Micmacs (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2009)

[AWA]

Don't see this thread anywhere, so I'm starting one.

I watched this film tonight - I'm a fan of Jeunet (outside of Alien 4 and I'm impartial to City Of Lost Children). While enjoyable in places (especially, as usual, some amusing visuals and interesting cinematography), this felt rather thin - a vengence fairy tale for adults. If some of the sex was removed, this could have probably been marketed as a children's movie, or at least a young adult's. Jeunet's whimsy takes over far too much here and some "romance" between the characters feels like it is force fed.

Spoiler

I'm also not quite sure what kind of message Jeunet thinks he's getting across here - clearly he wants to skewer arms dealers and war profiteers, but at the same time the entire film's climax centers on what is essentially getting the two rival arms dealers to admit to all their sins while under torture. Which, of course, finds Jeunet very much in the company of the people he's criticizing. Major fail in that respect.

Also - clearly responding to some critics that there aren't enough black people in his vision of France, this film has plenty of them but is a case study in why you shouldn't cast races for the sake of it - you can easily fall into propagating the stereotypes, as this film so embarrassingly does. Blacks in this film are poor kids, poor maids on working visas willing to do anything to stay in France or rhyming buffoons or are war-lord agents from third world Africa plotting a coup of a coup of their last coup.

There are some redeeming qualities and it is worthwhile overall - I laughed at a few things, including the human canon misfire, as cartoony as that was - but this following two films that were reasonably mature character based films (Amelie and A Very Long Engagement, even if the latter is still plowing from the same field as the former) is a disappointment. With some editing down some of the superfluous "garbage dump house" scenes, the "romance" between the contortionist and the protagonist and other amusing but ultimately pointless thought bubble meanderings, this could've been a short film around 30 minutes. And the sound effects / French trash can soundtrack would probably even get on Tom Waits' nerves after awhile.

For whatever steps forward Jeunet took with the last two films, this is a few steps back in the wrong direction.

[Galen Young]

I'd agree the humor in this seems to work at cross purposes against itself. Something like Andrew Niccol's Lord of War mines this arms dealers/black satire territory with more success in my opinion. Still, I was never bored, as eye candy it was fulfilling and it certainly lives up to it title. (roughly translates as "Non-Stop Madness") My fave bit was showing how the troupe of characters did the sound effects around the abduction of the arms dealers -- loved it!

Writing about Jeunet gives me a good excuse to post this link -- The Bunker of the Last Gunshots -- an early Caro/Jeunet short from 1981 that simply beyond awesome. Would buy this on DVD in a heartbeat!

[AWA]

I should also add that I couldn't help but think Jeunet was going the way of Michel Gondry here - another director whose eye-candy homemade novelty special effects are interesting to watch but, since making a significant, meaningful film (in Gondry's case, Eternal Sunshine...) has gone in the wrong direction and depends far too much on visual gimmicks and less on other more important aspects.

[matrixschmatrix]

I felt about Micmacs the way I do about most Jeunet movies- it's a lot of fun, a lot of Rube Goldberg devices, and a lot of cunning schemes and capers, but not necessarily adding up to much of anything. It's like if Hitchcock focused more on movies like To Catch a Thief than ones like Vertigo- lesser artistry, I suppose, but I'm more than happy to enjoy the movies.

[j99]

I saw this for the first time recently, and feel the same way about all of Jeunet's (has Caro gone for good?) films, thin on plot but visually wonderful. I think I could watch his films with the sound (or in this case the subtitles removed) turned down. He's an incredibly imaginative film maker; I've often considered him a French Terry Gilliam. It's just a pity he can't match his visuals with a script with depth but that's his style I guess.

[colinr0380]

Regarding Caro, it seems as if he is moving away from a Jeunet partnership. He recently directed Dante 01 (which went straight to DVD here in the UK) and was apparently the 'Art Supervisor' on Enter The Void.

JM - What was Marc Caro's involvement with the film?
GN - He had just finished editing his science fiction movie, DANTE 01, and for about three months he had nothing planned and it was exactly at the moment we were leaving for Japan, so I said "I have a Production Designer in Japan but I've never worked with him and the movie relies so much on the art design - would you enjoy being the Art Supervisor to work with the Japanese team" and he said he'd love to. For example, the design of all the rooms in the Love Hotel at the end of the film comes from Marc Caro. And the strip club scene, with all the weird lights - that was all his idea. He didn't help with the Canadian shooting, but all the main stuff he was there. I was really flattered he accepted the job.