Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Delicatessen (1991)

ByChristian Sauvé 2019-12-202023-03-19 Movie Review

(Criterion Streaming, December 2019) To fans of writer-director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s later movies, his debut feature Delicatessen is an early but very familiar demonstration of his unique talents. From the get-go, it’s obvious that the visual polish of the story will be astonishing—it not only takes place in a fantastical setting, but Jeunet’s predilection for unpredictable directing—hopping from closeups to slow revelations of the scene, expressionistic depictions and visual jokes. There is also, crucially, a refusal to stick to an expected tone. For a movie whose plot is based on accepted cannibalism, Delicatessen is far funnier, far more sentimental, and quite a bit less repulsive as one would expect. Jeunet doesn’t forget who’s the hero to cheer for and who’s the villain to hiss at, and with Dominique Pinon playing an earnest young man moving into an apartment building where new guests are often butchered and sold to other tenants, we have a moral centre to cheer for. It also helps that Marie-Laure Dougnac couldn’t possibly be cuter as the young woman who ends up taking a liking to the hero. Strange visuals are backed by an equally important attention paid to the soundscape of the film. From the first twenty minutes, two primarily sound-driven sequences affirm that this is the kind of movie that benefits from a keen ear. The result is weird, highly enjoyable, often spectacular. Delicatessen has aged admirably well, or perhaps not at all—the advantage of Jeunet’s off-beat but polished approach is it stands out of time, feeling as fresh in 1991 as in 2019. It’s quite a movie, and it’s almost essential viewing to anyone with a yearning for a complete audio-visual movie experience.

Movie Review

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013)

ByChristian Sauvé 2016-04-302017-03-09 Movie Review

(On Cable TV, April 2016) Any new Jean-Pierre Jeunet film is an occasion to be happy, even when they don’t quite work. While The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet doesn’t approach Jeunet’s finest films (the best of which remains Amélie), it still packs more visual inventiveness than any other three movies by other directors. The story is suitably eccentric, as the youngest offspring of a grieving western-USA family invents a perpetual motion machine (no points for hard science here) and sets out alone on a cross-country trip to deliver a speech in Washington. Shot in English in North America, this still feels like a very Jeunet film, marrying a quasi-retro vision of the world with frequent visual effects for a result that often tries for charm. For such a polished film, The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet has flown under the radar for a long time and holds a few surprises: Canadian viewers will be surprised to see Rick Mercer pop us as a talk-show host in a film that also features Helena Bonham Carter (looking really good), and Jeunet stalwart Dominique Pinon. For all its qualities, though, The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet doesn’t quite work as well as it should. Making grief a dominant emotion of the film undercuts some of its more whimsical moments, reminding us at odd times that there’s a big tragedy lurking under the quirkiness. It’s not easy to just sit back and enjoy the film, taking away what’s usually one of Jeunet’s strengths. Nonetheless, it’s time well-spent—the inventiveness of the film papers over some rougher moments, and any Jeunet film is enough to brighten a day.

Movie Review

Mic Macs à tire-larigot [Micmacs] (2009)

ByChristian Sauvé 2010-08-252023-04-04 Movie Review

(In-flight, August 2010) One of the advantages of watching a film by a visual stylist is that there’s always something to enjoy even if the story itself isn’t that interesting. So it is that Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs is at the same time a typical Jeunet production (quirky characters, ever-shifting visual presentation, elaborate Rube-Goldenesque details, intricate cinematographic polish, etc.) and yet far short of career-best Amélie. There just isn’t enough universally-compelling material in here to keep things interesting, especially when it feels so one-sided in favour of its protagonists. The anti-arms-trade message is heartfelt, but becomes too-obvious at its worst. Still, it’s entertaining to watch, in no small part due to the escalating set-pieces in which events are set in motion with grandiose consequences. It flies past smoothly and its visual audacity is terrific. There are a few laughs, but much of the film is just a joy to watch. A word of warning for francophones watching the film’s original sound-track, though: Micmacs is so deeply set in Parisian argot that non-Parisians may find it more useful to turn on the English sub-title track to understand some of the dialogue.

Movie Review

Alien: Resurrection (1997)

ByChristian Sauvé 1997-11-012023-04-03 Movie Review

(In theaters, November 1997) Given the near-classical status of the two first movies of the Alien series and the widespread loathing of the third segment, it won’t be a surprise if chapter 4 fits somewhere between those opposites. More of a film version of the Dark Horse comics than a satisfying extension of the series, Alien 4 manages to be relatively entertaining, but not enough to be fully liked. The biggest flaw of the movie is that it introduces a few new concepts to the saga, but does so in typical stupid Hollywood action movie fashion (where a character can use two right-angle ricochets to hit a villain through a helmet, and other assorted physically impossible antics). Oh, and the ending sucks… even though “sucks” here is as much a statement of fact than opinion.

(Second viewing, On DVD, May 2005) When discussing the flaws of the Alien series, most will spend their time rehabilitating Alien 3. I’d rather champion this film, an uneven and disappointing entry that nevertheless contains ten time the action, interest and humour of the third entry. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet would go on to write and direct Amelie, but his quirky sense of humour and his impeccable eye for style is already on full display here, as he plays around with the Alien mythology, brings it further in the future and generally has a good time. There are a number of terrific visuals in the film, and a few good dialogue scenes. It’s a shame, then, that the third act is so atrocious, that the action scenes are so improbable, that the humour isn’t a bit more reigned in or that Sigourney Weaver was allowed to have such an influence on the production. I was never able to shake the odd feeling that this was a live-action adaptation of a Dark Horse comics, but no matter; I still find something worthwhile in this film, warts and all. The “Alien Quadrilogy” box-set special edition includes a fair number of supplemental material, including a “special edition” with better bookends and a number of added dialogue lines. The documentary featurettes are a bit disappointing, failing to offer a complete overview of the film production. A fair audio commentary completes the material.