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Micmacs
Coverage by Nobuhiro Hosoki
Story : A man and his friends come up with an intricate and original plan to destroy two big weapons manufacturers.
Opens May 28, 2010
Runtime:1 hr. 44 min.
Interview with Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Q: It’s been five years since your last film, “A Very Long Engagement.” Had you been planning “Micmacs” the entire time?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: I worked two years on “The Life of Pi,” an adaptation of Yann Martel’s book, for Twentieth Century Fox. I wrote the story, made location scouting and made a storyboard. To imagine the storyboard, I built a model and, with my video camera, I took maybe 3,500 pictures. The film was ready. We drew everything and it was six months of work—for peanuts, because it was too expensive. After two years, I said, “OK, I quit because I need to make a film!” And then I wrote “Micmacs.”
Q: You’ve assembled quite an acting troupe for “Micmacs.”
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: Each time, I try to find a family of interesting faces. I follow the tradition of films from the 40s – at this time, there were so many interesting faces in France. I often work with the same because there are not thousands and thousands in France. I’m looking for interesting faces and characters actors, and it’s not for everybody.
Q: Also orphans.
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: It’s the subject of all my films and it’s not on purpose! Each time I write a new story I say, “Oh my god! This is the same story!” It’s pathetic, in fact. But I love a guy with a handicap – like Mathilde in “A Very Long Engagement” – with a weak character they must be much stronger to fight. It’s more emotional, and that’s it.
Q: What was it like collaborating on this with your longtime screenwriting partner Guillaume Laurent?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: I need to find the concept of the film. Once we have the concept, we open the box of details we collect and we choose the best details. When the box is packed with details, at this time, we start to write the story. He writes the dialogue scenes and I write the visual scenes.
Q: How do you choose your acting troupe?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: Each time, I do some tests with everybody – even Dominique Pinon, my favorite actor. For example, with Yolande Moreau, it was only fifteen minutes, but she found the witch aspect. And I said, “Oh, it’s perfect!” I do that with every actor, one-by-one, and if I can, I rehearse. One day, we are all at the same stage at the same time. It’s like an orchestra. If you rehearse with the trumpet and after, with the violin, when you’re shooting with everybody, you can see it works.
Q: Do you have a lifetime contract with Dominique Pinon?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: He surprises me all the time so I don’t see any reason not to hire him. And he’s a neighbor. Just joking. He has a beautiful face. You have two definitions of beauty: Greek statues and African statues. Pinon is definitely an African statue. I don’t like Greek statues.
Q: Was “Life of Pi” supposed to be in English? And do you have any desire to make another English language film?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: Yeah, in English. It was pretty much a war movie. But why not? Paris is done. I’ve shot everything I loved in Paris. A city I would like to shoot in is San Francisco. My wife is from the Bay Area and I love the city.
Q: Because of Hitchcock?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: Yeah, maybe! It’s like a toy. You have the bridge, the beautiful tramway.
Q: What about shooting a film in New York?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: You’ve seen New York so many times. A friend of mine came to New York for the first time last year, and she wasn’t stunned like I was when I first visited in the seventies because she’s seen it in so many films!
Q: So what inspired the scenario for “Micmacs?”
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: I hate this question! I will be short. Three feelings: the bond of silly people, the revenge story and the weapons deal; three different feelings.
Q: Had you always wanted to make a sort of heist film?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: A little bit, yeah. “Mission: Impossible” was a great inspiration. I was a big fan when I was a kid. Now, when you watch “Mission: Impossible,” it was so cheap! Everything was shot in L.A. Even Russia was shot in L.A.! I remember they had a big dinner scene with a Mafioso and there was this tiny piece of chicken on a plate!
Q: Did visit and interview any arms dealers?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: We did. We visited a very interesting arms factory in Belgium. We met four or five interesting people. They have a passion for technology and only the technology. They could work for another industry. They completely forget the final destination of what they do. We were pretty honest with them. I didn’t say this was a film for weapons. Now, there is a new philosophy for weapons: it’s more expensive to hurt people than to kill people.
It’s terrible. When you have a band of guys on the battlefield, if someone is dead, he’s dead. If someone is injured then they have to take care of him, so six people are busy. During “The City of Lost Children,” we were walking just beside the missile industries and we used to see nice people in the afternoon in the restaurants. It was interesting to think of the paradox of a nice guy who invented bad things.
Q: You have a very distinctive look to all your films. I understand you experiment a lot with color grading, but how do you achieve this vibrant look?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: Tools I have. Warm color, childish spirit, short lens, stupid jokes. It’s a kind of style. I love when you recognize the style of a director. Ang Lee, for example – he doesn’t have a real style and changes his style for each film and he’s a great director, but I prefer Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Emir Kusturica or, a long time ago, Stanley Kubrick or Fellini. You can recognize their style after ten seconds – if you like them, of course. If you don’t—I used to say, “If you like my film, welcome. I have a fish restaurant. If you don’t like fish, there are some beautiful places across the street with meat.”
Q: I spoke with Louis Leterrier recently and he said that blockbusters are really attractive to him because when he was 10-15, there weren’t any films for him in France and he relied on American films. What films inspired you when you were a kid?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: Strangely, when I was a kid, I watched “Tom & Jerry” and the Disney movies like any kid. My first revelation was “Once Upon a Time in the West,” and I was 17. The second one was “A Clockwork Orange,” when I was 18. I saw it 14 times in the theater. But after “Once Upon a Time…,” a couldn’t speak for three days. I was in shock. My parents were like, “What’s the problem? Are you sick?” And I said, “You can’t understand.” It was a revelation! You can give pleasure to the audience with close-ups of the eyes, crane shots, sound effects. It was amazing.
Q: When did you start experimenting with filmmaking?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: I started at eight. At this time, I didn’t see any movies but I made a small theatre with puppets. I destroyed the lamp of my parents for the lighting. And they had to pay! I was producer, too. And later, I had a View-Master, and I used to cut the frame to change the order and I recorded my friend with a small tape recorder. It was a kind of movie.
Q: You’re rumored to have turned down big Hollywood productions like “Hellboy” and “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” in the past. Was this because of your experience making “Alien: Resurrection?”
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: Not “Hellboy.” Just “Harry Potter.” No, I’m tired of hearing that! So many people would like to hear it was a nightmare. For example, the guy who made “Up in the Air” ,Jason Reitman, he put a joke of the dwarf and he said, “It’s like in the French film,“Amelie."
Then, he said in an interview, “He was kind of a master, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, because it was a nightmare for him to make ‘Alien’ and he had the courage to leave.” No! It was not a nightmare! It was just difficult because you have to convince a lot of people to fight and to struggle. In France, I have complete freedom. It’s a big difference.
Q: Would you ever do another studio film?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: Why not? I read a lot of scripts from my American agent. “Life of Pi” was for 20th Century Fox. But, in reality, I would like to find a way to direct American actors but with a French production. Luc Besson does that.
Q: Are there any American actors you’d love to direct?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: I just spoke to Jodie Foster and she’d love to do a film in French. She speaks better French than me! And I’ve heard so many times Forest Whitaker would love to shoot with me. I say, “Why the frustration? Why not?” I love the English actress Emma Thompson. She’s great.
Q: There isn’t a lot of dialogue from your central character in “Micmacs.” Were you looking to achieve a vaudeville effect?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: No. We use very old, French expressions for the blank guy. If I shoot in French, it’s to play with my own language. And we know we’re going to lose in foreign countries because I’m lucky that my films are sold everywhere. But we know we’re going to lose something. If I want more, I’ll have to shoot in English.
Q: How did you cast Dany Boon as your lead?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: It was the exact same story as how I cast “Amelie.” The guy I had cast Jamel Debbouze, “Amelie” had passed maybe ten weeks before the shooting, so I hired Dany. He’s the perfect actor for me – like Audrey Tautou – because he’s a technician. He’s a director, an author and very creative and imaginative. You never have any bad takes with him.
Q: You’ve been rumored for the third “Tintin” film…
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: I was maybe the first one. After the Belgian guy who made “Toto the Hero” , he was writing the script, and they didn’t like it. They reached me and I had an appointment at the Tintin building. They told me, “You will have someone over your shoulder checking you.” I went, “Oh my god!” And I made “A Very Long Engagement.” I am tired about sequels and remakes. Everyone speaks about that now. Maybe because I am getting older but I don’t like superhero action movies now. Remakes are not very satisfying to me.
Q: Could you talk about the application of technology in your films? They all seem to incorporate this very future-primitive quality.
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: I don’t know. I love beautiful, old objects. Some people think, “Oh, he’s very conservative because he lives in the past.” It’s completely fake! We use new technology for visual effects, sound. I have the iPhone!
Q: What about your musical influences?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: Oh! Anything from Massive Attack to music for yoga. It’s very wide!
Q: Any recent French films you’ve enjoyed?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: Let’s see… I am not a big fan of French cinema. I have a passion for French cinema from the ‘40s, like Jacques Prévert. I collect some old scripts. I rebuilt the personal archive with the Cinémathèque française because they were in an old basement in Boston, believe it or not. My favorite film is “Le quai des brumes."
Q: What do you think is the problem with French cinema nowadays?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNETJEUNET: The young director with talent, they want to make all war movies, shoot in Hollywood and make bloody, stupid films. The others are so intellectual and they want to make intellectual movies. More, it’s ugly in terms of picture, writing, acting then art.
Q: What about recent films in general? Any you enjoyed?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: Oh, yes! I love “Mary and Max” from Adam Elliot. Fucking masterpiece! I met him in Australia and would love to help him. He’s going to send me a puppet from his film!
Q: So what are you working on now?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: I read. I read one book per day because I would like to make an adaptation and I found the book in the end. But, the author, who lives in New York, wants to make the adaptation himself. He’s not a director. He’s a screenwriter. And I think it’s a shame and a bad idea. It’s “City of Thieves” by David Benioff. It’s a masterpiece. It’s tough because when you fall in love with a book, it’s like a love story where, in the morning, your partner says, “I got married. Bad luck!”
Q: Any other filmmaking ideas?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: I have a nice idea about robots. It will be both live-action and robots. I have to work on it! I won’t tell you anything! It’s so difficult because we have fifteen films opening in France every week. I would’ve wanted to make “Micmacs” in 3D, but it was too early.
Q: Are you and Audrey Tautou planning on working together soon?
JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET: Yes! We finished a trilogy because I made “Chanel No. 5.” It was a beautiful commercial. I had an appointment here in a beautiful office overlooking Central Park. In ten minutes, I sold them on the story. Then, I said, “OK, but we need a budget.” And they said, “Mmhmm.” They gave me complete freedom. I was the artistic director, author, producer. It was four months and we made a beautiful thing.
Q: But now that the trilogy’s over, will you no longer be working together?
Jean-Pierre Jeunet: No! I need to find a story. I make a film every three or four years, so I need a story, and if there is a character for her – or Jodie Foster – I would be happy! I’m getting old though! I teach a master class in Provence and I realized that many of the kids weren’t born for “Delicatessen” and I think, “Oh my god!”
End.