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Of Micmacs and Moviemaking
Jean-Pierre Jeunet enjoys the simple pleasures of cinema
French moviemaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s latest film, Micmacs, gets its stateside release this spring. For the famed director of Delicatessen (1991), The City of Lost Children (1995) and Amélie (2001), Micmacs—a satire on the armaments business—is a return to the world of earth-bound, offbeat fantasy that has by now become a personal brand.
The director made Micmacs after spending two years developing Yann Martel’s Life of Pi for Fox, only to leave the project when, as he put it, the difficulty of finding a way to bring together a kid, the ocean and a tiger (on budget) became a nightmare he was ultimately only too happy to leave to others (in this case, Ang Lee).
Going back to the warm embrace of the auteur-centric French film world, Jeunet and writing partner Guillaume Laurant dipped into their notebooks and came out with the story of a character who lives with a bullet lodged inside his brain (from a drive-by shooting), for which he seeks revenge on the French armaments industry.
The Jeunet film—a rich pastiche of classic cinema, epic adventure, comic book stylings, animation and collage—has multiple antecedents, but few contemporaries. The director’s influences are vast and varied, and he pulls from them liberally. Buster Keaton, Sergio Leone, Disney animation and classic French cinema are all inspirations.
A self-taught moviemaker, Jeunet began making animated shorts as a kid. His love of animation—and the color and design sensibilities of the cartoon world—remain a relative constant in his work. He counts an invitation from Pixar to teach a master class at their studio as a highlight of his career. “I started with animation, with puppets,” he emphasizes, “much like Tim Burton; less talent, but same technique.”
Jeunet eventually found his way into directing commercials and short films and, in the process, met and began to collaborate with production designer Marc Caro. In the 1980s, they created several prize-winning, animated shorts—such as the César Award-winning Le manège—before making their first feature, Delicatessen. The pair remained partners up until Jeunet’s first Hollywood assignment, Alien: Resurrection, for which Caro did some design but was less involved overall.
Speaking from Paris, Jeunet, a jocular, easygoing enthusiast, paints a picture of his creative process and the world of artists and ideals from which he continues to draw inspiration.
Phillip Williams (MM): How do you develop your ideas?
Jean-Pierre Jeunet (JPJ): I work closely with my partner, Guillaume Laurant. We collect small ideas all the time; when we hear something funny, beautiful or touching in real life, we take notes in a kind of book. This “book” is now inside a computer and when I start to make a film, we open the book and choose the best details for our story. Then we create a new book for the new film, and we start to write the story only when that book is packed with ideas. Guillaume is very good with dialogue, so he writes the dialogue scenes and I write the visual scenes; it’s like a game of ping-pong.
MM: Do you draw as you write or prepare a film?
JPJ: No, this is the drama of my life: I do not know how to draw. (laughs) I do some storyboards, but I am very bad. I make some stupid sketches and a good designer will complete them. But the most important thing is to imagine the storyboard—the quality of the design is not important. But I would like so much to be a good designer!
MM: Maybe, it’s a good thing. Maybe it causes you to develop other strengths—to push yourself.
JPJ: I believe in working hard. I am not ashamed to say that, even though now it’s considered tacky to say that in France. Picasso used to say he made 150 sketches to paint “Guernica,” his famous painting. That’s the secret: You have to work. I don’t believe in improvisation, but if you have a good idea at the last moment, why not? I storyboard, but I don’t follow the storyboard all the time. If I discover a better idea, I jump on it.
MM: There is some beautiful acting in your movies, and obviously you like to work with certain people over and over again. What have you learned from working with actors?
JPJ: When I made my first feature, Delicatessen, the first day of shooting, I remember working with the actors and I immediately loved that—it was a pleasure. Now I have a kind of recipe for finding good actors: You have to be present during the casting sessions, because you have a character in your mind. But if you have many actors come in to read, it can be so inspiring. So I love to be at the casting sessions; even for a very little character to say just one sentence in the film, sometimes I see 20 or 30 people. Also, I love the interesting faces, because I began in animation and I love actors with strange faces.
MM: What do you think are you biggest strengths as a director?
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by gerwinters on 6/07/10 at 7:32 am
I beleive in bridging high art and scholarly concept with translation into simple human storylines...that is how I approach my work as a filmmaker/writer.
- Comment by mbt lami on 7/01/10 at 2:18 am
I like this so much.
Thanks for posting.- Comment by facebook layouts on 7/09/10 at 11:50 pm
Micmacs à tire-larigot is the latest film from the director of Amélie and City of Lost Children, Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The film excels in all the areas he’s best known for. From his use of colors to his original take on an “action film” he makes the film both artistically stunning and exciting to watch
- Comment by Alex on 11/18/10 at 9:42 am
Amelie is the best movie ever. recently went to paris and looked up some of the locations like: rue mouffetard. yum!
This story was published in the Spring 2010 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Of Micmacs and Moviemaking / Jean-Pierre Jeunet enjoys the simple pleasures of cinema
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