Calamity – Calamity, une enfance de Martha Jane Cannary (2020)

Directed by: Remi Chayé | 85 minutes | animation, adventure | Dutch voice cast: Venna van den Bosch, Vera Mann, Jonathan Demoor, Joost Claes, Enzo Coenen, Remi de Smet

During the Cinekid Festival in 2020, ‘Calamity’ by French director Rémi Chayé was voted Best Children’s Film by the jury of experts and it is not difficult to see how they came to that verdict. The film tells the story of the childhood of Martha Jane Cannary, who would later become known as Calamity Jane, a heroine from the ‘Wild West’. Although the film is not historically accurate at all (Martha Jane, for example, would not use the nickname ‘Calamity’ until she was in her twenties), it tells a story that appeals to the imagination.

We meet Martha Jane when she travels westward through North America in a covered wagon with her father and brother and sister as part of a procession of pioneers in 1863. They are in a completely patriarchal community. The men are in charge and the women should mainly wear skirts and not stand out too much. But when Martha Jane’s father is no longer able to drive the covered wagon due to an accident, she doesn’t let herself be discouraged and just sits on the box herself. When some time later the procession is robbed, Martha Jane goes after the alleged thief on her own and the adventure really begins. She has long since cut off her hair and exchanged her skirt for trousers, much to the horror of most of the pioneers.

Although she can take care of herself, Martha Jane reluctantly gets stuck with the wayward Jonas, who takes her for a boy because of her tough appearance. They happen to be heading in the same direction, so Martha Jane puts up with her companion. (It’s also convenient that she can use his transportation.) The likely thief is a Confederate soldier, who was reported to be on his way to his encampment. Undaunted, Martha Jane approaches his general, but he doesn’t like such a snot nose. The two children are then taken into the care of Madame Mustache, a free-spirited woman who participates in the gold rush that is currently raging in the West. En passant they stir things up, which occasionally results in hilarious, Buster Keaton-esque slapstick moments.

Of course Martha Jane eventually manages to find the stolen items, but the story turns out to be slightly different than she thought. Most importantly, she can return to the pioneers as an accomplished rider and tracker and claim her place in the group. In this way Chayé creates a nicely delineated whole in which a young girl manages to reach full maturity against all the expectations of the suffocating society she finds herself in. The story is delivered with an almost nonchalant flair, supported by a delightful soundtrack by Florencia Di Concilio. Truly a film to immerse yourself in.

Director Rémi Chayé, who by the way played a nice role in the creation of Cartoon Saloon’s first cartoon, ‘The Secret of Kells’ (2009), has a beautiful style of his own. He previously showed this in his own debut film ‘Tout en haut du monde’ (The long way to the north, 2015). He likes to use large surfaces with tightly defined (pastel) colours. Sometimes it’s like looking at a moving oil painting. It is probably no coincidence that both films have a young female protagonist and a clearly definable image of the time. (“Tout en haut du monde” revolved around a late-19th-century Russian aristocrat.) Though devoid of historical accuracy, “Calamity” is a wonderful representation of what Calamity Jane’s childhood might have been like.