“Life is violent and kids are violent, and they like to see works that are ‘bigger’ than themselves in order to grow up”
– CANNES 2026: The French animator discusses taking on that great “Gypsy” legend from possibly the greatest French opera of all time – but with kids in mind
(© Milo Laudenbach)
Viva Carmen, presented in the Directors’ Fortnight programme of the 79th Cannes International Film Festival, marks the second appearance on the Croisette of director Sébastien Laudenbach, after his previous work Chicken for Linda! (co-created with Chiara Malta) played the ACID section in 2023. We spoke to the French animation prodigy, whose prominence in his field is now enhanced by taking on that great “Gypsy” legend from possibly the greatest French opera of all time – but with kids in mind.
Cineuropa: How did you cross paths with Carmen?
Sébastien Laudenbach: Through a friend and big fan of the opera, who had a talk with me about ten years ago and thought I should do Carmen for children. The opera has a very joyful children’s chorus, so to put them in the foreground became the idea.
Carmen is not exactly The Carnival of the Animals or Peter and the Wolf, but it’s quite adult and also quite violent.
Life is violent and kids are violent, and they like to see works that are “bigger” than themselves in order to grow up. I think it’s important for filmmakers to think about the young audience because we have a responsibility to guide them into adulthood. When you speak to a young audience, you have to speak clearly and present something beautiful, a high-level and also eye-level work. For kids, it’s more interesting to have to make a little effort in order to get to the treat. To just have it there on the table isn’t as fun as having to get up on a chair and reach the cupboard. It’s not adapted for kids, per se; rather, it’s accessible for kids, which is a different thing. It’s not on its knees in front of the kid; it’s a little higher up. And this, I think, makes it interesting to them.
As iconic as Carmen is, and her ethnic identity is certainly a part of it, how did you address the “Gypsy” aspect, including the expression itself, certainly a common one when the opera opened in 1875 but disliked today, as it’s seen as derogatory?
We met with members of the Association of Feminist Gitanas for Diversity in Seville, who happily read the script. For them, the word “Gypsy” wasn’t a big deal at all. They told us that, despite our story not being entirely historically true, they liked our way of depicting their community and also gave us some old photos. They were not nomads here, but lived in the Triana quarter of Seville. But we’ve taken some liberties in having vardo wagons, which we wanted to include in some special scenes.
A classic animation work and still a favourite for many today is the last film Walt Disney personally worked on, The Jungle Book, from 1967. Your style can feel reminiscent of that film. Would you count it as an inspiration?
The Jungle Book is also a favourite of mine, probably because it feels “sketchy” and comes alive because of that. To create life in an animation movie is to not complete the image; that way, you keep them “in movement”. I’m personally moved by sketches because you can sometimes learn something about the human being behind the sketch. I think we should try to develop this kind of style for animation movies.
Did you have any live inspirations for the characters in the film, not least their faces?
None. The hardest face to find was Carmen herself. We all have our own Carmen in mind, so getting her right wasn’t easy. Here, we have a young Carmen, at around 22 – very fresh-faced, still slightly naïve but certainly aware of her considerable charms. We also wanted her to be a bit broken, so we gave her this special nose. Her eyes are different from all the others, who only have a dark dot, but she has this green iris – she’s the only one with this in the film. But first and last, she’s not so much an icon as she is a real woman, which was my purpose.
As we all know, she will die at the end, but the children are still there and keep the flame alive. In that a reasonable interpretation?
If there’s a message here, it’s about what kind of world you would want to build. And my proposal is to be together because when we stand together, we are more powerful.
Is there any other musical work you’d like to adapt?
I don’t know. Right now, Chiara Malta and I are adapting an Italian book, a metaphysical tale for little kids about consciousness of life’s finitude, featuring a lot of animals.
