Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival Catalog

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet The Film Festival Guide

“I want to modify the reality, so I feel like a painter”.

— Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Date:

April 17th–20th, 2021 (The 30th annixaversary of Jean-Pierre Jeunet‘s first movie coming out.)

Location:

Alliance Française de San Francisco 1345 Bush Street, San Francisco, CA (An non-profit organization that works on promote knowledge and appreciation of the French cultures.)

Some Things to Know Before Your Departure...

Kaleidoscope of Dreams is a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film festival, which is a journey through the romantic and fantastic world that he has created. This film festival will be held at the Alliance Française de San Francisco on April 17-20, 2021, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Jean-Pierre Jeunet‘s first feature film coming out.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s films are humorous, romantic, fantastic, but also hazy, bittersweet, and sad. The director is good at setting off the inner world of the characters and the social reality through his unique cinematography, high contrast color schemes, and realistic settings. He can closely link his personal creative ideas with elements of real-life so it resonates with viewers, making the essence of the films vivid. In his movies, marginalized characters who are in adversity are still very optimistic and maintain the good qualities of human nature. They are like a gentle light in a dark environment, which fills the audience with warmth and hope.

Contents

01

02

The Director

The Films

Biography

Delicatessen

Filmography

The City of Lost Children

Awards & Recognition

AmĂŠlie

Interview

A Very Long Engagement Micmacs The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet

03

04

The Festival

References

The Theme Schedule Location Special Events

01

The Director

Biography Filmography Awards & Recognition An Interview

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Biography BORN:

September 3, 1953 PLACE OF BIRTH:

Roanne, Loire, French Fourth Republic OCCUPATION:

Film Director, Screen Writer, Film Producer, Television Director

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

YEARS ACTIVE: 1978–present

6

Jean-Pierre Jeunet was born in Roanne,

and the French New Wave. Jeunet and

France. He bought his first camera at the

Caro’s first feature film was Delicatessen

age of 17 and made short films while

(1991), a melancholy comedy set in a

studying animation at Cinémation Stu-

famine-plagued post-apocalyptic world,

dios. He befriended Marc Caro, a designer

in which an apartment building above a

and comic book artist who became his

delicatessen is ruled by a butcher who kills

longtime collaborator and co-director. They

people in order to feed his tenants. They

met at an animation festival in Annecy

next made The City of Lost Children

in the 1970s. Together, Jeunet and Caro

(1995), a dark, multi-layered fantasy film

directed award-winning animations. Their

about a mad scientist who steals children’s

first live action film was The Bunker of

dreams so that he can live indefinitely.

the Last Gunshots (1981), a short film

The success of The City of Lost Children

about soldiers in a bleak futuristic world.

led to an invitation to direct the fourth

Jeunet also directed numerous advertise-

film in the Alien series, Alien Resurrection

ments and music videos, such as Jean

(1997). This is where Jeunet and Caro

Michel Jarre’s Zoolook (together with

ended up going their separate ways

Caro). Jeunet’s films often resonate with

as Jeunet believed this to be an amazing

the late twentieth century French film

opportunity and Caro was not interested

movement, cinéma du look, and allude to

in a film that lacked creative control

themes and aesthetics involving German expressionism, French poetic realism,

CHAPTER 1: The Director

working on a big-budget Hollywood

chronicled a woman’s search for her miss-

movie. Caro ended up assisting for a few

ing lover after World War I. In 2009, he

weeks, with costumes and set design

released Micmacs which is about a man and his friends who come up with an

solo career in illustration and computer

intricate and original plan to destroy two

graphics. Jeunet directed Amélie (2001),

big weapons manufacturers. Jeunet

the story of a woman who takes pleasure

has also directed numerous commercials

in doing good deeds but has trouble

including a 2’25” film for Chanel N° 5

finding love herself, which starred Audrey

featuring his frequent collaborator

Tautou. Amélie was a huge critical and

Audrey Tautou. In 2013, Jeunet released

commercial success worldwide and was

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet an

nominated for several Academy Awards.

adaptation of Reif Larsen’s book: The

For his work on the film, Jeunet won a

Selected Works of T.S. Spivet that starred

European Film Award for Best Director.

Kyle Catlett. Since his last release, Jeunet

In 2004, Jeunet released A Very Long

has tried to get other projects funded

Engagement, an adaptation of the novel

but has found it impossible to find investors

by Sébastien Japrisot. The film, starring

willing to take a risk on his quirky films.

Audrey Tautou and Jodie Foster,

He stated in 2019 that he may go to Netflix “as a last resort.”

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

but afterwards, decided to work on a

7

CHAPTER 1: The Director

FILM THEMES AND TRADE MARKS

He can closely link his personal creative

cessful French directors of the modern

ideas with elements of real life, reflect

era. His distinctive, whimsical style that

social reality and resonate with viewers,

can be described as a throwback to cine-

making the essence of the film vividly.

matic impressionism renders his oeuvre

In his movie, characters who are in adver-

instantly recognizable. Of the several

sity are still very optimistic and maintain

unique trademarks which characterize his

a good quality of human nature. They

films—including a focus on objects, the

are like a gentle light in a dark environment,

creation of quirky characters and the

which fills the audience with warmth and

expression of a free, childlike imagination.

hope. Jeunet’s films often resonate with

Jeunet is especially known for his love

the late twentieth century French film

of wide camera angles and elaborate crane

movement, cinéma du look, and allude to

movements which allow him to portray

themes and aesthetics involving German

with full force, the profound inner conflicts

expressionism, French poetic realism,

faced by his characters. Most of Jeunet’s

and the French New Wave. His films often

films are full of humor, hope, romance,

lack a sense of realism; the vivid sense

and fantasy. The director is good at setting

of surrealism which pervades his films is

off the inner world of movie characters

created by his extensive use of color

through his unique cinematography,

grading and exaggerated color tones,

high-contrast color schemes, and realistic

riotously lighting up the screen in a hyp-

living scenes.

notic fireworks display of iridescence.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet with Audrey Tautou while filming A Very Long Engagement in 2004.

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

Jean-Pierre Jeunet is one of the most suc-

9

I like looking back at people’s faces in the dark. I like noticing details that no one else sees. — Jean-Pierre Jeunet

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Filmography

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

1989–1997

12

1989

Foutaises

Director

Writer

1991

Delicatessen

Director

Writer

1995

The City of Lost Children

Director

Writer

1997

Alien Resurrection

Director

Editor

CHAPTER 1: The Director

2001–2020 Amélie

Director

Writer

2004

Madame Édouard

Technical Advisor

A Very Long Engagement

Director

Writer

Producer

2009

Micmacs

Director

Writer

Producer

2013

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet

Director

Writer

Producer

2020

Bigbug

Director

Writer

Producer

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

2001

13

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Awards & Recognition Showing 36 wins and 24 nominations

Academy Awards, USA 2002

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Nominee

Best Writing, Screenplay Written

(Oscar)

Directly for the Screen

Nominee

Best Film not in the English Language

BAFTA Awards 2005

Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)

(BAFTA Film Award)

2002

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Nominee

Best Screenplay—Original

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

(BAFTA Film Award)

16

2002

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Nominee

David Lean Award for Direction

2002

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Nominee

Best Film not in the English Language

(BAFTA Film Award)

1993

Delicatessen (1991)

Nominee (BAFTA Film Award)

Best Film not in the English Language

CHAPTER 1: The Director

Jean-Pierre Jeunet attends the International 3D & Advanced Imaging Society’s 6th Annual Creative Arts Awards.

Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez

3D Creative Arts Awards 2015

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

Winner

Harold Lloyd Award

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA 1998

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Nominee

Best Director

(Saturn Award)

Amanda Awards, Norway 2002

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Nominee

Best Foreign Feature Film

American Screenwriters Association, USA 2002

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Nominee

Discover Screenwriting Award

Nominee

Best Foreign Film

Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards 2003

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

(Silver Condor)

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

(Amanda)

17

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

French directors, screenwriters Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet receive the Best Debut Award and the Best Writing Award for their movie Delicatessen, during the 17th Cesar Awards ceremony.

Photo by Eric Robert/Sygma

Association of Polish Filmmakers Critics Awards 2001

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Best Foreign Film

(Honorable Mention)

Association of Polish Filmmakers Critics Awards 2001

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Nominee

Best Director

(ACCA)

2001

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Nominee

Best Original Screenplay

(ACCA)

Canberra Short Film Festival

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

2001

18

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Audience Award

Nominee

Palme d’Or

Cannes Film Festival 1995

La cité des enfants perdus (1995)

CHAPTER 1: The Director

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet poses next to a movie poster March 22, 2002 in Beverly Hills, CA. Juenets film “Amelie” is the nomination from France for best foreign language film at the 74th Annual Academy Awards to be held March 24, 2002 in Hollywood, CA. Photo by Vince Bucci

Chicago International Film Festival 2001

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Audience Choice Award

(ACCA)

1991

Delicatessen (1991)

Winner

Best Feature

(ACCA)

Cinéfest Sudbury 2001

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Audience Award

Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival Foutaises (1989)

Winner

National Competition

(Audience Award)

1990

Foutaises (1989)

Winner

National Competition

(Press Award)

1991

Foutaises (1989)

Winner (Jacques Tati Award)

For its humor.

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

1990

19

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Czech Lions 2002

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Best Foreign Language Film

(Czech Lion)

César Awards, France 2005

Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)

Nominee

Best Film

(César)

2005

Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)

Nominee

Best Director

(César)

2005

Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)

Nominee

Best Screenplay, Original or Adaptation

(César)

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

2002

20

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Best Director

(César)

2002

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Best Film

(César)

2002

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Nominee (César)

Best Screenplay, Original or Adaptation

CHAPTER 1: The Director

Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro at an event for Delicatessen (1991)

César Awards, France 1992

Delicatessen (1991)

Winner

Best First Work

(César)

1992

Delicatessen (1991)

Winner

Best Screenplay, Original or Adaptation

(César)

1991

Foutaises (1989)

Winner

Best Short Film—Fiction

(César)

1981

Foutaises (1989)

Winner

Best Short Film—Animation

(César)

2003

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Best Non-American Film

(Robert)

David di Donatello Awards 2002

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Nominee (David)

Best Foreign Film (Miglior Film Straniero)

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

Danish Film Awards (Robert)

21

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Jean-Pierre Jeunet during Cesar Awards Ceremony 2002—Press Room at Chatelet Theater in Paris, France.

Photo by Tony Barson

Denver International Film Festival 2001

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Best New Feature-Length Fiction Film

(People’s Choice Award)

DVD Exclusive Awards 2001

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Nominee

Original Retrospective Documentary

(DVD Premiere Award)

Edgar Allan Poe Awards 2005

Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)

Winner

Best Motion Picture Screenplay

(DVD Premiere Award)

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

Edinburgh International Film Festival

24

2001

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Audience Award

Nominee

Independent Spirit Award

Empire Awards, UK 2002

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

CHAPTER 1: The Director

Jean-Pierre Jeunet accepts the award for Best Foreign Film for “Amelie,” at the 2002 ifp/west Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, CA. Photo credit should read LUCY NICHOLSON

European Film Awards 2005

Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)

Nominee

Best European Director

(EFA People’s Choice Award)

2001

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Best European Director

(European Film Award)

2001

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Best European Director

(EFA People’s Choice Award)

1991

Delicatessen (1991)

Nominee

Young European Film of the Year

(European Film Award)

1992

Delicatessen (1991)

Winner

Best Film

(Audience Jury Award)

1992

Delicatessen (1991)

Winner (International Fantasy Film Award)

Best Film

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

Fantasporto

25

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

“A Very Long Engagement” Tokyo Photocall Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director, and Gaspard Ulliel with Cesars Trophy Photo by Jun Sato

French Syndicate of Cinema Critics 2002

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Best Film

(Critics Award)

Gold Derby Awards 2010

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Nominee

Original Screenplay of the Decade

(Gold Derby Award)

Golden Eagle Awards, Russia 2003

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Best Foreign Film

(Golden Eagle)

Goya Awards

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

2002

26

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Best European Film

(Goya)

Guild of German Art House Cinemas 2002

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Foreign Film

(Guild Film Award—Gold)

1993

Delicatessen (1991)

Winner (Guild Film Award—Silver)

Foreign Film

CHAPTER 1: The Director

Jean-Pierre Jeunet shows the trophy dedicated to his director of photography Thomas Hardmeir for Jeunet’s movie “The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet” during the 19th Lumieres awards ceremony on January 20, 2014 at the Pierre Cardin space in Paris.

Photo credit should read BERTRAND GUAY

International Online Cinema Awards (INOCA) 2005

Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)

Winner

Best Non-English Language Film

(INOCA)

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2001

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Winner

Crystal Globe

Winner

Best Director

Lumiere Awards, France 2005

Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)

(Lumiere Award)

Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)

Winner

Best Film

(Lumiere Award)

2002

Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)

Winner

Best Screenplay

(Lumiere Award)

Norwegian International Film Festival 2002

Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)

Winner (Silver Clod)

Best Foreign Film of the Year

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

2002

27

I’ve never made any concessions, so I am 100% responsible for my films. This makes me feel very proud. — Jean-Pierre Jeunet

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

An Interview A CHAT WITH JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET

By Simon Braund // January 22, 2016

Hammer To Nail

Having established himself as the cuddly

as a young Parisian woman who gets

enfant terrible of French art house with

her kicks doing small deeds of anonymous

1991’s sumptuously surreal, blackly comic

kindness for strangers. Amélie was a

tale of mystery meat and post-apocalyptic

huge critical and commercial success,

high-rise living Delicatessen, Jean-Pierre

enabling Jeunet to pursue a long-gestating

Jeunet’s career took some interesting

dream project, 2004’s sweeping, albeit

turns.1995’s phantasmagorical fairytale

slightly less whimsical, slightly less

The City Of Lost Children was a similarly

charming, A Very Long Engagement, again

bizarre and inventive outing (co-written

with Tatou, this time as a young woman

and directed, like Delicatessen, with col-

searching for her MIA fiancee in the

laborator Marc Caro), but after that film’s

aftermath of WWI.

relatively poor box office he veered drastically off the Euro-indie reservation, parting ways with Caro and taking the

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

helm of a Hollywood blockbuster—1997’s

30

Alien: Resurrection chapter four of the sci-fi saga that wouldn’t die.

Returning to France—again without

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

Caro — he then astounded fans with the

Film Festival, Jeunet has some more

whimsical and excessively charming

surprises up his sleeve— including a

Amélie, starring an adorable Audrey Tatou

long-overdue reunion with Caro.

CHAPTER 1: The Director

Hammer to Nail: Your career as a film-

read poetry by Jacques Prévert (screen-

maker really began when you met Marc

writer of Les Enfants du Paradise). I made

Caro, are you planning to work with

all the animals in the film with stuff found

him again?

in nature.

J-PJ: 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.

Is it stop-motion?

J-PJ: 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

J-PJ: 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 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

photographs and he animates them (on

have now.

Jeunet’s phone are pictures of beetles,

How do you place Alien: Resurrection

in 1978 and we started to speak. He was

frogs and phone are pictures of beetles,

in your body of work? Do you see it as

making a small fanzine about animation,

frogs and other tiny animals, intricately

something of an anomaly?

so we decided to make a short film, The

constructed from found objects). I have sixty of them. I’ll probably just show it on

J-PJ: Yeah, but they hired me for who

Escape (L’evasion), a stop-motion like Tim Burton. Right now I’m making another

my website, maybe on French TV. I do it

animation film.

for the pleasure (laughs).

special ideas and we think it’s less risky

A feature?

Can you talk a little about your experi-

to take a risk with you.”

J-PJ: . All the actors who worked for me,

ence on Alien: Resurrection, your one

If it wasn’t the horrible experience every-

Audrey Tatou, Mathieu Kassovitz, they all

and only Hollywood movie and a million

one imagines it was for you, why have

miles from animated insects?

you not made a movie in Hollywood

I am. They loved City Of Lost Children, they told me that. The said, ‘We love your

since then?

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

Why did you and Caro hit it off creatively?

J-PJ: We were at a festival for animation

31

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

J-PJ: I lost confidence in America because

you know him.’ He saw the film finished

I lost so much freedom; that’s the reason

and he said, ‘No no, I won’t touch a

before Delicatessen, but it was too expen-

I prefer to make my films in France.

frame.’ Then of course he brought

sive. So we were looking for an original

The last one, [The Young And Prodigious]

the pressure.

T. S. Spivet was a co-production between France and Canada to avoid America.

But in the end, Gaumont sold the film to Harvey Weinstein and he fucked me.

J-PJ: Never.

morning with the chung, chung noise of the hachoir, the chopper. That was the beginning of the idea. And at the time we wanted to put everything we loved into

the film, he kept the film for two years,

before Amélie.

a film, so there are a lot of references—

then he released it with no advertising,

J-PJ: On Delicatessen. He sent [Marc

the pictures of Robert Doisneau (pioneering

nothing. It was a disaster.

Caro and I] a list of cuts; he wanted to cut

photojournalist and contemporary of

So he buried it because you wouldn’t re-cut it to his specifications?

J-PJ: Exactly. I don’t negotiate with terrorists.

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

any time soon.

idea but cheaper. At the time I was living above a butcher shop and I woke up every

But you had worked with him even

Of course! Because I refused to re-edit

32

So you won’t be working with him again

J-PJ: We wrote City Of Lost Children

everything on Delicatessen! We were

Henri Cartier-Bresson), the cartoons

very patient and we said, ‘We have

of Tex Avery, Buster Keaton; everything.

another idea. You cut our names from the

Everything we loved, it’s in the film.

credits.’I was expecting to find my dog’s

You worked with him on Amélie,

head cut off on my bed (laughs). This

didn’t you?

man is…he doesn’t respect the filmmaker.”

J-PJ: Yes, but this time it was Gaumont who sold the film. I said, ‘Be careful,

It says in the credits ‘Presented by Terry Gilliam.’ What’s the story there?

J-PJ: Yeah, he was also the distributor of

Delicatessen was yours and Marc Caro’s

City Of Lost Children. I did a long interview

first feature. Where did the idea for that

with him, so we know each otherI don’t

originate?

want to say we’re friends, but he came to my set for Alien: Resurrection and he

The Director

CHAPTER 1: The Director

said, ‘You think you’re okay now. Wait for

You followed up City Of Lost Children

J-PJ: It’s drawn from my experiences, my

the editing.’ But it was okay.

with Amélie.

stories, my anecdotes, my collection of

You made a pilot for Amazon with Diego

J-PJ: That was after Alien: Resurrection.

Luna, Casanova.

Of course. But your next independent

J-PJ: Yes. It is beautiful. The DP is nom-

project was Amélie, a huge change in

inated for something, I don’t know. We

direction for you—still slightly surreal but

memories and souvenirs. It’s reality but with something different, because I don’t like the real realism. For me as a director that’s not interesting to do.

nowhere near as surreal as City Of Lost

Given that it was drawn from your per-

Liaisons and Barry Lyndon, those were

Children or Delicatessen. It was also the

sonal memories and anecdotes, did its

our references. Beautiful. I don’t know

first feature you’d done without Marc Caro.

enormous success come as a surprise?

what happened. No, actually I do. They

J-PJ: The films I did with Marc Caro, we

J-PJ: Of course! When i was writing it

asked the show runner to write six epi-

had to have a common world. And Amélie

I was thinking, Who wants to see this

sodes to see if they want to make another

was absolutely not the cup of tea of Marc

bullshit? But you never know. At the end

season. And now we know we need to

Caro. After City Of Lost Children we

of the filming we could feel something

see more than one episode to decide if

needed to separate, we both needed to

special, something in the air, a buzz. And

we want to see a series.

make something more personal We are

I saw everything; I had a premonition.

not brothers like the Coens, and we are

After Delicatessen, I visited the set of

Would you like to work in TV? J-PJ: 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

not lovers! We did an interview in San

Hook, Steven Spielberg’s movie. I don’t

Francisco and they were very disappoint-

want to say I heard a voice because I

ed that we were not lovers.

don’t believe in that bullshit, but I had the

to shoot. Nine days and three million,

In what sense was Amélie personal

it’s not for me. No thank you (laughs).

for you?

feeling. And when they called me for Alien: Resurrection, I thought, I was right.

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

made something a little bit like Dangerous

35

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Audiences connected with Amélie on

Emily Watson is a wonderful actress, but

a very rare level level; it really touched

it’s hard to imagine anyone but Audrey

right now?

people’s lives. How did that feel?

Tatou in the role.

J-PJ: Yes. I’m working on something a little bit like Amélie but about sex.

J-PJ: It’s the dream of any director, of

J-PJ: I can. It would have been different,

any creator. It made a lot of people very

she would have been more, how do you

jealous (laughs). It’s difficult to understand,

say, like Bridgett Jones. Audrey gave

but there is something about generosity;

something so fresh. You can see her screen

Amélie doesn’t want anything in return

test on the DVD. After five seconds, I knew.

for the things she does for people and

I didn’t have to help her performance, it

I think that’s one of its secrets. It speaks

was just there. If some times we discussed

about the small pleasures of life, and it

something, she was always right.

probably came out at the perfect time. It was directly after September 11 in the USA. Maybe today it would not be such a

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

success, you never know.

36

And, again, it turned out as the film you wanted to make?

J-PJ: Yeah, of course. Because I had a feeling that I died in another life in the

How much of its success do you put

First World War. I’ve met a lot of people

down to Audrey Tatou?

who have had the same feeling. When

J-PJ: Well, at first I wanted Emily Watson,

I was in the trench, the first day on set,

but at the last minute she dropped out

I put on a helmet and I thought, Oh my

for personal reasons. Then I found

god, I know it.

Audrey Tatou, it was written; it was fate.

Are you working on another feature

Wow. Anything else you can tell us about that? Do you have a title yet?

J-PJ: 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.

It’s always more interesting and more difficult to make something positive than negative. To be negative is very easy. ­— Jean-Pierre Jeunet

02

The Films

Delicatessen The City of Lost Children AmĂŠlie A Very Long Engagement Micmacs The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Delicatessen 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 Edith Ker as Grandmother Rufus as Robert Kube Jacques Mathou as Roger Howard Vernon as Frog Man

PLOT SUMMARY

Marc Caro as Fox

In a dilapidated apartment building in a post-apocalyptic France, food is in short supply and grain is used as currency.

On the ground floor is a butcher’s Country:

shop, run by the landlord, Clapet, who

France

posts job opportunities in the Hard Times

Language: French

as a cheap source of meat to sell to his tenants. Following the murder of the last

April 17, 1991 (France)

worker, unemployed circus clown Louison

Running Time:

applies for the vacant position. During

Directed By: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet Kaleidoscope of Dreams

building, whom he murders and butchers

Release Date:

99 minutes

42

paper as means to lure victims to the

his routine maintenance, he befriends Clapet’s daughter, Julie, a relationship which slowly blossoms into romance. Louison proves to be a superb worker with a

Pruduced By:

spectacular trick knife and the butcher is

Claudie Ossard

reluctant to kill him too quickly. During

Story By: Gilles Adrien, Jean-Pierre Jeunet

this time several of the tenants fall under Louison’s boyish charms, worrying others who are more anxious for their own

CHAPTER 2: The Films

FIGURE: Above: Louison (Dominique Pinon) Bottom: Clapet (Marie-Laure Dougnac Jean-Claude Dreyfus)

safety should they require meat. Aware of her father’s motives, Julie descends into the sewers to make contact with the feared Troglodistes, a group of vegetarian rebels, whom she persuades to help rescue Louison. During the apparent butchering of an old woman, the Troglodistes attack but are repelled, and Clapet, with the unsympathetic tenants, storms Louison’s room in an attempt to murder him. Louison and Julie resist by flooding themselves, floor to ceiling, in an upper floor bathroom until Clapet opens the the attackers away. Clapet returns with Louison’s knife and inadvertently kills himself. Louison and Julie play music together on the roof of the now peaceful apartment building.

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

door releasing the flood and washing

43

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Movie Review:

‘DELICATESSEN’: TASTELESS BUT FILLING MORSEL

“Delicatessen” (Fine Arts) is a nightmare

simultaneously. Meanwhile, an evil apelike

BY MICHAEL WILMINGTON

comedy with a childlike center of gravity.

butcher (Jean Claude Dreyfus) prowls

April 10, 1992 // Special to The Times

Set in a truly bleak future—a post-Apoca-

the shadowy corridors of a deteriorating

lypse French city where meat-eaters

hotel, cleaver poised, hunting meat.

prey on each other and vegetarians are

Appropriately, the movie’s heroine and

underground insurgents hiding out in the

hero are the butcher’s myopic cello-playing

sewers—it adopts a bizarre, playful tone.

daughter and a small, Appropriately, the

The macabre imagery and horrific shocks

movie’s heroine and hero are the butcher’s

and jolts — the decaying hotel rooms

myopic cello-playing daughter and a

and acts of insane violence—are recorded

small, sweet-tempered clown, lured in by

with a wistful, wackily innocent eye.

a phony ad. The clown, Louison, is played

Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

” D e l i catessen” is a fearsomely intense

44

by Dominique Pinon, the memorably menacing shaven-headed punk of “Diva.”

movie that mixes moods with formidable

Here, he’s not menacing at all; wisps

assurance. A Grand Prize winner at the

of golden light illumine him like a cracked

Chicago Film Festival, it’s loaded with

cherub. Jeunet and Caro have some

horrific images and macabre jolts that keep

obvious influences—Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil,”

resonating eerily in your mind’s eye. An

Tex Avery’s more surreal and violent

old man lives in a flooded room with frogs

cartoons— and the movie also suggests

and a vast heap of discarded snail shells.

Polanski and the Coen brothers.

A determined but inept suicide tries to hang, poison, shoot and gas herself

CHAPTER 2: The Films

But it’s an original: It is like a nightmare.

In strategy, the movie resembles Woody

Jeunet and Caro don’t rely on dialogue:

Allen’s underrated “Shadows and Fog,”

The speeches here are written by their

another horror comedy with a sweet

collaborator, French comic-book artist

center. But it connects with its audience

Gilles Adrien, and the whole movie has

in a bloodier, gutsier way. Jeunet and

been conceived in grandiose, garishly

Caro split up their filmmaking chores,

witty comic-book images: tilted, skewed

Jeunet directs the actors, Caro is more

angles, grotesque perspectives. At one

responsible for design and effects—and

point, Louison hangs on a toilet over an

perhaps that’s why there’s such a satisfying

abyss. At another, heroine Julie (Marie-

density to “Delicatessen.” The film itself

Laure Dougnac) keeps waking, screaming,

is playful, weird, unpredictable and a bit

out of one bad dream, into another. This

tasteless. It has all the prerequisites

is a world where everything is falling apart,

of a true cult movie, which, in France, it already is. This is one foreign film that

begun to eat each other. “Delicatessen”

probably won’t languish in the usual art-

processes a lot of American movies and

house ghetto; “Delicatessen” (Times-rated:

pop culture — mostly horror movies—but

Mature, for sensuality and violence)

the movie’s look also suggests Eastern

outshocks and outplays the American

European films, while the sensibility is

horror comedies at their own game. It’s

distinctly French. “Delicatessen” suggests

a feast of fools, a banquet of frissons: a

the end of culture and human ties, the

nasty, childlike, murderously funny show.

triumph of appetite.

Louison (Dominique Pinon) and Julie Clapet (Marie-Laure Dougnac).

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

where entropy rules, where people have

FIGURE:

47

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

The City of Lost Children Ron Perlman as One Judith Vittet as Miette Daniel Emilfork as Krank Joseph Lucien as Denree Dominique Pinon as the diver and the clones Geneviève Brunet as the Octopus Jean-Claude Dreyfus as Marcello Jean-Louis Trintignant as Uncle Irvin (voice)

PLOT SUMMARY

Mireille Mossé as Martha Rufus as Peeler

Krank (Daniel Emilfork), a highly intelligent

Serge Merlin as the chief of the Cyclops

but malicious being created by a vanished

Marc Caro as Brother Ange-Joseph

scientist, is unable to dream, which

Ticky Holgado as an ex-acrobat Lorella Cravotta as a woman

La cité des enfants perdus Country: France

with the scientist’s other creations: six childish clones, a dwarf named Martha, and a brain in a vat named Irvin), he uses a dream-extracting machine to steal

French

dreams from children. The children are

Release Date:

kidnapped for him from a nearby port

May 17, 1995 (France)

city by a cyborg cult called the Cyclops,

112 minutes Kaleidoscope of Dreams

on an abandoned oil-rig (which he shares

Language:

Running Time:

48

causes him to age prematurely. At his lair

who in exchange he supplies with mechanical eyes and ears. Among the kidnapped is Denree (Joseph Lucien), the

Directed By:

adopted little brother of carnival strongman

Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet

One (Ron Perlman). After the caranival

Pruduced By:

manager is stabbed by a mugger, One is

Félicie Dutertre Written By: Gilles Adrien, Jean-Pierre Jeunet

hired by a criminal gang of orphans (run by a pair of Siamese twins called “the Octopus”) to help them steal a safe.

The theft is successful,

CHAPTER 2: The Films

but the safe is lost in the However he

on the pier, before One can throttle her.

leaves harbor when One is distracted by

Marcello arrives and sets the fleas on

seeing Denree’s kidnappers. He, together

the Octopus, allowing One and Miette to

with one of the orphans, a little girl

escape to continue searching for Denree.

called Miette (Judith Vittet), follows the

In the dream world she meets Krank

Cyclops and infiltrates their headquarters,

and makes a deal with him to replace the

but they are captured. Meanwhile, the

boy as the source of the dream; Krank

Octopus orders circus performer Marcello

fears a trap but plays along, believing

(Jean-Claude Dreyfus) to return One

himself to be in control. Miette then uses

to them. He uses his trained fleas, which

her imagination to control the dream and

secrete a poison that causes mindless

turn it into an infinite loop, destroying

aggression, to turn the Cyclops guards

Krank’s mind. One and Miette rescue all

against each other, before rescuing One.

the children and find Denree feasting in another room while the now-deranged diver loads the rig with dynamite and

living beneath the harbor retrieves her.

straps himself to one of its legs. The diver

Miette leaves the diver’s lair to find One

regains his senses as everyone is rowing

and Marcello both drowning their sorrows

away, and pleads with his remaining

in a bar. Upon seeing Miette alive the

creations to come back to rescue him,

remorseful Marcello lets One leave with

but a seabird lands on the handle of

her. However the Octopus confronts them

the blasting machine, blowing up him and the rig.

Left: Krank (Daniel Emilfork).

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

However he leaves Miette behind, who almost drowns before an amnesiac diver

FIGURE:

49

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Movie Review:

OUT OF THE FEVER DREAMS OF A CHILD

It is a cozy Christmas Eve, and a toy

This opening scene is the first of many

soldier on the windowsill of a little boy’s

scattered throughout the movie that

bedroom comes to life and begins beating

capture the atmosphere of a child’s fevered

on his cymbal. Moments later, a Santa

nightmare with an astonishing intensity.

Claus plops into the fireplace, brushes

Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc

himself off and steps into the room. He is

Caro, the French film makers who created

followed by another Santa Claus and

the 1991 cult hit “Delicatessen,” “The

another until the place is teeming with

City of Lost Children” is jampacked with

ominously jolly Santas.

surreal imagery: “Frankenstein,” “Peter

So begins the provocative but impossibly convoluted cinematic fantasy “The City of Lost Children.” As the boy’s excitement turns to apprehension, the walls begin to crinkle and everything becomes wavy Kaleidoscope of Dreams

and distorted. Suddenly the child, named

50

Denree (Joseph Lucien), finds himself on the streets of a murky harbor city peopled with carnival characters, among them his adopted brother, a half-witted circus strongman with Munster features named One (Ron Perlman).

Pan,” Jules Verne, you name it. The laboratory of Krank (Daniel Emilfork), a demonic scientist who kidnaps children for their imaginations, is equipped with electronic devices worthy of Rube Goldberg at his most extravagant. is atmospherically out of synch with its enthralling but emotionally chilly visuals. Watching the film is like leafing through a giant sketch book crammed with intriguing ideas that can’t all be comfortably fitted into the same master plan.

BY STEPHEN HOLDEN December 15, 1995 // The New York Times

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

52

Once Denree has arrived in the city, the

who continually squabble about which

movie devotes most of its attention to

one was the original, and the Cyclopses,

two sets of conflicting characters. Krank,

who do most of the kidnapping. Leading

who leads the story’s sinister forces, is

the resistance to Krank is Miette (Judith

a gaunt, mad scientist who operates his

Vittet), a plucky 9-year-old girl who teams

laboratory in a grim offshore rig that sug-

up with the strongman to rescue the little

gests a structure from “20,000 Leagues

boy. Miette lives with a band of orphans

Under the Sea.” Prematurely aged because

in an institution tended by evil Siamese

he cannot dream, this symbolic figure is

twin sisters who operate a thriving

an evil variant of the emotionless cone-

black-market business in stolen jewels.

headed voyeurs of “Star Trek” notoriety.

As fantastically picturesque as it may be,

In order to stay alive, he has resorted to

“The City of Lost Children” carries little

kidnapping children and tapping into their

allegorical resonance. While its story

dreams. Krank’s chief assistants are Miss

seems to warn about the loss of imagina-

Bismuth (Mireille Mosse), a midget-size

tion in an overly technologized world, it is

“Bride of Frankenstein”—like creature, and

too disjointed to carry much weight.

Irvin (the voice of Jean-Louis Trintignant), “The City of Lost Children” is rated R (Under a disembodied brain that lives in a chemi-

17 requires accompanying parent or adult

cal bath and communicates through

guardian). It has mild violence and a

the trumpet of an old phonograph. Krank’s

sexually suggestive scene.

staff also includes six identical Clones

CHAPTER 2: The Films

FIGURE: Miette (Judith Vittet).

FIGURE: Octopus (Geneviève Brunet and Odile Mallet).

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

53

When you’re born in the gutter you end up in the port.

—Miette (The City of Lost Children 1995)

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Amélie Audrey Tautou as Amélie PoulainFlora Guiet as young Amélie Mathieu Kassovitz as Nino Quincampoix Amaury Babault as young Nino Rufus as Raphaël Poulain, Amélie’s father Serge Merlin as Raymond Dufayel Lorella Cravotta as Amélie’s mother Clotilde Mollet as Gina, a fellow waitress

PLOT SUMMARY

Claire Maurier as Suzanne Isabelle Nanty as Georgette

Amélie Poulain is born in June 1974 and

Dominique Pinon as Joseph

brought up by eccentric parents who

Artus de Penguern as Hipolito, the writer

incorrectly believing that she has a heart

Yolande Moreau as Madeleine Wallace Urbain Cancelier as Collignon, the grocer

defect—decide to home-school her. To Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain Country: France Language: French

personality. When Amélie is six, her mother, Amandine, is killed when a suicidal Canadian tourist jumps from the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris and lands on her. As a result, her father Raphaël

April 25, 2001 (France)

(Rufus) withdraws more and more from

123 minutes Directed By: Kaleidoscope of Dreams

an active imagination and a mischievous

Release Date:

Running Time:

56

cope with her loneliness, Amélie develops

Jean-Pierre Jeunet

society. Amélie leaves home at the age of 18 and becomes a waitress at the Café des 2 Moulins in Montmartre, which is staffed and frequented by a collection of eccentrics. She is single and lets her

Pruduced By:

imagination roam freely, finding content-

Jean-Marc Deschamps

ment in simple pleasures like dipping

Claudie Ossarde

her hand into grain sacks and cracking

Story By:

crème brûlée with a spoon.

Guillaume Laurant Jean-Pierre Jeunet

CHAPTER 2: The Films

FIGURE: Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tautou).

This leads Amélie to resort to her own fantastical world and dreams of love and beauty. 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 girl friends, the “ghost”, a suppressed young soul, the love of her life and a man whose 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.

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

bones are as brittle as glass. But after

57

CHAPTER 2: The Films

Movie Review:

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE AS URBAN SPRITE

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s ‘’Amélie,’’ a sugar-rush of a movie, has what could be called meticulous clutter, a placement of imagery that covers every square centimeter of the screen. Mr. Jeunet’s sense of humor gives the movie heart; his real affection for the medium can be seen in all the funny little curlicues and jottings around the action.‘’Amélie’’ offers Mr. Jeunet a chance to show some flair without the brittle chill of his previous films like ‘’Delicatessen’’ and ‘’The City of Lost Children,’’ in which his imagination and version of felonious assault. ‘’Amélie’’ has a hypnotic sense of romance; it’s a fable filled with longing, with a heroine who constantly flirts with failure. Just because the movie has the reflexes of a predatory animal doesn’t mean it lacks a heart.

BY ELVIS MITCHELL

the biggest hits ever in France and will

November 2, 2001 // The New York Times

probably do well in the United States before its probable Oscar nomination— that is, if its American distributor, Miramax, has anything to say about it.) Mr. Jeunet has made his own Paris through sets and computer-generated art for ‘’Amélie.’’

He and Guillaume Laurant, with whom he wrote the script, tell the story of Amélie (Audrey Tautou) from her conception through her adult life, which is filled with the kind of offhand cruelty normally found in the novels of John Irving and Kurt Vonnegut. Her parents are described as ‘’a neurotic and an iceberg,’’ and part of Amélie’s charm is that she is preternaturally levelheaded and survives her youth with her dark, glowing eyes wide open.

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

heartlessness combined for the film

(Or an audience. The picture is one of

59

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

FIGURE: Amélie Poulain(Audrey Tautou) and Nino Quincampoix (Mathieu Kassovitz).

She has the innocent vitality of a silent

Instead, she pulls him into an elaborate

film star; with her helmet of gorgeous

courtship dance that turns life in Paris

brunet hair, she is posed to suggest Louise

into a game of Twister with a treasure hunt

Brooks from some angles. Mr. Jeunet

added to the mix. Nino, mouth agape,

directs his protagonist so that even when

trails after Amélie, still the mystery

she is a child (played by Flora Guiet), each

woman to him, as she leaves clues about

thought and impulse shines though her

herself everywhere.

skin. (Ms. Tautou addresses the camera as if she were looking each viewer right in the eye; she has the cross-hairs focus of a movie star.)

As a grown-up, Amélie, who works as a

Mr. Jeunet soaks each frame with sepia and greens. The sepia indicates that ‘’Amélie’’ takes place in a dreamscape Paris, and the wide-open streets come out of the French films of the 1930’s, which

waitress, tinkers in the lives of her friends. already idealized France. The green gives

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

She scampers around like a woodland

60

the picture a trippy atmosphere, as if it

sprite, laying out elaborate stunts and

had been dunked in absinthe. As a concep-

practical jokes as payback for those who

tion, the movie feels so scrubbed that

get on the wrong side of her buddies.

it is on the sterile side.

When she falls in love with Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz), she can’t be direct and let him know how she feels.

The Films

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

It’s better to help people than garden gnomes”.

—Amélie Poulain (Amélie 2001)

And Mr. Kassovitz’s presence underscores

Mr. Jeunet is not the first French director

a pivotal deficit in ‘’Amélie.’’ There are

to deal in pop-abstract terms; Louis Mal-

no people of color in this snow-globe

le’s ‘’Zazie Dans le Métro’’ (1959) was

version of Paris, and since Mr. Kassovitz

the first influential example of eye-catching

is one of the few French directors to deal

zest and was the story of a strong-willed

with racial tensions in his own work (the

princess-type, a plot point ‘’Amélie’’

social drama ‘’Hate’’), the lack becomes

shares. Jean-Jacques Beineix’s ‘’Diva’’ (1981)

impossible to ignore. Given that Mr. Jeunet

was also a stylized tour, a walk through

used a black hero in ‘’Alien: Resurrection,’’

a punk Paris that is now as quaint as

he can’t be blind to race. (Michael Haneke’s

Mr. Jeunet’s only-in-the-movies France.

‘’Code Inconnu,’’ due this month, is a

with the same meticulousness that

France, and a must.)

Amélie’s neighbor, the painter Dufayel (Serge

In ‘’Amélie,’’ the fastidious complex of Kaleidoscope of Dreams

flesh and fantasy is a dazzling achievement.

62

He painstakingly creates his urban vision

hard-edged examination of racism in

It has the impact of Wired magazine in its earliest days, when every single page looked like a ransom note put together by a kidnapper who had just downed a six-pack of Mountain Dew.

Merlin), does stroke-for-stroke recreations of Renoir paintings. (Dominique Pinon, a Jeunet regular who plays the jealous-guy Joseph in ‘’Amélie,’’ is the shaved-head punk on the ‘’Diva’’ poster.)

CHAPTER 2: The Films

Perhaps after living under a studio’s

By the climax, the movie segues into a

demands for a fourth-in-the-series ‘’Alien’’

rumination on loss and the perils of being

sequel, Mr. Jeunet decided to build his

too playful. When Dufayel straightens

own universe from the ground up.

Amélie out, we see it in a monologue on

Maybe, too, after the violence—spiritual and physical— of his earlier films, he wanted his latest tale to glisten with optimism.

This balletic mix of whimsy and fairy tale could potentially err on the side of self-infatuation, but Mr. Jeunet moves so fast that the movie never stops to ogle its beautiful reflection. Mr. Jeunet a television shows a man doing back flips while a friendly doggy runs in place on his stomach, an image replaced by the gospel whirlwind Sister Rosetta Tharpe, twanging her way through ‘’Up Above My Head.’’ The film’s pacing is athletic, though the pulse of the narrative is gradually slowed.

has kept the world at arm’s length, but the scene evokes ‘’Krapp’s Last Tape’’; in close-up, Dufayel resembles Samuel Beckett. By this point, the director brakes the action so that thought, and possibly regret, can filter through. The film’s oriinal French title was ‘’Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain,’’ and Mr. Jeunet deflates the self-mocking pomposity of the title by the last third of the movie. Yet there is no denying that ‘’Amélie’’ is, to paraphrase its title, fabulous.

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

loves video stimulation. In a single scene,

videotape. Here Mr. Jeunet uses video as a device to demonstrate how Amélie

63

She doesn’t relate to other people.

She was always a lonely child.

—Amélie Poulain (Amélie 2001)

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

A Very Long Engagement Audrey Tautou as Mathilde Donnay Gaspard Ulliel as Manech Langonnet Dominique Pinon as Mathilde’s uncle Chantal Neuwirth as Mathilde’s aunt Jean-Pierre Becker as Sergeant Daniel Esperanza Dominique Bettenfeld as Angel Bassignano Clovis Cornillac as Benoît Notre-Dame Marion Cotillard as Tina Lombardi

PLOT SUMMARY

Jean-Pierre Darroussin as Corporal Benjamin Julie Depardieu as Véronique Passavant

Five French soldiers are convicted of self-mutilation in order to escape military

Jean-Claude Dreyfus as Major François Lavrouye

service during World War I. They are

André Dussollier as Pierre-Marie Rouvières

condemned to face near-certain death in

Un long dimanche de fiançailles Country: France, United States

all of them were killed in a subsequent battle, but Mathilde, the fiancée of one of the soldiers, refuses to give up hope

French

and begins to uncover clues as to what

Release Date:

actually took place on the battlefield. She

Running Time: 133 minutes Kaleidoscope of Dreams

and German trench lines. It appears that

Language:

October 27, 2004

68

the no man’s land between the French

is all the while driven by the constant reminder of what her fiancé had carved into one of the bells of the church near their home, MMM for Manech Aime

Directed By:

Mathilde (Manech Loves Mathilde; a pun

Jean-Pierre Jeunet

on the French word aime, which is

Pruduced By: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Francis Boespflug Story By: Florence Thomassin

pronounced like the letter “M”. In the English-language version, this is changed to “Manech’s Marrying Mathilde”).

CHAPTER 2: The Films

Along the way, she discovers the brutally corrupt system used by the French government to deal with those who tried to escape the front. She also discovers the stories of the other men who were sentenced to the no man’s land as a punishment. She, with the help of a private

FIGURE: Mathilde Donnay (Audrey Tautou).

investigator, attempts to find out what happened to her fiancé. The story is told both from the point of view of the fiancée in Paris and the French countryside—mostly Brittany—of the 1920s, and through flashbacks to the battlefield.

is alive, but he suffers from amnesia.

Seeing Mathilde, Manech seems to be oblivious of her. At this, Mathilde sits on the garden chair silently watching Manech with tears in her eyes and smile on her lips.

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

Eventually, Mathilde finds out her fiancé

69

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Movie Review:

A LOVE THAT WON’T SURRENDER TO WAR, DEATH AND

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

OBLIVION

70

BY MANOHLA DARGIS

If you like battleground carnage delivered

It’s January 1917, three years into the

November 26, 2004 // The New York Times

with aesthetic brio, the kind that ensures

Great War, and the men are marching

that when a soldier explodes into confetti

toward death, having been court-martialed

his flesh will dapple a trench mate as

for self-mutilation. Among the five is

decoratively as pink rosettes on a cake,

Mathilde’s young fiancé, Manech (Gaspard

the new French film “A Very Long

Ulliel), a gentle creature called Cornflower,

Engagement” will serve you nicely. Set

who had been reduced to a catatonic

during World War I and directed by the cult

state after an explosion covered him in

favorite Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the film

another man’s blood and viscera. It’s a

follows the adventures of a young woman,

scene that Japrisot captures quickly and

Mathilde, played by Audrey Tautou, who

without embellishment: “He’d spat out

holds fast to the hope that her fiancé

the horror and shrieked his head off.”

will return home. Even when death seems

Soon after he stops screaming, Manech

to do them part, the cord of her love

is tossed onto the battlefield and left

remains unbroken.

for dead. Several years later, after the

Like the book on which it’s based, by the crime novelist and screenwriter JeanBaptiste Rossi, who wrote under the name Sébastien Japrisot, “A Very Long Engagement” opens with five French soldiers snaking through muddy trenches.

trenches of Europe have been turned into manicured graveyards, Mathilde learns that Manech may still be alive. Springing into action, somewhat cumbersomely since polio has left her with one lame leg, she begins searching for her fiancé,

The Films

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

FIGURE: Left: Mathilde Donnay (Audrey Tautou).

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

Middle: Manech Langonnet (Gaspard Ulliel)and Captain Etienne Favo u r i e r ( Tc h é k y Ka r yo) .

72

poring through letters and over clues, and

In films like “Delicatessen” and “The City

tracking down anyone who can explain

of Lost Children,” both released in the

what happened and why. With the pluck

1990’s, the two men fashioned meticulous

of Nancy Drew and the cunning of Hercule

dark worlds that were part Rube Goldberg,

Poirot, she digs into the histories of

part F.A.O. Schwarz, and generally enjoy-

the other condemned men, inquiries that

able for about 15 minutes. Watching

take her from her bucolic oceanside

gears and wheels whir inside a clock, no

home all the way to bustling Paris. Slowly,

matter how precisely calibrated the

slowly, very slowly, Mathilde peels away

mechanism, quickly loses its appeal,

the layers of memory and misdirection

and the same is true of these films. The

provided by the four men’s friends and

collaborators parted ways when Mr. Jeunet

lovers, eventually uncovering some kind

went solo to direct the fourth and

of truth. Best known for “Amélie,” a modern

most miserable installment of the “Alien”

fairy tale also starring Ms. Tautou, Mr.

franchise, a debacle that was soon forgot-

Jeunet is in the possession of a distinc-

ten with the international success

tive visual style developed during his

of “Amélie.” With “A Very Long Engagement,”

longtime collaboration with his former

Mr. Jeunet has again proved himself

filmmaking partner, Marc Caro. In films

an admirable

like Marc Caro.

CHAPTER 2: The Films

watchmaker. Armed with an enormous

An existential romance by way of mystery,

bag of special-effects tricks, he recreates

Japrisot’s novel is at once about the horror

a bygone era with digital wizardry, manic

of war and a woman’s refusal to surrender

energy, a fastidious attention to detail

to its madness, and is unequivocally

and only the faintest of heartbeats. Unlike

human from first page to last. Through

children who bring even the most chewed-

sheer force of will and a strong heart,

up teddy bear to life, Mr. Jeunet shows

Mathilde fights in the name of love and

no interest in animating the characters in

life, not hate and death. What gives the

his dollhouse world, and even Mathilde

book its force, beyond Japrisot’s sense of

and her tears remain fundamentally

people and place, is the rage—both the

decorative, as arid as the computer

author’s and his heroine’s—that boils like

assisted cinematography. Only when Jodie

molten rock beneath the unsweetened

Foster materializes midstory, delivering the mistress of one of the condemned men, does the film spring to life. Watching this woman discover and then lose love, her eyes crinkling as delicately as tissue paper, do you at last feel the human touch.

prose. Japrisot writes that Mathilde has a “cheerful disposition,” but he never slaps on a happy face, as does Mr. Jeunet.

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

a beautiful, pocket-size performance as

73

Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Fest Catalogue

A Guide to Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s World

CHAPTER 2: The Films

FIGURE: Left: Mathilde Donnay (Audrey Tautou) and Manech Langonnet (Gaspard Ulliel) .

And when, in the novel, Mathilde says

“A Very Long Engagement,” it so happens,

that if the metaphoric line connecting her

was paid for by Warner Brothers, leading

to Manech ever breaks, “she can always

some critics to question its French

use it to hang herself,” there’s no evading

credentials; Mr. Jeunet has had no such

the darkness of her words. After it was

qualms and told one interviewer that

published in France in 1991, Japrisot’s

he had made “a big American film, in

novel became a best seller, and it’s easy

France, with French actors and with the

to see why. There’s the story itself, of

final cut.” And so he has.

course, richly detailed and engaging, but there is also the war, which robbed France of millions of men but, unlike the world calamity that followed, not its honor. Now, Mr. Jeunet has scored a hit in his country moviegoers sidestepping the customary debates about cultural nationalism to enjoy the vision of Amélie at war. “A Very Long Engagement,” it so happens,

(Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). The film features graphic war violence of bodies being blown to bits. Ms. Tautou also drops her drawers.

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

with his bright adaptation, with most

“A Very Long Engagement” is rated R

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In the sweetness of the air, in the light of the garden, Mathilde looks at him.

She looks at him... —Narrator (A Very Long Engagement 2001)

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Micmacs Dany Boon as Bazil Yolande Moreau as Mama Chow André Dussollier as Nicolas Thibault Nicolas Marié as François Marconi Julie Ferrier as Elastic Girl Omar Sy as Remington Dominique Pinon as Buster Marie-Julie Baup as Calculator

PLOT SUMMARY

Michel Crémadès as Tiny Pete Jean-Pierre Marielle as Slammer

Avid movie-watcher and video store clerk

Urbain Cancelier as Urbain

Bazil has had his life all but ruined by weapons of war. His father was killed by a landmine in Morocco and one fateful

MicMacs à tire-larigot Country: France

on the verge of instantaneous death.

Losing his job and his home, Bazil wanders the streets until he meets Slammer, a

French

pardoned convict who introduces him

Release Date:

to a band of eccentric junkyard dealers

October 28, 2009 (France)

including Calculator, a math expert and

105 minutes Kaleidoscope of Dreams

embeds itself in his skull, leaving him

Language:

Running Time:

78

night a stray bullet from a nearby shootout

statistician, Buster, a record holder in human cannonball feats, Tiny Pete, an artistic craftsman of automatons, and

Directed By:

Elastic Girl, a sassy contortionist. When

Jean-Pierre Jeunet

chance reveals to Bazil the two weapons

Pruduced By: Frédéric Brillion, Gilles Legrand

manufacturers responsible for building the instruments of his destruction, he constructs a complex scheme for revenge

Written By:

that his newfound family is all too happy

Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Guillaume Laurent

to help set in motion.

CHAPTER 2: The Films

FIGURE: Above: The young Bazil Right: Bazil (Dany Boon), Calculator (Marie-Julie Baup) and Remington (Omar Sy).

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

79

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Movie Review:

MISFITS BATTLE THE MASTERS OF WAR

Bazil, the hero of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s

whose passion is collecting the body parts

BY A.O. SCOTT

new film, “Micmacs,” is a mild-mannered

of historical figures, like Marilyn Monroe’s

May 27, 2010 // The New York Times

fellow with a serious grudge. When he

molar. His nemesis, Marconi (Nicolas

was a child, he lost his father, a member

Marié), is a more modern type, with

of the French Foreign Legion, to a land

fashionable stubble on his face, an ultra-

mine. Sometime later, after a stint in an

modern apartment and a young son

orphanage, the adult Bazil (Dany Boon) is

being raised mainly by a taciturn African

minding his own business, working the

nanny. As is the movie itself, which aims

night shift at a video store and reciting

for (and intermittently achieves) a ruefully

Humphrey Bogart’s French-dubbed

comical, formally elegant humanism in

dialogue in “The Big Sleep,” when a stray

the tradition of Charlie Chaplin, Buster

bullet pierces his forehead, nearly killing him. Both disasters might be classified as accidents, but Bazil traces the mine

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and the bullet to rival armaments companies,

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whose offices sit across from each other in an industrial zone on the fringe of Paris, and whose chief executives are contrasting studies in corporate arrogance.

Fenouillet (André Dussollier) is an old fashioned haute-bourgeois stuffed shirt,

Keaton and Jacques Tati.

The story unfolds largely through a series of carefully realized set pieces, visual jokes that produce low-key chuckles and occasional bursts of amazed laughter.

“Micmacs” finds Mr. Jeunet, still best known in this country for “Amélie,” in a contemplative mood, his impish sensibility shadowed by melancholy and anger

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

82

at the violent state of the world. Some

Their handiwork and their natural, good

of the extravagant visual eccentricity of

humored ingenuity contrast with the

his debut feature, “Delicatessen” (still

sleek and deadly mass-produced weapons

his best and strangest film), of which he

their adversaries produce. And the film’s

was co-director, is echoed in the smoky

message, at once irresistible and naïve,

streetscapes, weird mechanical gizmos

is that improvisation, impish craftiness

and comic-grotesque human figures on

and have-not solidarity can triumph over

display here.

greed and cruelty.

But his pacing is more deliberate, almost

Who would wish to quarrel with such a

classical in its precise calibration of cause

sweet and noble sentiment? There is

and effect. There are cellphones and

no question that the heart of “Micmacs”

online videos in his world, but it nonethe-

is inthe right place, but the movie is

less feels charmingly anachronistic, as

also a little thin. Mr. Jeunet pushes the

if the digital universe had been invaded by

simplicity of his influences a bit too far in the

time travelers from a planet of pre-World

direction of simple-mindedness, partly

War II French movies and music-hall

by allowing himself to be distracted by the

acts. The use of soundtrack music by Max

clever cuteness of his own conceits. For

Steiner, one of the great composers of

all its moral fervor, the film roams and

old Hollywood, underscores this out

rambles and sometimes stalls, straining

of time quality.

for a charm that should come effortlessly.

FIGURE: Bazil (Dany Boon) and Slammer (Jean-Pierre Marielle).

CHAPTER 2: The Films

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Clair Spivet Judy Davis as G. H. Jibsen Callum Keith Rennie as Tecumseh Elijah Spivet Kyle Catlett as T.S. Spivet Niamh Wilson as Gracie Spivet Jakob Davies as Layton Spivet

PLOT SUMMARY

Rick Mercer as Roy Dominique Pinon as Two Clouds

T.S. Spivet (Kyle Catlett) is a 10-year-old

Julian Richings as Ricky

prodigy with a passion for cartography

Richard Jutras as Mr. Stenpock

and scientific inventions. He lives on a ranch in Montana with his mother (Helena Bonham Carter) who is obsessed with the morphology of beetles; his father Country: France, Canada

sister (Niamh Wilson) who dreams of becoming Miss America. His twin brother

English

Layton (Jakob Davies) died in an accident

Release Date:

involving a firearm in the family’s barn,

July 31, 2015 (US) Running Time: Kaleidoscope of Dreams

hundred years too late; and his 14-year-old

Language:

October 16, 2013 (France)

86

(Callum Keith Rennie), a cowboy born a

105 minutes Directed By: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

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.

One day, T.S. receives an unexpected call from the Smithsonian Institution, telling him that he is the winner of the very

Pruduced By:

prestigious Baird prize for his invention of

Frédéric Brillion, Gilles Legrand

a perpetual motion machine and that

CHAPTER 2: The Films

FIGURE: Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet (Kyle Catlett).

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 United States to reach Washington, D.C. During his journey, he meets a hobo in the trainyards of the midwest, outruns or outwits a number of railroad security guards, and then is picked up hitchhiking by an 18-wheeler trucker who lets him off at the Smithsonian in Washington.

He ultimately gives his speech for the Baird guests, and discusses the death of his brother. After the speech is over, T.S’s mother and father arrive down in D.C and interrupt him while he is on a talk show.

His mother tells T.S it wasn’t his fault, to which the TV interviewer pesters them with questions up until T.S’s father punches him and they leave.

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

prize to a room full of well-dressed

87

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Movie Review:

ROAD MOVIE TINGED WITH SADNESS

This weekend, “The Young and Prodigious

It’s also ironically about being seen and

T.S. Spivet,” the latest comedic-fantasy

BY SIMON ABRAMS

rarely heard. But while some of the film’s

August 3, 2015 // Rogerebert.com

by French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet,

wide emotional turns—from over-caffein-

was quietly dumped into two handfuls

ated road movie to magically-realistic

of theaters across the country. The film’s

melodrama and back again—are not

current release is minuscule because

handled with care, the film is more than

Jeunet reportedly refused to make cuts

the sum of its unequal parts.

that were suggested by notoriously difficult distributor mogul Harvey Weinstein (for more details, check out Sam Adams’s Criticwire piece on the film.) This distribution debacle is especially disheartening because “T.S. Spivet” is too small of a movie to shoulder the weight of any kind

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

of controversy. The film follows Spivet,

88

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.

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.

CHAPTER 2: The Films

Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

87

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

How beautiful the sun when newly risen, and explodes in the morning greetings happy as the man who can lovingly salute its rising more glorious than a dream.

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

—T.S. Spivet

90

But everything, particularly the film’s

concern the difference between Spivet’s

frequent, elliptically edited flashbacks,

whimsical surroundings, eccentric

snaps into stark relief once Spivet reveals

perspective. Catlett consequently has

(In an early scene! Not a spoiler!) why

to deliver a lot of voiceover narration that

he’s really running away from home:

gives us a direct line to his unbelievably

brother Layton (Jakob Davies) died in

naive, but over-heated imagination. Some

an unfortunate accident, and Spivet has

of Catlett’s dialogue is toxically quirky,

never forgiven himself for it. Everyone

like the scene where he identifies three

in the film is touched by Layton’s death,

different routes he could take to cross his

even people who didn’t know him since

family ranch—just to answer the phone.

Spivet’s actions are defined by his grief.

And a lot of Catlett’s dialogue is too

But again: in the beginning, Spivet is kind

emotionally nuanced for an inexperienced

of annoying, thanks in no small part to

child actor. I use “nuanced” in a general

Catlett’s shaky performance. Many of the

sense here. Catlett is most consis-

jokes featured in the film’s first half hour

tently well-used when he’s treated as a kid-shaped cypher.

CHAPTER 2: The Films

He does all of his best acting in silhouette

On the one hand, the hobo’s story illus-

or profile, as in the scene where Spivet

trates one of the film’s main themes as

fantasizes about calling home while he’s

it’s baldly expressed in an earlier scene:

on the road. Spivet runs the scenario

science starts where imagination ends.

through his head, but stops right before

On the other hand, Pignon’s line-delivery

he gets into an adjacent phone booth.

is unintentionally stilted, presumably

We watch Spivet stare at the phone box

because English is his second language.

from over Catlett’s shoulder, then see

In order to enjoy this scene, you have

Catlett beat a hasty retreat. Compare this

to be more invested in the idea of the scene

scene, one of the film’s best, with the

than the actual scene itself. You similarly

scene where Spivet visits Layton’s room

won’t get much of an emotional charge

just before he leaves home. Take for

out of “The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet” otherwise, but you’ll probably find

hobo (Jeunet regular Dominique Pignon)

the effort worthwhile.

tells Spivet a tall tale about a sparrow and a pine tree.

Left: T.S. Spivet with his sister and his mother.

Meddle: T.S. Spivet’s mother (Helena Bonham Carter).

Right: Two Clouds (Helena Bonham Carter).

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

example the scene where a railroad-riding

FIGURE:

91

The amazing thing about water drops is that they always take the path of least resistance. For humans it’s exactly the opposite. —T.S. Spivet ( The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet 2013)

03

The Festival

The Theme Schedule Location Special Events

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

The Theme

The film festival Kaleidoscope of Dreams is a journey into Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s amazing film world. The purpose is to engage audiences and share the sparkling delights of ordinary life. The films can also inspire people to maintain a kind and optimistic heart like those movie characters. The whole festival will be positive, lively and playful, showing guests the gorgeous colors and unique appeal of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s films. During the festival, we will not only screen six classic feature films, but also hold activities such as a movie concert, an exhibition,

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

and a commemorative photo session. We

96

hope that you can feel the hope and positive strength in the films.

Movie Screening Sequence April 17 , 2021 Delicatessen The City of Lost Children

April 18, 2021 Amélie A Very Long Engagement

April 19, 2021 Micmacs The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet

The Festival

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Schedule

DAY 1

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

April 17, 2021

98

9:00–10:00 am

Film Festival Opening Ceremony

10:00–11:00 am

Knowing the director

11:30 am–1:00 pm

Lunch Break

1:00–1:30 pm

Introduction of today’s films

1:30–3:30 pm

Enjoy the Movie Delicatessen

4:00–6:00 pm

Enjoy the Movie The City of Lost Children

6:00–7:30 pm

Film Review Seminar

7:30–9:00 pm

Dinner Break

CHAPTER 3: The Festival

DAY 2

DAY 3

April 18, 2021

April 19, 2021

9:00–11:30 am

The Exhibition of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Films

9:00–9:30 am

Introduction of today’s films

9:30–11:30 am

Enjoy the Movie Micmacs

11:30 am–1:00 pm

Lunch Break

11:30 am–1:00 pm

Lunch Break

1:00–1:30 pm

Introduction of today’s films

1:00–3:00 pm

Enjoy the Movie

1:30–3:30 pm

Enjoy the Movie Amélie

4:00–6:00 pm

Enjoy the Movie A Very Long Engagement

3:00–4:30 pm

Film Review Seminar

6:00–7:00 pm

Film Review Seminar

4:30–6:30 pm

Take Film Theme Commemorative Photos

7:30–9:00 pm

Dinner Break

7:00–9:00 pm

Dinner Break

9:00–11:00 pm

Film Soundtrack Concert

9:00–11:30 pm

Film Festival Closing Ceremony

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

Night Party

99

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Location ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE DE SAN FRANCISCO 1345 Bush Street, San Francisco, CA

Our mission is to promote knowledge and appreciation of the French language and Francophone cultures,

The Alliance Française of San Francisco is a not-for-profit organization incorporated in the State of California since 1889.

Whether you are a native or fluent French speaker, a student of the language, or an interested non-French speaker, you are welcome to participate in the wide range of activities offered throughout the year. We at AFSF offer a wide range of classes and individual instruction in French, both on and off-site, from

to encourage friendship,

absolute beginners with no previous knowledge of the language

and collaboration with

Our class sizes range between 4-12 students and are taught

the French-speaking world.

in the Bay Area, and largest collection of French books West

to students at an advanced level.

by native speakers.We also house the oldest French library Mississippi, which is open to the public.

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

The Alliance Française of San Francisco is part of a dynamic net-

100

—Alliance Française of San Francisco

work of local, independent chapters passionate about promoting the French language and celebrating francophone cultures.

Over 800 Alliance chapters operate worldwide, in 132 countries.

More than 500,000 students around the world 107 chapters operating in the United States, 73 offering French classes.

THE THEATER Capacity : 75 seats or 150 standing Amenities : Video projector, screen, audio system, open spaces for conferences or concerts, WiFi internet access Theater rentals start at $250.00 for a minimum of 2hours.

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

101

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Special Events JEUNET’S FILM EXHIBITION HALL

On the morning of the second day of the film festival, we will hold the Jean-Pierre Jeunet film exhibition. The exhibition will display the costumes, movie props, and representative artistic works in Jeunet’s classic films. The exhibition will not only satisfy the needs of Jeunet movie fans, but will also attract sci-fi fans and art movie fans. These exquisite

TIME April 18, 2021

9:00–11:30 am

exhibits will make you feel Jeunet’s imagination and creativity in a more real way, and offer a deeper understanding of the artistic value and cultural connotations contained in the films. You will have the

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

morning to visit the exhibition, which

104

is open for two and a half hours.

CHAPTER 3: The Festival

JEUNET’S FILM SOUNDTRACK CONCERT

At nine o’clock that night, we will hold a two-hour soundtrack concert. The concert will feature 24 famous selections from the six feature movies we will screen.

Many of these tracks won international awards. While the live band is playing, the big screen will play the movie clip video, so that you will have a wonderful viewing and listening experience. With the music, you can better feel the emotions and atmosphere of the films. At the same

TIME April 18, 2021

9:00–11:00 pm

time, you will also feel the creativity and perfectionism of Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

105

When you are in love with a story, you have to take your time to follow it and to fall in love again one time. ­— Jean-Pierre Jeunet

04

References

The Whimsical World of Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Kaleidoscope of Dreams

References

200

Page 6–7

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Pierre_Jeunet

Page 8–9

https://www.ecufilmfestival.com/spotlight-jean-pierre-jeunet/

Page 16–21

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000466/

Page 30–36

Simon Braund, A CHAT WITH JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET, Hammer To Nail, JAN. 22, 2016

Page 42–43

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101700/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Page 44–47

Michael Wilmington, ‘Delicatessen’: Tasteless But Filling Morsel, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES, APR. 10, 1992

Page 48–49

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112682/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Page 50–52

Stephen Holden, Out of the Fever Dreams of a Child, The New York Times, Dec. 15, 1995

Page 56–57

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211915/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Page 59–63

Elvis Mitchell, Little Miss Sunshine as Urban Sprite, The New York Times, Nov. 2, 2001

Page 68–69

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0344510/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Page 70–75

Manohla Dargis, A Love That Won’t Surrender to War, Death and Oblivion, The New York Times, Nov. 26, 2004

Page 78–79

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1149361/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Page 80–82

A.O. Scott, Misfits Battle the Masters of War, The New York Times, May 27, 2010

Page 86–87

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1981107/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Page 88–91

Simon Abrams, Reviews: The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet, rogerebert.com, AUG. 3, 2015

Page 100–101

www.afsf.com

CHAPTER 4: References

Type Latienne Pro Museo Azo Sans

Image: Unsplash Pexels Google

Design: Xing (Stella) Fan

Course: GR 612 01: Integrated Communications

Hunter Wimmer

Contact: stellafandesign@gmail.com 571-352-3931

A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival

Instructor:

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A Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film Festival kaleidoscopeofdreams.net