Director/ Producer: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Writer: Guillaume Laurant, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
DVD and Blu-ray release date: June 21 2010
Studio: E1 Entertainment
Number of discs: 1
Price: From £10.99
Running Time: 101 mins
Certificate: 12
Starring: Dany Boon, Dominique Pinon, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Yolande Moreau, Michel Cremades, Julie Ferrier, Omar Sy, Marie-Julie Baup
Jean-Pierre Jeunet (A Very Long Engagement, Amelie, The City of Lost Children, Delicatessen) returns with another quirky, surreal and thoroughly enchanting offering.
Bazil (Dany Boon) is orphaned when his father is blown up by a mine he is disarming and his mother has a break down. He goes to live with strict nuns, eventually running away by hiding in a baker’s van. Years later, working in Matador video he is shot in the head accidentally when two people sloppily wage war against each other in the street outside.
Released form hospital with a bullet permanently lodged in his skull, Bazil’s apartment and job have been given away and most of his possessions stolen. His video shop replacement gives him one of the bullets from the gun he was shot with she finds in the gutter.
Jobless Bazil stands behind a pillar a busker stands in front of mouthing her performance, raising some money. He is living on the beach, too ashamed to take the handout food given to the poor and pitifully washing himself when the street cleaner comes.
When he meets Slammer (Jean-Pierre Marielle), he tells Bazil: “I know a family who will adopt you,” and Bazil’s life changes. Living inside a giant sculptured dome of rubbish, disguised by its outer case of junk and christened “Tire Larigot” is his new family – a group of quirky outsiders, all boasting unusual talents, and lending their skills to their home-grown factory of recycled junk, salvaged from skips.
Happy with his new life, one day by chance Bazil sees the same symbols on the bullet that struck him and the mine that killed his father reflected in a puddle. Looking up he sees the facing offices of two giant armaments headquarters and has an epiphany.
With the help of his new oddball family and “salvaged gear” a series of intricate carefully orchestrated plans are put into action, playing the armaments kings off against each other until they sabotage each other’s businesses and the gang publicly humiliate and expose the two men for what they are.
Micmacs A Tire-Larigot translates as “lots of suspect activities” which is certainly what Jeunet gives us in this delightfully absurd slapstick gem. As always, he creates a visually surreal but stunning world and fascinating characters. Tambouille, also known as Mama Chow (Yolande Moreau), is reminiscent of Ma Larkin, mischievous and playful yet also motherly while Petit Pierre (Michel Crémadès), the gadget-maker is the group’s father figure. La Môme Caoutchouc (Julie Ferrier), also called Elastic Girl is a contortionists who will “bend over backwards” to help her friends. Remington (Omar Sy) is an ethnographer who types up speeches and does impersonations. Fracasse (Dominique Pinon – Amelie, City of Lost Children, Delicatessen) is a world record-holding human cannonball. The youngest gang member, Calculette’s (Marie-Julie Baup) father was a surveyor resulting in her ability to instantly size up the measurements of anyone or anything merely from a glance.
Characteristically, Jeunet allows us into Bazil’s (Dany Boon) head to see the inner-workings of this endearing lead. Bazil imagines a football pitch with hidden mines under it, contemplates if zebras are black or white and observes that chosen destinations always lie in the map’s folds.
Much of the film is highly stylised with exaggeration, from the opening credits at the start mimicking the black and white films Bazil loves and is able to mouth along to word for word to the typical character over reactions almost in the style of the commedia dell’arte – the full orchestra who appear and start to play behind Bazil as he notices the building where the armaments are made.
The script is peppered with witty light-hearted clever word-play showing Micmacs doesn’t take itself too seriously: “I have something in mind that concerns him,” says Bazil, referring to François Marconi, one of the weapons manufacturers. “I’m not into contortionists – my mum always told me to avoid twisted girls,” Bazil jokingly confides to La Môme Caoutchouc.
Combining a serious moral message, large dollops of charm, subtle humour, character resolution and romance, Micmacs is testimony to Jeunet’s continued lively imagination and vision.
****
Special Features:
Interview with Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet
