years ago.

In the following six years, Nikolai, wearing a tie, red vest and suit shorts, grew up with readers and appeared in newspaper columns almost every week. In the whole cooperative career between Cauchy and Sang Bei, Yi * * * has completed more than 200 stories, and the publishing house has successively formed five books, which have been continuously written and reprinted for decades, achieving the image of children as famous as the "little prince". Along the growth track of three generations of French people, the naughty and kindness of Nicholas Jr. and his friends are true and not exaggerated in the works of the two authors, and quickly have countless fans around the world. China has also translated, introduced and published millions of books, which shows that good children's literature can stand the test of time and transcend cultural barriers. The description of children in the book is so accurate that the details that adults can't help laughing come from the anecdotes in Cimber's childhood class. When he came to Paris with some papers, he met Cauchy who had just returned from new york. Did he ever think that two passionate and stuttering adults would bring so much joy to the children?

These five emaciated "Little Nicholas" will never disappear from the children's section of libraries and bookstores. Little Nicholas and I have grown up as children. As a parent, I read the original again, and I still have the intimacy of reunion of old friends. I vaguely remember that I was someone in my class. A few years ago, Cauchy's daughter Anna found a stack of unpublished manuscripts while sorting out her father's relics. She was so excited that she contacted the publishing house and visited Uncle Sang Bei, hoping to help again. Sang Bei, who is old, is already a world-class illustrator and is in a semi-retirement state. At first, he declined the proposal, because he didn't want to repeat his original job, and because he was more lonely when he saw things and thought of his feelings and cooperation with his old friends. "Cauchy is a shy, polite and witty young man." Talking about the cooperation in the past eighteen years, Sang Bei is more like a childhood friend of Nicholas when he grows up. Unable to withstand the persuasion of Anna and her friends, Sambe finally picked up his own wonderful pen and drew illustrations for Cosine's manuscript. Fortunately for readers, this is simply the resurrection of little Nicholas. Have you ever thought about the sadness at the end of the series and the excitement of meeting again after more than 40 years? The new book "Balloons and Unpublished Stories" was quickly sold and reprinted many times after its publication. See also the casual brushwork of Sang Bei's signboard, with faint color and warmth. In March this year, the Paris City Hall also held a special exhibition "50th Anniversary of Little Nicholas", and the publishing house organized a related symposium, which was postponed because of the large number of people. With such a broad mass base, the movie version is delivered to the door automatically without casting the cast. Because this image is so profound, the familiar little Nicholas has been put on the screen and must stand the test of countless readers. Find a competent director, a reliable screenwriter and an actor who conforms to the image, and you can't be careless. The director of the film version of Little Nicholas finally fell on Laurent Dihad, the director of the blockbuster Moliere. Sang Bei and Anna Cosine have always wanted to make this work into a film, TV or animation to know more about the next generation. However, it is not easy to keep the original flavor, because the whole three-volume Little Nicholas is composed of short films, and each story is no more than five pages, including illustrations of large and small, which is more suitable for making an animated collection and broadcasting in the morning. It can be said that when drawing illustrations, Sang Bei already has his own movie scene, and his pen can always accurately record the most wonderful moments in the whole story. The joy of children and the embarrassment of adults are outlined in the same picture.

Laurent Dihad is also such a director with a great sense of humor and observation, which can be seen from his famous debut, Lies and Betrayals. Perhaps in his self-directed works, the structure is slightly scattered, and the clues will deviate with the plot, but the overall theme can still be grasped satisfactorily, and the character can be established in humorous dialogue, which is the guarantee for completing the film version of Little Nicholas. Because the children's story itself has no definite direction, the daily campus trivia seems ordinary, but it hides the children's vigilance and cunning. It is necessary to string together a general plot trend, but it is not as deliberate as an adult commercial film, losing a kind of "leisure" of Sang Bei and Cauchy. Dihad must grasp this degree to make the critical French audience laugh.

Fortunately, the director did this, and he found a group of lovely, distinctive children with their own hobbies to play the partner of little Nicholas (even the director's youngest son Vicky played Ruoqi in the film). Every pupil has his own family background and personality characteristics: A San is a gluttonous fat man who fills his stomach all the time; If the husband has money at home, he always gets good things; Lufei's father is a policeman. He often puts forward some interesting ideas. Ke Dou is the last in the class, but he is brave and fearless. Bao, the first-place glasses, is the least attractive to students. He always reports to the class teacher ... Finally, don't forget the naughty and kind protagonist Nicholas Jr., who is the decision-maker of the whole plan. These children are like clowns in every primary school class. They walked onto the screen from books, doing actions that adults seem insignificant, but children are very serious. The film seems to greet their childhood in memory, evoking infinite emotion.

Besides a group of cute and naughty eight-year-old pupils, the smooth plot of Little Nicholas needs the cooperation of adults. First of all, Nicholas's parents are also a standard French couple, who are stubborn on the surface, but in fact they are very loving and considerate. Card Mayhard, the star of Welcome to the North, and Valerie Le messier, the famous comedian and host, staged a wonderful duet in the cinema. Maxime godart, the actor of Little Nicholas, seems a little immature in front of two old actors, but it just shows the simple character that was originally positioned as Little Nicholas. Michelle Garaboux, a veteran comedian with white hair, also made a guest appearance as the Minister of Education. The head teacher chose a much younger acting actress, Sandrine Giblain. There are also many familiar faces in the French film industry. For example, Geral Juno, a caring teacher in "Spring in Cowboy Class", suddenly appeared, taught children to sing in chorus, spread out "I can't help it" with both hands, and teased her masterpiece. With such a lively plot and high popularity, all major French cinemas are optimistic about this film "Little Nicolas" and have arranged the best time for this film. /kloc-in October, more than 500 courtyards and halls were filled with laughter. Many grandparents like Garaboux came to the movies with their grandchildren as big as little Nicholas. It's not surprising that Hollywood movies were left behind when the box office broke a million in the first week. It should be said that in this film adapted from a collection of short stories, the main line-a childlike psychological adventure is clearly but not strongly highlighted. Little Nicholas mistakenly thought that he was going to have a little brother and would be rejected by his parents. He quickly joined hands with his friends to discuss countermeasures. A group of little guys are desperate to find ways to save money, trying to hire a "bad guy" to steal their future little brother. Parents know the child's strange ideas, and naturally laugh and cry. Little Nicholas finally understands how "handsome" it is to be a brother. In this simple story, the director strung together all the small paragraphs in the original work, and then staged a ten-minute farce, such as physical examination, buying flowers, taking exams, treating guests, cleaning and so on. Then the film was smooth and cheerful for more than an hour and had a happy ending with the children's exuberant vitality and imagination. No, it wasn't a happy reunion, because little Nicholas finally found out that his mother didn't give it to his brother, but he couldn't return it.

The movie version of Nicholas Jr., wearing suit shorts and a red vest, is exactly the same as described in the book. At the beginning, subtitles were printed in the form of illustrations by Sang Bei, especially marked "Dedicated to Cosine" to commemorate this wise children's literature writer. Familiar stories are strung together for 90 minutes, with warm colors and compact rhythm, all of which are displayed by children's vision, without the formality and dullness of adults. The story background of Little Nicholas is the same as that of Cowherd Spring and 400 Strikes, but it is really relaxed in technique and does not need to be sensational and profound at all. Just like a child's idea, it is simple and reckless, and over-interpretation becomes stale. Under the lens of Dihad, children are children, just like children's nonsense. The long lines of French traditional comedies should be left to Le messier and others to give full play. Little Nicholas 1 class, although naughty, is not a problem class, and it is impossible to make a natural children's voice. Just answer the simple question "Crossing the River in Paris" and ring the bell. They tinker around the edges, imitating the tricks of "Gaul heroes" and only care about enjoying themselves. The audience can either watch it with fantasy like Angels Love Beauty, or go back to childhood with them and lower their IQ to eight years old.

Since the film was released, French cultural circles and ordinary audiences have paid great attention to it, and newspapers such as le figaro have given favorable comments. According to the statistics of French CBO, since the premiere, two out of every three people who walked into the cinema went for Little Nicholas. In the first week, the box office has exceeded/kloc-0 million, and the satisfaction rate has exceeded 60%. The box office is increasing in the second week. According to this trend, it is not a problem that the total box office ranks in the top three of the year, and it is possible to create the miracle of Welcome to the North again. Just like Disney in America and anime in Japan, the French are happy to see their cultural symbols resurrected on the screen. The vitality of children's works lies in that children all over the world are the most sincere and frank, the most keen observation and the most faithful narration, which is the most gratifying growth and return.