Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a French writer/director that makes amazingly visually-appealing, dream-like films. He has an eye for the fantastical. A couple of his films are mainstream: Alien: Resurrection and Amelie. But his best work is a little under the radar. Below are descriptions of two of the most visually delightful films I have seen. They are dark and quirkily funny.
Delicatessen (1991) – written and directed by Jeunet (with Marc Caro)
Post-apocalyptic surrealist black comedy about the landlord of an apartment building who occasional prepares a delicacy for his odd tenants.
The City of Lost Children (1995) – written and directed by Jeunet (with others)
With a mad scientist kidnapping children to steal their dreams, only brave young Miette and a kindhearted circus strongman (Ron Perlman) can save them. Part fantasy, part nightmare…
This one is a bit more disturbing than Delicatessen. The mad scientist is creepy.
Dominique Pinon is the guy in the photo below (multiplied by four). Jeunet employs Pinon in all of his films and this guy, with his distinctive face, is exuberant and perfectly suited for surrealist films of this kind.
Last night I watched Micmacs (2009)
Jeunet takes a satirical look at the global arms trade with this foreign-language comedy starring Dany Boon as Bazil, who rallies his friends to take down weapons manufacturers responsible for his father's death. Bazil also discovers a dump into an underground haven for cool tools and sculptures crafted from discarded junk.
Since this post is going a bit long, I’ll just say that this French-subtitled film is worth watching. However, the Onion review sums up my overall feelings towards the film, “Longtime Jeunet fans may be a little disappointed at the film’s feather-lightness, which admits almost none of the grimness of his Delicatessen or Lost Children…”
