2 - Gabrielle Vincent, the Author of the Books

Mister Didier wanted to adapt the books Ernest and Célestine. When i first met him, he gave me some of her books so i could discover her work.

For those who don't know her books, let me talk about them quickly. The books Ernest and Célestine were edited between 1981 and 2000. Those were written and drawned by the illustrator and painter ”Gabrielle Vincent”. In those books, she was depicting the daily life of Ernest the bear and Célestine the Mouse, 2 sympathic animals living together. There is about 30 books depicting their adventures, the first one is called “Ernest and Célestine lost Siméon” and the last one “The Questions of Célestine”

She also made one very peculiar book, “The Birth of Célestine”. It was made in only one color Sépia, very few texts and a lot of drawings. In those books she managed to create one of the most emotional illustration book that i could ever read. It depict how Ernest found Célestine in a trashcan and how his love grew for her.

Her real name was Monique Martin but she was signing her book as Gabrielle Vincent, a name she chose from the first name of her Grandma and Grandpa. She also was a great painter and she left behind her a huge amount of wonderful paintings. She was more known for her illustration books but painting always took a big part of her life. She also published a lot of Illustration Books for adult.

Among them, A day A dog is probably her masterpiece. It is depicting the story of a dog left on road by his master.

“My lost Garden“ is worth having a look, such as “The little Puppet”

Unfortunatly, she passed away in 2000. When we started working on the film, every member of the artistic team wanted to be very faithful to Gabrielle Vincent. We didn't want to pay respect only to the books Ernest and Célestine, we wanted to make a tribute to Gabrielle Vincent and the artist she was. For those who want to know more about her, there is an association in Belgium called “Fondation Monique Martin“. Its goal is to promote her work everywhere in the world.

Now that you know better who Gabrielle Vincent was, let's talk more about the film