The Shyness of Trees

I’m not so sure the English language title does this any favours, but it’s still a very touching look at age and grief, all wrapped up in the tale of “Hélène” who goes to visit her ailing mother at her countryside home. Her arrival gives her cause for concern as the garden and the houde are untypically unkempt. Then when she starts to chat with her mum she notices a distinct change in her behaviour. A distance, a reticence even, as if she is focussing on something else. On somewhere else. There are clues to the reason for her apparent distraction as she seems to be able to commune with the huge great oak tree in her garden. When “Hélène” takes a lawn mower to the grass, we see an army of beasties run to the safety of that tree, and it starts to grown under the weight. Fatefully, she lies down next to her mother to sleep and her dreams take her to a fantasy steeped in reality that delivers the closure that by this point I felt both women wanted. It’s really the intricacies of the animation that are impressive here. The details on the stag beetles or on the snow flakes contrast quite strikingly with the lack of the same on the rather rudimentary visages of the humans, especially as the final sequence sees the daughter seem to quite emotionally regress into a latter-day childhood. There’s lots going on for ten minutes here, visual and cerebral, and it’s well worth a gander.