Review of Micmacs (2009) by Dan B — 05 Jan 2011

Joyous kinetic romp that plays also as a fan letter to cinema (Chaplin, Tati, Leone and more). From the moment Dany Boon appeared mouthing along to Bogart and Bacall I suspected I was in for a treat, a conviction reinforced by the appearance of a music credit for Warner Brothersâ?? great composer, Max Steiner. (Apologies for the film geekery, but we have to grab our pleasures where we find them.) The cast are uniformly excellent and Jeunet once again demonstrates his mastery of visual story-telling. It arguably flags a little in the closing stages and could maybe have been a tad shorter, but all in all this is as entertaining a film as Iâ??ve seen in a long time.

This preview screening at the NFT was followed by a Q&A with Jeunet, who revealed himself to be full of passion and good-humour as he wittily, candidly and patiently answered the audienceâ??s questions. Perhaps his most significant response concerned the (implicit) politics of a film that picks arms traders as its villains; Jeunet effectively brushed aside any suggestion that he was a political filmmaker in the mould of Costa-Gavras or Ken Loach (his examples). â??My politics,â?? he said, â??Are just to entertain people for an hour and a half.â??