Micmacs (a film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet)

Just saw this today - the latest film from the director of such amazingly visual films as Amelie, the City of Lost Children, and Delicatessen. The basic idea is that a young man named Bazil loses his father to a landmine and is accidentally shot in the head during a gunfight passing the video rental shop where he works. The bullet lodges in his head and may kill him at any time. It also costs him his home, his job, and all his belongings. Homeless and busking for cash, he is introduced to a strange makeshift family living under a junkyard. Then he discovers the makers of the bullet in his head and the landmine that killed his father (housed directly opposite each other) and from there his course is set. The rest of the movie entails his elaborate and improbable plans to avenge himself on both, assisted by his new friends.

Like most all of Jeunet’s films, it’s full of delightful flights of fancy and strange contraptions, visual and auditory wonderments abound. The plot…well, it’s less strong, but it’s not really the main thing here. And you may recognize a few Jeunet regulars among the cast.

I, for one, recommend it.

You know a movie is gonna be good when in the first 5 minutes the main character is lip-synching Bogart & Bacall dubbed in French.

This is definitely on my watch list, but who knows if any cinema around here will get it? It’s not on the coming-soon list of either of the theaters that actually get foreign films…

If only I had deeper pockets. There’s an old four-screen theater around here that’s been out of business for years. I’d love to buy it and fix it up. There’s a dearth of quality foreign cinema, and especially repertory cinema (foreign and domestic), 'round these parts. But the market probably wouldn’t support it.

It’s been out on dvd for a while now so you don’t have to rely on your local theatres.

It just opened here in the States at the end of May. Not out on DVD here yet. And it doesn’t hit DVD in Britain until tomorrow.

Where are you, anyway, doc?

In Toronto. We just rented it on Friday. Sadly I was exhausted as I skipped work to go kite boarding and passed out thirty minutes into the movie. My wife loved it though.

Has it opened wide yet?

It was New York/LA/SF only for a while.

Well, I don’t live in any of the above places, so it’s gone at least a bit wider than that. (I saw it in Minneapolis.)

That’s weird. It’s not on Amazon.ca, either, or any of the other Canadian shops I’ve checked… Must be an incredibly limited DVD release, or else your rental shop is dealing in bootlegs.

It starts at Cinema du Parc in Montreal this Friday, so I guess I could see about heading on up there for the day. Maybe Saturday. Take a bus up, so I don’t have to deal with parking.

Not bootleg just French.

Heck yeah! It’s finally coming to my area, on Friday.

Just rented this on Blu. Beautifully, beautifully shot.

It’s not Amelie, but that’s not a problem, because Amelie was perfect. You simply can’t expect another Jeunet film to reach that level of quality.

That said, it’s really pretty darn good.

It still isn’t here yet. :(

I’m not sure why I didn’t post in this thread after I first saw the movie, but apparently I didn’t.

After one viewing, this is my least favorite Jeunet movie. I might even go so far as to say that I didn’t like it much. For whatever reason, I was more inclined to find the cast grating rather than endearing this time around (particularly Pinon). Some of the effects and visual choices (mostly around the canon sequence) weren’t to my liking either, which is especially disappointing.

I do think it’s really funny, though, how the movie is exactly what you expect when someone says, “Jean Pierre Jeunet is making a heist movie.” It’s like the action shootout in The Life Aquatic.

I adore his films and I loved this too. I love the vibrant colours he uses, and the really fucking bizarre looking people. He makes beautiful films that have a soul, which is something few other writer-directors are able to accomplish.

My wife and I watched it yesterday and we both loved it.

My favourite Jeunet movie remains Delicatessen. But this brings the same visual extravagance to a (kinda) simple and charming story.

Watching the movie subtitled in English, you’ll get the visuals and a large part of the charm. The language used in this movie is beautiful though (with a French title that’s not as non-sensical as it sounds and one of the characters making really clever and funny use of unending strings of French idioms). That being said, my English speaking wife enjoyed it a lot based on the visual and subtitles. So don’t be put off.

Wendelius

Oooh, it’s finally here. I forgot to check! I’m going on Tuesday, or maybe tonight…

I do wonder about the title, though. Glad to hear the meaning will be revealed.

Around here, the Micmacs (or, rather, Mi’kmaq) are a native tribe inhabiting the Maritime Provinces of Canada. They were part of the Wabanaki Confederacy, an alliance comprising the major native tribes of New England and the Maritimes.

In French, a micmac is a complex and often confusing situation. A synonym is imbroglio, which I think is also sometimes used in English.

As for, “à tire larigot”, it’s an antiquated expression that means a lot of, or too much of.

So it’s not so much about the meaning being revealed as the full title actually describing the movie better than it might seem to non French speakers.

I’ll be curious to hear what you thought about it. Enjoy!

Wendelius

Well, that makes much more sense than it having anything to do with a group of First Nations people.

Damn it, I missed it. It was only in town for a week and I didn’t have time to get to the theater. :(