Upclose with Jean-Pierre Jeunet
He’s one of the most successful film directors in modern French cinema, and he certainly talks like one. Jean-Pierre Jeunet (“Delicatessen,” “The City of Lost Children” and “Amélie,”) tells Penny Zhou why he doesn’t like realism, “Harry Potter” or Wes Anderson’s working style.
HK Magazine: Where did you find inspiration for your new film “Micmacs”?
Jean-Pierre Jeunet: From God, from the sky. [Laughs.] Well, the movie is a mix of three different things—firstly I wanted to tell a revenge story, and I wanted to make it very funny and slapstick like cartoons. Also, the weapon deals theme had been in my mind for a long time.
HK: Do you like weapon manufacturers?
JPJ: They’re very nice and open people and are very passionate about technology. But meanwhile, they spend all their time inventing things that are made to hurt and kill people. It’s a strange paradox.
HK: What’s the essence of the movie?
JPJ: Essentially, this movie is about the power of the imagination. You can be poor, weak, homeless, handicapped and even a bit silly, but as you can see in the movie, with imagination, people like that can fight against much more powerful figures. And for me personally, it is the power of imagination that saved my life. I used to be a worker at a telephone company; had I not had my dreams and imagination, I wouldn’t be who I am today.
HK: You seem to love making fantasy movies. Why is that?
JPJ: I simply don’t like realism. If I want to see reality, I would rather watch documentaries. But as a director, I don’t want to make photocopies of the realistic world—I modify it. It’s much more interesting for me. And I admire directors with a strong and special vision of the world, such as Tim Burton, Emir Kusturica and David Lynch.
HK: You turned down “Hellboy” and one of the “Harry Potter” films.
JPJ: Nah, the “Hellboy” story isn’t true—don’t listen to the rumors! But I did turn down “Harry Potter” because for that movie, everything’s on the table. The designs, the cast and the costumes were all prepared, and all you had to do was to be there and say, “Okay, camera over here.” I had the courage to say no.
HK: Besides “Micmacs,” what have you been working on since 2004?
JPJ: Unfortunately I lost two years working on a project for 20th Century Fox called “Life of Pi.” It’s a beautiful adventure story about a young boy but it was extremely expensive, and that forced me to leave the project.