Melodious and melancholy, Albin de la Simone’s few piano notes set the tone for this lively, tender and touching series. Its title, aristocratic and joyful, Castle lifehides a gentle and modest reflection on mourning.
That of Violette, a little 8-year-old Parisian, who has just lost her parents in the attacks of November 13, 2015. Collected by “the big ugly one who smells”Régis, a gruff uncle who works as a handyman at the Palace of Versailles, the little girl has only one desire: to return home. But the ogre and the orphan will know how to tame each other, tending to their troubled lives along the galleries and straight paths of the monument and its garden.
Royal vocal interpretation
After a brilliant first short film broadcast in 2020, which became the first episode of the series, the story continues with the learning of parenthood (and patience) for Régis, of love (and its inconstancy) for Violette. The twists and turns sometimes lack a little surprise, but the brilliant vocal interpretation of the characters gives a lot of authenticity to the situations. It must be said that the cast is royal: Anne Alvaro, Ariane Ascaride, Jacques Weber, Thierry Lhermitte… Without forgetting Nina Perez-Malartre and Frédéric Pierrot (the unforgettable psychologist ofIn therapy) in the endearing roles of Violette and Régis.
Magnified by the graceful line, both realistic and naive, of Nathaniel H’Limi, co-director of the series with Clémence Madeleine-Perdrillat, the animation, refined and lively, is at the service of a sober and careful staging, full of fantasy, which transforms the Palace of Versailles into a wonderful playground. Through its hidden doors, Violette and Régis find secret passages towards a new way of being a family.
Castle life is also nicely presented in a literary series (six volumes published by L’École des Loisirs).
