oh to be a nonverbal autistic silly little flea dehumanized by everyone i encounter and called a literal monster.
francoeur is a fucking brilliant character.
their setup for his true reveal is genuinely phenomenal.
the way she falls and he immediately catches her. the music stops like everything is resetting. because up until that moment everything visual and auditory in the film has been trying to depict him as a monster. his adorable chirps warped into terrifying alien growling and his gentle sweet appearance stripped down to just his eyes and towering silhouette. one of most textbook ways to dehumanize a person is to remove their face. we dont get to see his face until the big reveal, already serving to make us rethink him as a character.
and then she falls
and he immediately catches her
THE WAY YOU CAN REWATCH AND SEE HOW HES JUST TRYING TO PEACEFULLY INTERACT WITH PEOPLE. HE WAS DRAWN IN BY THE SOFT MUSIC OF THE OLD LADY'S PHONOGRAPH AND PERCHES ON HER BALCONY TO LISTEN, BUT SHE SCREECHES AND HE JUMPS AWAY, PETRIFIED.
HE TRIED TO PUT HIS HAND ON THE MANS SHOULDER TO CALM HIM DOWN, BUT HE PULLS BACK UNTIL ALL FRANCOEUR HAS IS HIS COAT, AND HES JUST SO CONFUSED. HE JUST STARES AT THE COAT, CURIOUS BUT ABSOLUTELY DUMBFOUNDED.