“Marcel: The Little Shellfish with Shoes” was an “ambient film”

Marcel’s “awareness” is the very sense of ambient

Marcel, who used to live in a small world, comes into contact with the outside world in the latter half of the film, and through his own perception, he begins to carefully savor sights and sounds that he had never seen or heard before. For little Marcel, such “awareness” leads to an encounter with the world. Toward the end of the film, Marcel says, “One day I was sitting in front of the window.

One day I was sitting in front of the window, and the wind blew right over my head, and it made a beautiful sound.

I felt like it was leading me to a new and special place, and I felt connected to it all, because without me, this sound wouldn’t exist, and I thought it would all fall apart–but when I stood there, it became one big instrument.

I felt like I was part of the world, not just a piece of it, and I was enjoying the sound of being connected to it all.”

It is hard not to be struck by these lines, especially if you love ambient music. Marcel’s words, which describe the sensation of opening one’s own being to the world, seem to directly translate the feeling we experience when immersing ourselves in ambient music, that is, the gradual opening of our body and perception to the environmental world, and the environment filling our body in a cyclical manner with it. It seems to be a language of the way the environment fills our bodies, as if in a cycle with it.

Ambient has been used, and sometimes consumed, in a vast number of films because of its “familiarity” and “ambiguity. However, there are not many cases where ambient is used in a way that blends with the fundamental nature of the music, as in the case of this film.

The seemingly outlandish setting of this film, “a mockumentary featuring a small shellfish,” is, conversely, a special characteristic that allows it to reach a realm that is a step or two beyond the usual use of ambient in dramatic films. If ambient often leads to “encounters” with one’s own inner and outer worlds and the “surprises” that accompany them, “Marcel: The Little Shellfish in Shoes” is an excellent catalyst for such encounters.

『マルセル 靴をはいた小さな貝』

Friday, June 30, 2023, Shinjuku Musashino Theater, Shibuya White Cine Quint and other theaters nationwide.
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Screenplay: Dean Fleischer Camp, Jenny Slate, Nick Parley, Elizabeth Holm
Cast: Jenny Slate (voice), Isabella Rossellini (voice), Dean Fleischer Camp
Source: Asmik Ace, TC Entertainment
Distributor: Asmik Ace
https://marcel-movie.asmik-ace.co.jp/