Film Festival Guide
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Welcome to Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s magical world.
www.lifeinfullbloom.info
Catalogue Designer Yajie (Penny) Xu
Unexpected encounters show us how to love the ordinary Life in full bloom is a celebration of the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s unique style has made him one of the most successful French film directors of the last quartercentury. Both a critical and box office success, Jeunet is a storyteller with a comic-book twist. One could describe his early work as Tintin in a steampunk dystopia. However, instead of his strange characters and dismal settings invading our dreams, we settle back and enjoy Jeunet’s stories. An auteur in the truest sense the word, Jeunet blends his narrative with a tantalizing visual magic to create a total work of art. Jean-Pierre Jeunet creates cinema that both challenges us and amazes us.
Sept 6 | Delicatessen / Amelie Sept 7 | The City of Lost Children / A Very Long Engagement Sept 8 | The Young and Prodigious. T.S. Spivet
Contents
01
02
The Director
The Films
Biography Filmography Awards & Recognition Article & Interview
Delicatessen Amelie The City of Lost Children A Very Long Engagement The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet
03
04
The Fesitival
References
Festival Theme Festival Schedule Festival Location
01 The Director Biography Filmography Awards & Recognition Interview
06
The Director
Biography
Date of Birth: September 3, 1953
For me, the most important word in cinema is the word freedom. For example, in Europe, we’ve got freedom, we’ve got the final cut and that’s something which is marvellous. —Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a French film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films are known to mix elements of fantasy, reality and science fiction either to create idealized realities or to give relevance to mundane situations. A former animator, his movies are marked by quirky, slapstick humor, alongside surrealist visuals. Starting his filmmaking career creating ads, music videos and shorts, internationally acclaimed director Jean-Pierre Jeunet was born in Roanne, France. The self-taught director, a passionate follower of comics and cartoons, was inspired by the works of the Tex Avery, Marcel Carné and the Jacques Prévert. Jeunet started working on animated shorts with fellow director/writer Marc Caro. The two continued a partnership lasting over 15 years and produced such shorts as L'Evasion (1978), Le Manège (1980 and Pas de repos pour Billy Brakko (1984), all of which earned numerous awards from around the world. In 1991 he and Caro released his feature film directorial and writing debut, the comedy, Delicatessen , which became an international art film sensation, and put Jeunet on the map. The film received multiple awards including the European
Cinema Award and several César Awards (Best Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Production Design). Jeunet continued his success with the superbly dark and poetic criticallyacclaimed film La Cité des Enfants Perdus (The City of Lost Children), nominated for Best Foreign Film by the Independent Spirit Awards. During the mid-'90s, Jeunet crossed the pond to direct his first American film, Alien Resurrection (1997). Opening to mixed reviews from critics and fans, the film did not quite live up to its title promise for the series. With little to tempt Jeunet to stay in Hollywood, he returned to France to complete his next project, Le Fabuleux Destin D'Amélie Poulain . Released in 2001 starring Audrey Tautou, the film, which follows the adventures of a imaginative waitress trying to secretly help others, was an international sensation breaking box office records in France and North America, and winning several North American and European Film awards. His next film, A Very Long Engagement (2004), again starring Tautou, was nominated for two Oscars and won many awards, including five of 12 César nominations. His latest film, the comedy Micmacs (2010), has received the three César nominations.
08
The Director
1979–2000
Filmography
Foutaises
Director
1989
Delicatessen
Director
1991
The City of Lost Children
Screenwriter
1995
Alien Resurrection (Special Edition)
Director
Director 1997
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
2000–2019 Amelie
Screenwriter Director
A Very Long Engagement
Screenwriter Director
2004
Micmacs
Director
2009
Chanel No.5: Train de Nuit (Short)
Director
2009
The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet
Director
2013
Casanova (TV Movie)
Director
2015
Deux escargots s'en vont (Short)
Director
2016
2001
09
10
Awards & Recognition
The Director
Sitges–Catalonian International Film Festival 1991
Winner | Best Director | Delicatessen (1991) | Share With: Marc Caro
1991
Winner | Prize of the Catalan Screenwriter's Critic and Writer's Association | Delicatessen (1991) | Share With: Marc Caro
1991
Nominee | Best Film | Delicatessen (1991) Share with: Marc Caro Academy Awards, USA
2002
Nominee Oscar | Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) | Share With: Guillaume Laurant BAFTA Awards
2005
Nominee BAFTA Film Award | Best Film not in the English Language | Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004) | Share With: Francis Boespflug
2002
Winner BAFTA Film Award | Best Film not in the English Language | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) | Share With: Guillaume Laurant
2002
Nominee | David Lean Award for Direction | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
2002
Nominee BAFTA Film Award | Best Film not in the English Language | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) | Share With: Claudie Ossard
1993
Nominee BAFTA Film Award | Best Film not in the English Language | Delicatessen (1991) | Share With: Claudie Ossard, Marc Caro 20/20 Awards
2016
Nominee Felix | Best Director | La cité des enfants perdus (1995) | Share With: Marc Caro
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
3D Creative Arts Awards 2015
Winner Harold Lloyd Award | Best Director | The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013) Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
1998
Nominee Saturn Award | Best Director | Alien: Resurrection (1997) Amanda Awards, Norway
2002
Winner Amanda | Best Foreign Feature Film (Årets utenlandske spillefilm) | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) American Screenwriters Association, USA
2002
Nominee Discover Screenwriting Award | Best Foreign Feature Film | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) | Share With: Guillaume Laurant Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards
2003
Nominee Best Foreign Film (Mejor Película Extranjera) | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) | Share With: Guillaume Laurant Association of Polish Filmmakers Critics Awards
2001
Winner Honorable Mention | Best Foreign Film | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) Awards Circuit Community Awards
2001
Nominee ACCA | Best Director | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) | |
Best Original Screenplay | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) Share With: Guillaume Laurant
11
12
The Director
Canberra Short Film Festival 2001
Winner | Audience Award | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) | Tied with Monsoon Wedding (2001) Cannes Film Festival
1995
Nominee Palme d'Or | La cité des enfants perdus (1995) | Share With: Marc Caro Chicago International Film Festival
2001
Winner Audience Choice Award | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
1991
Winner Gold Hugo | Best Feature | Delicatessen (1991) Cinéfest Sudbury
2001
Winner Audience Award | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival
1990
Winner Audience Award | National Competition | Foutaises (1989)
1990
Winner Press Award | National Competition | Foutaises (1989)
1990
Winner Jacques Tati Award | Foutaises (1989) | For its humor. César Awards, France
2005
Nominee César | Best Film (Meilleur film) | Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)
2005
Nominee César | Best Director (Meilleur réalisateur) | Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)
2005
Nominee | Best Screenplay, Original or Adaptation (Meilleur scénario, original ou adaptation) | Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004) | Share With: Guillaume Laurant
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
2002
Winner César | Best Director (Meilleur réalisateur) | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
2002
Winner César | Best Film (Meilleur film) | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
2002
Nominee César | Best Screenplay, Original or Adaptation (Meilleur scénario, original ou adaptation) | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) | Share With: Guillaume Laurant
1992
Winner César | Best Screenplay, Original or Adaptation (Meilleur scénario, original ou adaptation | Delicatessen (1991) | Share With: Gilles Adrien
1991
Winner César | Best Short Film - Fiction (Meilleur court-métrage de fiction) Foutaises (1989)
|
1981 |
Winner César | Best Short Film - Animation (Meilleur court-métrage d'animation) Le manège (1981) David di Donatello Awards
2002
Nominee David | Best Foreign Film (Miglior Film Straniero) | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) Denver International Film Festival
2001
Winner People's Choice Award | Best New Feature-Length Fiction Film | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) DVD Exclusive Awards
2003
Nominee DVD Premiere Award | Original Retrospective Documentary, New Release | For "Home Movies: Inside the Making of Amélie". Edgar Allan Poe Awards
2005
Winner Edgar | Best Motion Picture Screenplay | Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004) Share With: Sébastien Japrisot (novel)
13
14
The Director
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2001
Winner | Audience Award | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) Empire Awards, UK
2002
Nominee Independent Spirit Award | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
European Film Awards 2005
Nominee Audience Award | Best European Director | Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)
2001
Winner European Film Award | European Director | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
2001
Winner Audience Award | Best European Director | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
1991
Nominee European Film Award | Young European Film of the Year | Delicatessen (1991) | Share With: Marc Caro Fantasporto
1992
Winner Audience Jury Award | Delicatessen (1991) | Share With: Marc Caro
1992
Nominee International Fantasy Film Award | Best Film | Delicatessen (1991) | Share With: Marc Caro Film Independent Spirit Awards
2002
Winner Independent Spirit Award | Best Foreign Film | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
1996
Nominee Independent Spirit Award | Best Foreign Film | La cité des enfants perdus (1995) | Share With: Marc Caro
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
French Syndicate of Cinema Critics 2002
Winner Critics Award | Best Film | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) Gold Derby Awards
2010
Nominee Gold Derby Award | Original Screenplay of the Decade | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) | Share With: Guillaume Laurant Golden Eagle Awards, Russia
2003
Winner Golden Eagle | Best Foreign Film | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) Goya Awards
2002
Winner Goya | Best European Film (Mejor Película Europea) Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
|
Guild of German Art House Cinemas 2002
Winner Guild Film Award-Gold | Foreign Film (Ausländischer Film) Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
|
1993
Winner Guild Film Award-Silver | Foreign Film (Ausländischer Film) Delicatessen (1991) | Share With: Marc Caro
|
International Online Cinema Awards (INOCA) 2005
Nominee INOCA | Best Non-English Language Film Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)
|
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2001
Winner | Crystal Globe | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
15
16
The Director
Lumiere Awards, France 2005
Winner Lumiere Award | Best Director (Meilleur réalisateur) | Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)
2002
Winner Lumiere Award | Best Film (Meilleur film), Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) | Best Screenplay (Meilleur scénario), Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) | Share With: Guillaume Laurant Norwegian International Film Festival
2002
Winner Silver Clod | Best Foreign Film of the Year (Beste Utenlandske Spillefilm) | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) Palm Springs International Film Festival
2002
Winner Career Achievement Award Robert Festival
2003
Winner Robert | Best Non-American Film (Årets ikke-amerikanske film) | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) Russian Guild of Film Critics
2001
Nominee Golden Aries | Best Foreign Film | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) ShoWest Convention, USA
2002
Winner ShoWest Award | International Filmmaker of the Year Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) | Share With: Guillaume Laurant
|
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival 1991 1991
Winner Best Director | Delicatessen (1991) | Share With: Marc Caro Winner Prize of the Catalan Screenwriter's Critic and Writer's Association Delicatessen (1991) | Share With: Marc Caro
|
1991
Nominee Best Film | Delicatessen (1991) | Share With: Marc Caro Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
1991
Winner Gold Award | Delicatessen (1991) | Share With: Marc Caro Tokyo International Film Festival
1991
Winner Gold Award | Delicatessen (1991) | Share With: Marc Caro Toronto Film Critics Association Awards
2001
Nomine TFCA Award | Best Director | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) Toronto International Film Festival
2009
Nomine People's Choice Award | Mic Macs à Tire-Larigot (2009)
2001
Winner People's Choice Award | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
17
18
The Director
The Article
A Jean-Pierre Jeunet film can be easy to detect, if not always simple to dissect. Quirky characters, intricately designed sets, exaggerated color tones and a tilt toward the surreal are quintessential elements of his filmmaking. From his first feature, “Delicatessen”(1991), on which he shared the directing credit with Marc Caro, to his most commercially successful film, “Amélie” (2001), Mr. Jeunet has emphasized visual storytelling. But his production interests began percolating much earlier. “I started when I was 8,” he said. “I built a kind of theater and I wrote a story and I built some puppets. I made the costumes and I destroyed my parents’ lamp to make the lighting. And they had to pay. I was a producer, too.”
An Eye for Detail, an Imagination at Play By Mekado Murphymay May 21, 2010 // The New York Times
While his narratives are now more adult, Mr. Jeunet still exhibits a childlike imagination. His latest film, “Micmacs” (opening Friday), follows the misadventures of a video store clerk (Dany Boon) who, after being hit by a stray bullet, joins a team of misfits to take on a weapons manufacturer. Following is a look at a few aspects of Mr. Jeunet’s technique. Additional photos and audio commentary from the director can be found to here. Rooftop Scenes “Delicatessen” concludes on a rooftop, and that setting also frequently plays into the plot of “Micmacs,” above. Mr. Jeunet has a fascination with Paris in a rooftop, but because of the potential danger to the cast and crew, he must recreate them assets.
For “Delicatessen,” he found a location at street level. “It was strange because you could see a roof on the ground,” he said. “It was like a building sank.“For “Micmacs,” a set was built on top of a building at the studio where some of the films was shot. Mr.Jeunet wanted a more nostalgic feel, so some scenes included smoke billowing out of fireplaces.” Nobody uses wood now to heat,” he said. “But in my film, everybody does!” For other locations, Mr.Jeunet did his own scouting, often by traversing the city on his scooter. Color Tones Color toning is always an important part of Mr.Jeunet’s films. Much of his work is bathed in warm shades that create a sense of the hyperreal. But for contrast, the filmmaker used cooler colors to depict the battle scenes in his World War I drama, “A Very Long Engagement.” “I want to modify the reality, so I feel like a painter,” he said. In his early films, the process was more of a chemical one, withMr. Jeunet and his cinema to graphs coming up with new ways to develop the film to get the desired effect. Now the color toning is done digitally, an easier process that offers a wider color palette. Yet the variety of choices makes the color correction that much more time-consuming. “In the chemical process, we’d spend maybe three days to fix the color,”
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
An Interest In Objects “I love objects,” Mr. Jeunetsaid. The many strange bit sand pieces of gadgetry and tools in his films sometimes take on lives of their own: a piglamp that sits on the nightstand in “Amélie”; a mechanical wooden hand in “A Very Long Engagement”; a dream-stealing device in “The City of Lost Children.” More objects are at play in “Micmacs,” including the contraptions stocked in a metal cavern. Mr.Jeunet even provides a character obsessed with them. AndréDussollier plays the chairman of a weapons manufacturer who collects the body parts of famous people (a tooth from Marilyn Monroe, Winston Churchill’s nail clippings).“It’s good to imagine something insane or crazy to get the character of the actor,” Mr. Jeunetsaid. “I love weird and strange and original ideas. I don’t like realism.” seven weeks.”
19
A battle scene from Mr. Jeunet’s World War I drama “A Very Long Engagement.” Credit Bruno Calvo / Warner Independent Pictures
In “Micmacs,” Andre Dussollier plays the chairman of a weapons manufacturer who collects the body parts of famous people. Credit Sony Pictures Classics
20
The Director
The Interview
Having established himself as the cuddly enfant terrible of French art house with 1991’s sumptuously surreal, blackly comic tale of mystery meat and post-apocalyptic high-rise living Delicatessen, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s career took some interesting turns.1995’s phantasmagorical fairytale The City Of Lost Children was a similarly bizarre and inventive outing (co-written and directed, like Delicatessen, with collaborator Marc Caro), but after that film’s relatively poor box office he veered drastically off the Euro-indie reservation, parting ways with Caro and taking the helm of a Hollywood blockbuster 1997’s Alien: Resurrection chapter four of the scifi saga that wouldn’t die.
A Chat With Jean-Pierre Jeunet by Simon Braund January 22, 2016 // Hammer to Nail
Returning to France again without Caro, he then astounded fans with the whimsical and excessively charming Amélie, starring an adorable Audrey Tatou as a young Parisian woman who gets her kicks doing small deeds of anonymous kindness for strangers. Amélie was a huge critical and commercial success, enabling Jeunet to pursue a long-gestating dream project, 2004’s sweeping, albeit slightly less whimsical, slightly less charming, A Very Long Engagement, again with Tatou, this time as a young woman searching for her MIA fiancee in the aftermath of WWI. Jeunet’s output has been more muted since then with neither underrated comedy Micmacs (2009) nor equally underrated fable The Young And Prodigious T. S. Spivet making much of an impression
on either audiences or critics. But, as he revealed at the 2015 Marrakech International Film Festival, Jeunet has some more surprises up his sleeve including the long-overdue the reunion with Caro. Hammer to Nail: Your career as a filmmaker really began when you met Marc Caro, are you planning to work with him again? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: We’re thinking about an exhibition of our work because we have so many objects. For each film, we build so many interesting things, and I keep everything. But that will take two or three years. Hammer to Nail: Why did you and Caro hit it off creatively? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: We were at a festival for animation in 1978 and we started to speak. He was making a small fanzine about animation, so we decided to make a short film, The Escape (L’evasion), a stopmotion like Tim Burton. Right now I’m making another animation film. Hammer to Nail: A feature? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Oh no, a short film. It’s one minute and forty seconds, but the credits will probably be ten minutes because i recorded thirty actors. All the actors who worked for me, Audrey Tatou, Mathieu Kassovitz, they all read poetry by Jacques Prévert (screenwriter of Les Enfants du Paradise).
21
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Hammer to Nail: Is it stop-motion? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: No because I have a friend who did the animation in Micmacs, he transforms a still photograph in 3D into animation. He’s so good; I couldn’t do that. I took the photographs and he animates them (on Jeunet’s phone are pictures of beetles, frogs, and other tiny animals, intricately constructed from found objects). I have sixty of them. I’ll probably just show it on my website, maybe on French TV. I do it for the pleasure (laughs). Hammer to Nail: Can you talk a little about your experience on Alien: Resurrection, your one and only Hollywood movie and a million miles from animated insects? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Well, it’s interesting, looking back I realize how lucky I was because I had almost complete artistic freedom. That’s very rare. Now for a Hollywood movie they have maybe ten producers standing behind the video screens. I was alone, had nobody on set at all! They respected me, and every idea I came up with they bought it. I don’t want to say it was easy because of course, I had a lot of pressure on me with the money. But I had artistic freedom that I’d never have now. Hammer to Nail: How do you place Alien: Resurrection in your body of work? Do you see it as something of an anomaly? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Yeah, but they hired me for who I am. They loved City Of Lost Children, they told me that. The said, ‘We
love your special ideas and we think it’s less risky to take a risk with you.” Hammer to Nail: If it wasn’t the horrible experience everyone imagines it was for you, why have you not made a movie in Hollywood since then? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: I lost confidence in America because I lost so much freedom; that’s the reason I prefer to make my films in France. The last one, [The Young And Prodigious] T. S. Spivet was a coproduction between France and Canada to avoid America. But in the end, Gaumont sold the film to Harvey Weinstein and he fucked me. Of course! Because I refused to re-edit the film, he kept the film for two years, then he released it with no advertising, nothing. It was a disaster. Hammer to Nail: So he buried it because you wouldn’t re-cut it to his specifications? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Exactly. I don’t negotiate with terrorists. Hammer to Nail: You worked with him on Amélie, didn’t you? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Never. Hammer to Nail: But you had worked with him even before Amélie. Jean-Pierre Jeunet: On Delicatessen. He sent [Marc Caro and I] a list of cuts; he wanted to cut everything on Delicatessen! We were very patient and we said, ‘We have another idea. You cut our names from the credits.’ I was expecting to find
my dog’s head cut off on my bed (laughs). This man he doesn’t respect the filmmaker. Hammer to Nail: Delicatessen was yours and Marc Caro’s first feature. Where did the idea for that originate? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: We wrote City Of Lost Children before Delicatessen, but it was too expensive. So we were looking for an original idea but cheaper. At the time I was living above a butcher shop and I woke up every morning with the Chung, Chung noise of the choir, the chopper. That was the beginning of the idea. And at the time we wanted to put everything we loved into a film, so there are a lot of references – the pictures of Robert Doisneau (pioneering photojournalist and contemporary of Henri Cartier-Bresson), the cartoons of Tex Avery, Buster Keaton; everything. Everything we loved, it’s in the film. Hammer to Nail: It says in the credits ‘Presented by Terry Gilliam.’ What’s the story there? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Yeah, he was also the distributor of the City Of Lost Children. I did a long interview with him, so we know each other—I don’t want to say we’re friends, but he came to my set for Alien: Resurrection and he said, ‘You think you’re okay now. Wait for the editing.’ But it was okay. When Fox asked me to make the director’s cut I said, ‘No, this is my cut. I’m proud of it."
22
The Director
Hammer to Nail: The success of Delicatessen allowed you to make the City Of Lost Children. Did it turn out to be the movie you originally envisioned?
Jean-Pierre Jeunet: No, no. The pilot was okay for me because they gave me ten million dollars, so it was big, and I had twenty-two days to shoot. I can’t shoot in nine days. Nine days and three million, it’s not for me. No thank you.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Yeah. It was very expensive, but after you have success you have the opportunity to make something expensive. It was the same after Amélie with A Very Long Engagement. You jump on it because you know you only have a minute to do this. In a way it’s not so good because how can I say this? If you stay prudent, if you make something cheap it’s less risky. The City Of Lost Children, during the release, it was not a disaster but it was not good because it was expensive. Little by little it became a cut movie, and now they release it on Blu-ray in the US and France they can probably get back the money. Hammer to Nail: You made a pilot for Amazon with Diego Luna, Casanova? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Never. Hammer to Nail: Yes. It is beautiful. The DP is nominated for something, I don’t know. We made something a little bit like Dangerous Liaisons and Barry Lyndon, those were our references. Beautiful. I don’t know what happened… No, to actually I do. They asked the showrunner to write six episodes to see if they want to make another season. Amazon [don’t] make a season, they make a pilot. Hammer to Nail: Would you like to work in the TV?
Hammer to Nail: You followed up City Of Lost Children with Amélie? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: That was after Alien: Resurrection. Hammer to Nail: Of course. But your next independent project was Amélie, a huge change in direction for you still slightly surreal but nowhere near as surreal as City Of Lost Children or Delicatessen. It was also the first feature you’d done without Marc Caro. Jean-Pierre Jeunet: The films I did with Marc Caro, we had to have a common world. And Amélie was absolutely not the cup of tea of Marc Caro. After City Of Lost Children, we needed to separate, we both needed to make something more personal. We are not brothers like the Coens, and we are not lovers! We did an interview in San Francisco and they were very disappointed that we were not lovers. Hammer to Nail: In what sense was Amélie personal for you? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: It’s drawn from my experiences, my stories, my anecdotes, my collection of memories and souvenirs. It’s less fantastique and more poetic. It’s reality but with something different,
because I don’t like the real realism. For me as a director that’s not the interesting to do. Hammer to Nail: Given that it was drawn from your personal memories and anecdotes, did its enormous success come as a surprise? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Of course! When I was writing it I was thinking, Who wants to see this bullshit? But you never know. At the end of the filming, we could feel something special, something in the air, a buzz. And I saw everything; I had a premonition. After Delicatessen, I visited the set of Hook, Steven Spielberg’s movie. I don’t want to say I heard a voice because I don’t believe in that bullshit, but I had the feeling: You will make a film in Hollywood one day. Boom! Are you crazy!? And when they called me for Alien: Resurrection, I thought, I was right. Hammer to Nail: Audiences connected with Amélie on a very rare level; it really touched the people’s lives. How you did that feel? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: J-PJ: It’s the dream of any director, of any creator. It made a lot of people very jealous (laughs). It’s difficult to understand, but there is something about generosity; Amélie doesn’t want anything in return for the things she does for people and I think that’s one of its secrets. It speaks about the small pleasures of life, and it probably came out at the perfect time. It was directly after September 11
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
in the USA. Maybe today it would not be such a success, you never know. Hammer to Nail: How much of its success do you put down to Audrey Tatou? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Well, at first I wanted Emily Watson, but at the last minute she dropped out for personal reasons. Then I found Audrey Tatou, and that was no coincidence; it was written; it was fate. Hammer to Nail: Emily Watson is a wonderful actress, but it’s hard to imagine anyone but Audrey Tatou in the role. Jean-Pierre Jeunet: I can. It would have been different, she would have been more, how do you say, like Bridgett Jones. Audrey gave something so fresh. You can see her screen test on the DVD. After five seconds, I knew. I knew! I told her, ‘Where did you come from!?’ I didn’t have to help her performance, it was just there. If some times we discussed something, she was always right. Hammer to Nail: After that, A Very Long Engagement was another change of direction. Jean-Pierre Jeunet: That was on my mind for a long time. Hammer to Nail: And, again, it turned out as the film you wanted to make? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Yeah, of course. Because I had a feeling that I died in another life in the First World War. I’ve met a lot of people who have had the
same feeling. When I was in the trench, the first day on set, I put on a helmet and I thought, Oh my god, I know it. Hammer to Nail: Are you working on another feature right now? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Yes. I’m working on something a little bit like Amélie but about the sex. Hammer to Nail: Anything else you can tell us about that? Do you have a title yet? Jean-Pierre Jeunet: No because it’s too early. We’re on the diving board ready to jump in. But I write every day. Well, I think. It’s a little bit early to write.
23
“If I would want to have a huge audience, I would make American movies, not French movies, because there is a limit of course with French language. If I prefer to shoot in my own language, it is to play with my language, to play in my Paris, and I have complete freedom in France. It’s so amazing. If American directors could imagine how free I am, they would have asked for political asylum immediately.” —Jean-Pierre Jeunet
02 The Films Delicatessen Amelie The City of Lost Children A Very Long Engagement The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet
28
The Films
Delicatessen
Movie Info
Details Country: France Language: French Runtime: 99min Release Date: 1 April 1992 (USA) Studio: Lionsgate Directors: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet Writers: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro, Gilles Adrien
A post-apocalyptic future becomes the setting for pitch black humor in this visually intricate French comedy. The action takes place within a single apartment complex, which is owned by the same man that operates the downstairs butcher shop. It's a particularly popular place to live, thanks to the butcher's uncanny ability to find excellent cuts of meat despite the horrible living conditions outside. The newest building superintendent, a former circus clown, thinks he has found an ideal living situation. All that changes, however, when he discovers the true source of the butcher's meat, and that he may be the next main course. This dark tale is played out in a brilliantly designed, glorious surreal alternate world reminiscent of the works of director Terry Gilliam, who copresented the film's American release. Like Gilliam, co-directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro hail from an animation background, and have a fondness for extravagant visuals, absurdist plot twists, and a sense of humor that combines sharp satire with broad slapstick and gross-out imagery. This mixture may displease the weak of stomach, but those attuned to the film's sensibility will be delighted by the obvious technical virtuosity and wicked sense of humor.
Main Cast Pascal Benezech as Tried to Escape Dominique Pinon as Louison Marie-Laure Dougnac as Julie Clapet Jean-Claude Dreyfus as Clapet Karin Viard as Mademoiselle Plusse Ticky Holgado as Marcel Tapioca Anne-Marie Pisani as Madame Tapioca Boban Janevski as Young Rascal Mikael Todde as Young Rascal Edith Ker as Grandmother Rufus as Robert Kube Jacques Mathou as Roger Howard Vernon as Frog Man
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Review Delicatessen is hard to pin down under a specific genre label; it's a surreal black comedy, a human drama, a postapocalyptic horror movie, a twisted thriller, a futuristic fantasy; and all in all; one of the strangest and most original films I've ever seen. In this fantasy world, the world has been ravaged and food is now in short supply. This has therefore made food invaluable and it is being used as currency. Things are traded for with grain, corn and lentils, but not everyone can afford the luxury of food, and some have had to resort to cannibalism to continue to enjoy eating. Our scene opens at a delicatessen in an unspecified location in France, and we are treated to an absolutely delicious sequence (no pun intended) in which a man is desperately trying to hide himself in the trash can. We later find that the reason for this is that this particular delicatessen hires handymen and keeps them long enough to fatten them up, and then they are eaten by the delicatessen's butcher and the inhabitants of the apartment building in which they live. The story really gets going when an exclown turns up at the shop, wanting the handyman's job, which has...become available. The plot thickens when the new handyman meets, and later falls in love with, the butcher's daughter; Julie. Julie knows what goes on at the delicatessen and can't allow her new found love to meet the same fate as the others, and
29
30
The Films
therefore does the only thing she can do; hire a band of vegetarian freedom fighters to save her love from becoming dinner for the butcher and his customers. Delicatessen concentrates more on being absurd and surreal than it does in posing deep and philosophical questions. Personally, I have no problem with that, but those who do want a movie to be deep and meaningful might find the film disappointing because of that. That is not to say that the film completely lacks depth or meaning; although a moral to the story doesn't seem to present itself, the film takes it's depth from the 'what if' scenario that it presents; "if the world's food supply became too short to feed the population, would you resort to cannibalism or join the vegetarian freedom fighters?". It's a very general message, but it's definitely there. Overall, Delicatessen is a sublime piece of cinema. You won't find imagination and inventiveness to the extent that it is shown here in most films, and that alone is reason enough to warrant this classic status. Delicatessen is everything I say it is and more, and overall the film is one of the true highlights of the 1990s. By The_Void9 // September 2004
32
The Films
Amelie
Movie Info
Details Country: France Language: French / Germany Runtime: 122 min Release Date: 8 February 2002 (USA) Studio: Miramax Films Directors: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Writers: Guillaume Laurant (scenario), Jean-Pierre Jeunet (scenario)
Amélie is a story about a girl named Amélie whose childhood was suppressed by her Father's mistaken concerns of a heart defect. With these concerns Amélie gets hardly any real life contact with other people. This leads Amélie to resort to her own fantastical world and dreams of love and beauty. She later on becomes a young woman and moves to the central part of Paris as a waitress. After finding a lost treasure belonging to the former occupant of her apartment, she decides to return it to him. After seeing his reaction and his new found perspective —she decides to devote her life to the people around her. Such as, her father who is obsessed with his garden-gnome, a failed writer, a hypochondriac, a man who stalks his ex girlfriends, the “ghost”, a suppressed young soul, the love of her life and a man whose bones are as brittle as glass. But after consuming herself with these escapades - she finds out that she is disregarding her own life and damaging her quest for love. Amélie then discovers she must become more aggressive and take a hold of her life and capture the beauty of love she has always dreamed of.
Main Cast Audrey Tautou as Amélie Poulain Mathieu Kassovitz as Nino Quincampoix Rufus as Raphaël Poulain Lorella Cravotta as Amandine Poulain Serge Merlin as Raymond Dufayel Jamel Debbouze as Lucien Clotilde Mollet as Gina Yolande Moreau as Madeleine Wallace Madeleine Wallace as Collignon Dominique Pinon as Joseph Michel Robin as Mr. Collignon Isabelle Nanty as Georgette Claire Maurier as Madame Suzanne
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
33
34
The Films
Review Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Amelie" is a delicious pastry of a movie, a lighthearted fantasy in which a winsome heroine overcomes a sad childhood and grows up to bring cheer to the needful and joy to herself. You see it, and later when you think about it, you smile. Audrey Tautou, a fresh-faced waif who looks like she knows a secret and can't keep it, plays the title role, as a little girl who grows up starving for affection. Her father, a doctor, gives her no hugs or kisses and touches her only during checkups—which makes her heart beat so fast he thinks she is sickly. Her mother dies as the result of a successful suicide leap off the towers of Notre Dame, a statement which reveals less of the plot than you think it does. Amelie grows up lonely and alone, a waitress in a corner bistro, until one day the death of Princess Diana changes everything. Yes, the shock of the news causes Amelie to drop a bottle cap, which jars loose a stone in the wall of her flat, which leads her to discover a rusty old box in which a long ago boy hoarded his treasures. And in tracking down the man who was that boy, and returning his box, Amelie finds her life's work: She will make people happy. But not in any old way. So, she will amuse herself (and us) by devising the most extraordinary stratagems for bringing about their happiness and fulfilment . I first began hearing about "Amelie" last
May at the Cannes Film Festival, where there was a scandale when "Amelie" was not chosen for the Official Selection. "Not serious," sniffed the Very Serious authorities who decide these matters. The movie played in the commercial theaters of the back streets, where audiences vibrated with pleasure. It went on to win the audience awards at the Edinburgh, Toronto and Chicago film festivals, and I note on the Internet Movie Database that it is currently voted the 54th best film of all time, and hasn't even opened in America yet. I am not sure “Amelie” is better than “Fargo” (No. 63) or "The General" (No. 87), but I know what the vote reflects: Immediate satisfaction with a film that is all goodness and cheer—sassy, bright and whimsical, filmed with dazzling virtuosity, and set in Paris, the city we love when it sizzles and when it drizzles. Of course this is not a realistic modern Paris, and some critics have sniffed about that, too: It is clean, orderly, safe, colorful, has no social problems, and is peopled entirely by citizens who look like extras from "An American in Paris." This is the same Paris that produced Gigi and Inspector Clouseau. It never existed, but that's OK. After discovering the box and bringing happiness to its owner, Amelie improvises other acts of kindness: painting wordpictures of a busy street for a blind man, for example, and pretending to find longlost love letters to her concierge from her
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
dead husband, who probably never mailed her so much as a lottery ticket. Then she meets Nino (the director Mathieu Kassovitz), who works indifferently in a porn shop and cares only for his hobby, which is to collect the photos people don't want from those automated photo booths and turn them into collages of failed facial expressions. Amelie likes Nino so much that one day when she sees him in her cafe, she dissolves. Literally. Into a puddle of water. She wants Nino, but some pixie quirk prevents her from going about anything in a straightforward manner and success holds no bliss for her unless it comes about through serendipity. There must be times when Nino wonders if he is being blessed or stalked. The film is filled with great individual shots and ideas. One of the best comes when Amelie stands high on the terrace of Montmartre and wonders how many people in Paris are having orgasms at that exact instant, and we see them, 15 in all, in a quick montage of hilarious happiness. It is so hard to make a nimble, charming comedy. So hard to get the tone right and find actors who embody charm instead of impersonating it. It takes so much confidence to dance on the tightrope of whimsy. "Amelie" takes those chances, and gets away with them. Roger Ebert // November 9, 2001
35
“I am nobody's little weasel.” —Amelie
38
The City of Lost Children Details Country: France | Germany | Spain Language: French | Cantonese Runtime: 112min Release Date: 15 December 1995 (USA) Studio: Sony Pictures Classics Directors: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet Writers: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro, Gilles Adrien
The Films
Movie Info In a surrealistic and bizarre society, children have been abducted by a mad and evil scientist, Krank, who wants to steal their dreams and stop and reverse his accelerated aging process. When the gang of Cyclops kidnap Denree , the little brother of the former whale hunter One, he is helped by the young street orphan girl Miette, who steals for the Siamese Pieuvre, to reach the platform where Krank leaves with his cloned dwarf wife Mademoiselle Bismuth, his six cloned sons and a brain, and rescue the children. Main Cast Ron Perlman as One Daniel Emilfork as Krank Judith Vittet as Miette Jean-Claude Dreyfus as Clapet Dominique Pinon as The Diver Jean-Claude Dreyfus as Marcello Odile Mallet as La Pieuvre Mireille MossĂŠ as Miss Bismuth Serge Merlin as Gabriel Marie Rufus as Peeler Ticky Holgado as Ex-Acrobat Jean-Louis Trintignant as Irvin's Voice Marc Caro as Brother Ange-Joseph
Review If I were to judge this film solely on its visuals, it would get an unqualified rave, no questions asked. It's only when I start to think about the story and the tone that my enthusiasm inches downward, because it's done more as an exercise than as a narrative you're meant to care about. Maybe the ultimate destination of “City of Lost Children” isn't in movie theaters at all, but on one of those video wall panels like Bill Gates is installing in his new house; you'd see an amazing image every time you walked past, and occasionally you'd linger for as many more astonishing sights as you felt capable of absorbing. The movie is an expensive, high-tech French production, using more special effects than any other French film in history, and it is appropriate that a lot of its look seems inspired by that Parisian
visionary, Jules Verne. It takes place not so much in the future (or even in the dated but vivid “future” as seen by Verne) as in a sort of parallel time zone, where there are recognizable elements of our world, violently rearranged. The co-directors, Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, created a similar visual extravaganza in their first feature, “Delicatessen," a 1991 fantasy about cannibalism. The movie takes place mostly on an offshore rig inhabited by the terrible and tragic Krank (Daniel Emilfork). Krank is terrible because he is a monster, and he is a monster because he cannot dream, which makes him tragic. So he kidnaps children, to steal their dreams and feed off them. One of his victims is Denree (Joseph Lucien), a little boy who is almost more trouble than he is worth. Kidnapping him
40
The Films
is a mistake because Denree's adopted brother is One (Ron Perlman, from TV's "Beauty and the Beast"), a strongman and sometime harpooner. One tracks his brother to the rig to save him.
waves of others. All of these people live in a universe constructed of much brass, wood, tubing, shadows and obscure but disturbing machines.
In the way it populates this plot with grotesque and improbable characters, "City of Lost Children" can be called Felliniesque, I suppose, although Fellini never created a vision this dark or disturbing. Krank's world includes a large number of children, kidnapped for their dreams, along with a brain that lives in a sort of fish tank, several cloned orphans who cannot figure which of them is the original, some very nasty insects, and Siamese twins who control the orphans for nefarious ends. In the way it populates this plot with grotesque and improbable characters, "City of Lost Children" can be called Felliniesque, I suppose, although Fellini never created a vision this dark or disturbing. Krank's world includes a large number of children, kidnapped for their dreams, along with a brain that lives in a sort of fish tank, several cloned orphans who cannot figure which of them is the original, some very nasty insects, and Siamese twins who control the orphans for nefarious ends. There are also deep-sea divers, performing fleas and some Cyclops men who have one eye removed and replaced with a computerized hearing device that allows them to visualize the sound
I would be lying if I said I understood the plot. Indeed, much of what I've just told you was reconstructed from the press kit and other sources. Watching the film, I perceived no strong narrative pull to carry me through, and instead was constantly being invited to stay in the moment, to experience one visual after another, to look past the characters and their concerns and relish the set design by Jean Rabasse and the bizarre costuming, in which JeanPaul Gaultier has truly outdone himself, and that takes some doing. When the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" first came out, we lived in a more unabashed and experimental time, and as the movie played month after month, it began to attract nightly visits by hippies (for that was what we called certain types of young people in those far-off days, children). The movie had an intermission, during which the audience would file out onto the sidewalk for a smoke (never mind of what, children), and then file back in again. And the hippies, who had not bought tickets, would mingle with them and drift back into the theater, going right up to the front of the auditorium and lying on their backs to stare up at the screen. Toward the end of the film there was a sequence where the space traveler was sucked into some kind of cosmic vortex
of sound and light, and this is what the hippies had come to see. Although the screen was distorted from their strange point of view, that didn't matter, because the visuals were overwhelming and, from so close, they felt consumed by them. "Far out," they would mutter, along with other quaint phrases. If "City of Lost Children" had been released then, the "2001" fans would have segued right across the street to take it in. Through the years there have been other such inspired films made for the eye: "Blade Runner," "Fantasia," "Days of Heaven," "Brazil," "El Topo," "Santa Sangre," "Akira" and indeed "Delicatessen" come to mind. I am trying to be rather precise here, because many people will probably not find themselves sympathetic to this movie's overachieving technological pretensions, while others will find it the best film in months or years. You know who you are. I am not one of you. But I have enough of you in me to pass along the word. Far out. Roger Ebert // December 15, 1995
“It was a huge set with a sea, waves, the streets, the canal—it looked amazing. The first day we got lost in the set, it was so big; it was unique.” —Jean-Pierre Jeunet
42
The Films
A Very Long Engagement Details Country: France | USA Language: French | German | Corsican Runtime: 133 min Release Date: 14 January 2005 (USA) Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures Directors: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Writers: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Sébastien Japrisot (Novel) Movie Info Five desperate French soldiers during The Battle of the Somme shoot themselves, either by accident or with purpose, in order to be invalided back home. Having been “caught” a court-martial convenes and determines punishment to be banishment to No Man's Land with the objective of having the Germans finish them off. In the process of telling this tale each man's life is briefly explored along with their next of kin as Methilde, fiancée to one of the men, tries to determine the circumstances of her lover's death. This task is not made any easier for her due to a bout with polio as a child. Along the way she discovers the heights and depths of the human soul.
Main Cast Audrey Tautou as Mathilde Gaspard Ulliel as Manech Dominique Pinon as Sylvain Chantal Neuwirth as Bénédicte André Dussollier as Rouvières Ticky Holgado as Germain Pire Marion Cotillard as Tina Lombardi Dominique Bettenfeld as Bassignano Jodie Foster as Elodie Gordes Benjamin Gordes as Ex-Acrobat Benjamin Gordes as Six-Soux Albert Dupontel as Célestin Poux Jean-Pierre Becker as Esperanza
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Review In the horror of trench warfare during World War I, with French and Germans dug in across from each during endless muddy, cold, wet, bloody months, not a few put their rifles into their mouths and sent themselves on permanent leave. Others, more optimistic, wounded themselves to get a pass to a field hospital, but if this treachery was suspected, the sentence was death. “A Very Long Engagement” opens by introducing us to five French soldiers convicted of wounding themselves; one is innocent, but all are condemned, and it is a form of cruelty, perhaps, that instead of being lined up and shot they are sent out into No Man’s Land and certain death. The movie is seen largely through the eyes of Mathilde (Audrey Tautou), an orphan with a polio limp, who senses in her soul that her man is not dead. He is Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), son of a lighthouse tender, a boy so open-faced and fresh he is known to all as Cornflower. After the war, Mathilde comes upon a letter that seems to hint that not all five died on the battlefield, and she begins the long task of tracking down eyewitnesses and survivors to find the Manech she is sure is still alive and needs her help. This story is told in a film so visually delightful that only the horrors of war keep it from floating up on clouds of joy. Having not connected with his earlier films "Delicatessen" and "The City of Lost
43
44
The Films
Children," I was enchanted, as everyone was, by Jeunet's first film with Audrey Tautou, "Amelie." Now he brings everything together— his joyously poetic style, the lovable Tautou, a good story worth the telling— into a film that is a series of pleasures stumbling over one another in their haste to delight us. I will have to go back again to those early films; maybe I am learning the language. That is not to say “A Very Long Engagement” is mindless jollity. From Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves and from a hundred films like “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Paths of Glory” and “King and Country,” we have an idea of the trench warfare that makes WWI seem like the worst kind of hell politicians and generals ever devised for their men. To be assigned to the front was essentially a sentence of death, but not quick death, more often death after a long season of cold, hunger, illness, shell-shock and the sheer horror of what you had to look at and think about. Jeunet depicts this reality as well as I have ever seen it shown on the screen, beginning with his opening shot of a severed arm hanging, Christ-like, from a shattered cross. Against these fragments he buttresses his fancies, his camera swooping like a glad bird over Paris and the countryside, his narrator telling us of Mathilde and her quest. These moments have some of the charm of the early scenes in Truffaut's
“Jules and Jim,” before the same war destroyed their happiness. Mathilde enlists a dogged old bird of a private detective (Ticky Holgado, who you may remember from the cover of Amelie's talking book). He plods about quizzing possible witnesses with the raised eyebrows of an Inspector Maigret and gradually a scenario seems to form in which Manech is not necessarily dead. As a counterpoint to Mathilde's hopeful search, Jeunet supplies another search
among the same human remains, this one carried out by a prostitute named Tina (Marion Cotillard), who figures out who was responsible for the death of her lover. Her means of revenge are so unspeakably ingenious that Edgar Allan Poe would twitch in envy. The barbarity of war and the implacable logic of revenge are softened by the voluptuous beauty of Jeunet's visuals and the magic of his storytelling. Here is a director who loves—adores!—telling
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
stories, so that we sense his voluptuous pleasure in his own tales. He must work in a kind of holy trance, falling to his knees at night to give thanks that modern special effects have made his visions possible. Some directors abuse effects. He flies on their wings. Whether Mathilde finds Manech is a question I should not answer, but reader, what do you think is the likelihood that an angel-faced girl with polio could spend an entire movie searching for her true love
and not find him? Audiences would rip up their seats. The point is not whether she finds him, but how. Can Jeunet devise their reunion in a way that is not an anticlimax after such a glorious search? What can they do, Mathilde and Manech, and what can they say? Reader, the film's closing moments are so sad and happy that we know, yes, it has to end on just that perfect note, held and held and held. Roger Ebert // December 16, 2004
45
46
The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet Details Country: France | Canada Language: English Runtime: 105min Release Date: 31 July 2015 (USA) Studio: Sony Pictures Classics Directors: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Writers: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Guillaume Laurant
The Films
Movie Info T.S. Spivet lives on a ranch in Montana with his mother who is obsessed with the morphology of beetles, his father (a cowboy born a hundred years too late) and his 14 year-old sister who dreams of becoming Miss America. T.S. is a 10 yearold prodigy with a passion for cartography and scientific inventions. One day, he receives an unexpected call from the Smithsonian museum telling him that he is the winner of the very prestigious Baird prize for his discovery of the perpetual motion machine and that he is invited to a reception in his honor where he is expected to give a speech. Without telling anyone, he sets out on a freight train across the U.S.A. to reach Washington DC. There is also Layton, twin brother of T.S., who died in an accident involving a firearm in the family's barn, which no one ever speaks of. T.S. was with him, measuring the scale of the gunshots for an experiment, and he doesn't understand what happened.
Main Cast Helena Bonham Carter as Mother Judy Davis as Ms. Jibsen Callum Keith Rennie as Father Kyle Catlett as T.S. Spivet Niamh Wilson as Gracie Jakob Davies as Layton Rick Mercer as Roy Dominique Pinon as Two Clouds Julian Richings as Ricky Richard Jutras as Mr. Stenpock Mairtin O'Carrigan as Lecturer Michel Perron as Train Station Guard Dawn Ford as Marge Harry Standjofski as Policeman Susan Glover as Secretary
Review The film follows Spivet, a ten year-old inventor from Montana who travels to Washington D.C. to accept an award from the Smithsonian Institute. “T.S. Spivet” is a messy, warm comedy about grief, family and imagination. It's also ironically about being seen and rarely heard. But while some of the film's wide emotional turns—from over-caffeinated road movie to magically-realistic melodrama and back again—are not handled with care, the film is more than the sum of its unequal parts. At the start of his adventure, T.S Spivet (new-comer Kyle Catlett) is kind of annoying. He eagerly shows viewers around his family's ranch, regaling us with stories about his emotionally distant cowboy dad (Callum Keith Rennie), and emotionally unavailable scientist mom (Helena Bonham Carter). It's not
immediately clear why Spivet's family doesn't notice when he hops a train to the other side of the country. But everything, particularly the film's frequent, elliptically edited flashbacks, snaps into stark relief once Spivet reveals why he's really running away from home: brother Layton (Jakob Davies) died in an unfortunate accident, and the Spivet has never forgiven himself for it. Everyone in the film is touched by Layton's death, even people who didn't know him since Spivet's actions are defined by his grief. But again: in the beginning, Spivet is kind of annoying, thanks in no small part to Catlett's shaky performance. Many of the jokes featured in the film's first half hour concern the difference between Spivet's whimsical surroundings, and his sophisticated, eccentric perspective.
48
The Films
Catlett consequently has to deliver a lot of voiceover narration that gives us a direct line to his unbelievably naive, but overheated imagination. Some of Catlett's dialogue is toxically quirky, like the scene where he identifies three different routes he could take to cross his family ranch— just to answer the phone. And a lot of Catlett's dialogue is too emotionally nuanced for an inexperienced child actor. I use “nuanced” in a general sense here. Catlett is most consistently well-used when he's treated as a kid-shaped cypher. He does all of his best acting in silhouette or profile, as in the scene where Spivet fantasizes about calling home while he's on the road. Spivet runs the scenario through his head, but stops right before he gets into an adjacent phone booth. We watch Spivet stare at the phone box from over Catlett's shoulder, then see Catlett beat a hasty retreat. Compare this scene, one of the film's best, with the scene where Spivet visits Layton's room just before he leaves home. Catlett's awshucks kiddy tics put a saccharine spin on an already painfully naive speech, making it impossible to take a crucial scene seriously. But while the scene's inherently hard to stomach, it's failure to connect is also partly Catlett's fault. Then again, the film's approach to semiserious melodrama is consistently allover-the-map. Spivet's family members are all, in their own way, getting over Layton. But Layton's absence is presented
in broad, uneven strokes. The film is best when capable performers like Carter and Niamh Wilson, the latter of whom plays Spivet's perpetually-exasperated teen sister, speak louder than the film's contrived scenario and affected dialogue. Likewise, “Spivet”climax puts a lot of the film's more annoying habits into perspective, but it doesn't make up for everything. Take for example the scene where a railroad-riding hobo (Jeunet regular Dominique Pignon) tells Spivet a tall tale about a sparrow and a pine tree. On the one hand, the hobo's story illustrates one of the film's main themes as it's baldly expressed in an earlier scene: science starts where imagination ends. On the other hand, Pignon's line-delivery is unintentionally stilted, presumably because English is his second language. In order to enjoy this scene, you have to be more invested in the idea of the scene than the actual scene itself. You similarly won't get much of an emotional charge out of “The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet” otherwise, but you'll probably find the effort worthwhile. Roger Ebert // August 3, 2015
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
49
03 The Festival Festival Theme Festival Schedule Festival Location
54
The Festival
Festival Theme
This film festival name is Life in Full Bloom. This name reflects Jean-Pierre Jeunet's films.We can see that exaggerated color tones and a tilt toward the surreal are quintessential elements of his filmmaking. His movie themes are also about quirky people's ordinary life. Through his movies we can see his wonderful imagination and description of details. In this film festival, we can enter into Jean-Pierre Jeunet's superb and amazing film’ world.
Featuring
Sept 6 | Delicatessen / Amelie Sept 7 | The City of Lost Chirdren / A Very Long Engagment Sept 8 | The Young and Prodigious T.S.Spivet
56
The Festival
Festival Schedule Day 01 9/6 9:00–9:30 am
Film Festival Introduction
9:30–10:30 am
Director Talk (Special Appearence By Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
10:40–11:40 am
Q&A with Jean-Pierre Jeunet
11:40–1:00 am
Lunch Break
1:30–2:00 pm
Introduction to today’s films
2:00–4:00 pm
Screening of Delicatessen
4:30–6:30 pm
Screening of Amelie
7:00–9:00 pm
Dinner
9:00–11:00 pm
Opening Ceremony Night Party
57
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Day 02
Day 03
9/7
9/8
9:30–10:30 am
Actress Special Appearence (Audrey Tautou)
9:30–10:30 am
Actress Special Appearence (Audrey Tautou)
10:40–11:40 am
Q&A with Audrey Tautou
10:40–11:40 am
Q&A with Audrey Tautou
11:40–1:00 am
Lunch Break
11:40–1:00 am
Lunch Break
1:30–2:00 pm
Introduction to today’s films
1:30–2:00 pm
Introduction to today’s films
2:00–4:00 pm
Screening of The City of Lost Children
2:00–4:00 pm
4:30–6:30 pm
A Very Long Engagement
Screening of The Young and Prodiglous T.S.Spivet
7:00–9:00 pm
Dinner
4:30–6:30 pm
Movie Club （Films Reviews)
9:00–11:00 pm
Concert Music in Jean-Pierre Jeunet films Special Appearence: Yann Tiersen Angelo Badalamenti
7:00–9:00 pm
Dinner
9:00–11:00 pm
Closing Ceremony
“I love weird and strangeand original ideas. I don’t likerealism.” —Jean-Pierre Jeunet
60
The Festival
Festival Location
Evolving menus. Sensual Environment. Champagne and Oysters on the Half Shell. Since 1999. Foreign Cinema remains a magical destination for local, national and international visitors as San Francisco’s most enduring dining centers. A San Francisco Chronicle “Top 100 Restaurant” for eighteen consecutive years, Chefs Gayle Pirie and John Clark’s collective visions weave food, wine, cocktails, film, and art gallery into one harmonious ambiance.
Foreign Cinema Reataurant 2534 Mission St, San Francisco
In recognition of distinctive service and community stewardship, September 18th was proclaimed “Foreign Cinema Day” in San Francisco. California State Senator Mark Leno presented a City Proclamation acknowledging Foreign Cinema on their unique neighborhood and city-wide leadership and standards in excellence. Chef/Owners Gayle Pirie and John Clark have received multiple James Beard Foundation nominations for the “Best Chef: Pacific” and “Most Outstanding Restaurant” awards. Foreign Cinema is a consensus pick for one of the Most Beautiful Restaurants in San Francisco. The metal portal doors, with a hint of nautical inspiration, are a direct homage to Jean Prouvé, a renowned French designer and metal worker from the 1950s, celebrated for his ability to blend the industrial with the aesthetic. “The aspect of clear glass meeting machinist metal within the nautical windows,” says Pirie, “echoed the values of the working-class Mission district population, while also embodying a renaissance of sorts, and aspirational design ideals.”
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
61
04 References
64
References
References
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000466/?ref_=tt_ov_dr https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211915/?ref_=nm_knf_i2 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101700/?ref_=nm_knf_i3 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0344510/?ref_=tt_rec_tti https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112682/?ref_=tt_rec_tt https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1981107/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1 https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/jeanpierre_jeunet https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/movies/23micmacs.html https://www.rogerebert.com/cast-and-crew/jean-pierre-jeunet https://www.bigissue.com/interviews/amelie-director-jean-pierre-jeunet http://nymag.com/nymetro/movies/features/10452/ https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/interviews/jean-pierre-jeunet-alien-resurrection-amelie https://contemplatrix.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/the-city-of-lost-children/ http://www.jpjeunet.com/GB/ https://www.amazon.com/Amelie-Audrey-Tautou/dp/B0000640VO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Pierre_Jeunet https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_young_and_prodigious_ts_spivet https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/amelie https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/city_of_lost_children https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/delicatessen https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_very_long_engagement_2004
The Films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Type Roboto Abril Display Berlingske Serif Open Sans Images unsplash Adobe Stock Google Deisgn Yajie (Penny) Xu Coures GR 612 / Integrated Communications Instructor Wimmer, Hunter
65
Foreign Cinema Restaurant 2534 Mission St, San Francisco www.lifeinfullbloom.info