For French animation author Sylvain Chomet (Belleville triplets,,,,, Hallucinatory) Storytelling has always lived in the space between silence and songs. "Most of my work has been silent films so far, and I haven't done a lot of things in the conversation," he said.

But for his latest project - A grand lifean animated biopic "The Pioneer French Screenwriter" and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol, Sony Pictures Classics will be released in the United States - Chomet brings the great voice of cinema back to life.

Pagnol revolutionized the cinematic dialogue, bringing literary achievements and realism to the screen, in the early days of sound, when producers were worried about spoken language. He also brought regional realism, allowing his actors to speak in the vast Marseille dialect of his hometown that was unheard of at the time. Pagnol changed the style of European films by bringing the camera outdoors, inspiring Italian neo-realism and Nouvelle blur. He demanded taxation of profits from American films and used the money to fund local works, which led to the establishment of the French Film Commission, the CNC, and was the basis for the country's still crucial and competitive national industry.

Chomet talked about Hollywood Reporter Before the Cannes Film Festival special show A grand life Saturday, the challenges of Pagnol's legacy, dialogue and translation, and the late master's perception of Trump's tariff proposals.

When did you first discover Marcel Pagnol's work?

When I was in school. I don't remember this year, but I'm still young, 10 or 11 years old. At that time, we had My Father's Glory (My Father's Glory) and My mother's castle (My mother's Castle) as part of the regular school curriculum. This is no longer the case, and I think it's a pity. I really don't like reading because my medium is painting. I prefer watching movies or reading comics. But I read a little book by Pagnol and I really like it.

His writing is magical. Strong style, but very clear. He's a bit like Mozart - it feels easy, simple, but clear. I really fell in love with this book, which made me want to read more… Later I found out that he was the one who wrote and directed (1931 French comedy classic) Mariusso I felt his presence.

Did his work directly inspire you as a filmmaker?

I'm not sure. I don't think so, because most of my work is silent films…I don't have many opportunities to make any talking movies. The triplets and magicians in Belleville are really silent. I love his work, I love his movies, but it's hard to say whether they make me want to make a movie or inspire me. I think it becomes a part of my DNA. It’s not until you come back to it later that you realize how great his style is, how amazing his story is, and that influences your shaping.

How did the idea of ​​a biopic come into being?

Basically, when I met Nicolas Pagnol, the grandson of Marcel Pagnol. He is with producer Charlène Poirier and his wife Valérie. They wanted me to make a documentary on Marcel Pagnol and I was interested because I had never done a documentary. So, I wrote a documentary based on archival materials.

However, I think these guys have a secret plan to make me an animated movie. They started asking me to do some animations to replace the part of the story we had no archive material. I'll show them little animation sequences and they say, "This is what everyone wants."

So I threw everything away using archival material and made all the biopics on the animation. Nicola can get everything from his grandfather, he has some words, some poetry, no one I can use has never published or even seen anything. This script is very much in Pagnol's voice. We use clips from his movies with animations, which I did in the movies before. We have a clip of an unfinished film that was supposed to be destroyed, but they recently found the fragments and we put it in. It has never been seen before.

Pagnol is an inventor and always at the forefront of technology. If he were alive today, would he embrace AI?

He really likes technology. He is an engineer - he is very good at using his hands and makes very few machines. But I'm not sure if he'll work with tools that should be smarter than him. I think he would be shocked by the idea of ​​using AI to make sound. Dialogue and dialect were so important to him. I think we should be scared.

I'm doing animations and the tools are different. I no longer use paper, I can use the computer screen. However, all the digital tools still draw everything, but still draw. The work I did not change much from what Walt Disney did in the 1950s. We draw with our hands. I've been trying to develop with some AI, but I'm not happy with it. I would rather take out the pencil and paper and solve my idea this way.

I won't be scared by AI. I mean, if people think they are creative, then you need someone who is superior to help you. But when you need someone who is superior to help you, I can’t see what kind of joy you have in creating. I can't see what joy you have in this way. This is how creation should be: joy.

You directed both the French and English versions of the movie. How do you deal with the differences?

There are some minor tweaks. In the original, Pagnol is an English teacher. In English, he is a Latin teacher and he is also his job because it is better than having an English teacher in an English movie.

The main challenge is the accent. For the Parisians, we used Cockney, but did scratch our heads and found someone with a Marseille accent in English. We tried speaking English in a Marseille accent, but it sounded Italian. It's really strange. We need a language with the same Marseille accent. The first thing that comes to mind is Wales because they also have real accents. And it works very well.

What do you think Pagnol has for cinemas?

For dialogue, he did give birth to a style. His use of realism inspired Italian neo-realism and nouvelle ambiguity. He was one of the first to bring a camera outside the studio. Opening stern (1932), Orane Demazis crossed the streets of Marseille and was shot by a car suitcase with a hidden camera. This inspired Nouvelle to bring the camera outside in a vague way.

Pagnol also introduced French cinema policies through the basic tariffs on American films. What do you think he would say about Trump’s thoughts on tariffs on non-American films?

Yes, it's very interesting. Pagnol did come up with the idea to impose tariffs on American cinemas. He is not any nationalist, on the contrary, but he knows the importance of the film, how powerful it is, and he is afraid of what it can do.

Remember, he has seen how the Nazis use cinemas. The Nazis even tried to get him to join them in making European cinemas, which would have been Nazi cinemas. After the war, he realized that France was in chaos, and Hollywood made very powerful, truly life-changing movies: color movies, panoramic movies. He knew that unless there was a way to ensure that the French industry could continue to make French films, American films would invade and take over cinemas.

He doesn't want to censor American movies because we are not Russia. Instead, he decided to tax the income of American films, instead taxing them based on the profits they earn and using the money to subsidize French films. He essentially created the CNC. We are the only country to do this, which is probably why there is still a very powerful French cinema today.

Are you next to another feature that contains conversations?

No! My next movie will remain silent again. I'm doing some kind of derivative Belleville tripletsbut this time there is no bike. There is now a cat. More are triplets - big, tall ladies. There will be a lot of music, but no dialogue.

I will start the storyboard soon in a month or so and we will use the same team as Pagnol. I wrote this story at the same time Triplets25 years ago, from my early days, it was fresh. This is a total fool. Back to the root.