MICMACS A TIRE-LARIGOT

France, 2009, 105 minutes, Colour.
Dany Boone, Andre Dussolier, Nicolas Marie, Jean- Pierre Marielle, Yolande Moreaux, Julie Ferrier, Omar Sy, Dominique Pinon.
Directed by Jean- Pierre Jeunet.

Once upon a time, there was a very strange, intriguing and enjoyable French comic fantasy, Delicatessen. In the 1990s it became something of a classic with its strange characters (odd-looking too) and bizarre goings on and humour. There was also City of Lost Children and Alien Resurrection and film buffs found a significantly different film-maker who had a rather wild and exotic visual imagination as well as flair for storytelling. By 2001, there was Amelie who charmed millions of people. On the other hand, there was the serious World War I epic, a Very Long Engagement, which starred Audrey Tautou who had been Amelie. Jean- Pierre Jeunet seemed to be something of a character, something of a movie magician. Then, some projects that did not eventuate – and no film for seven years.

The movie buffs breathed a sigh of relief when Micmacs appeared and, it seems, Jeunet has lost nothing of his magica qualities.

The story is rather preposterous (and some elements of wish-fulfilment) – but what does that matter when he tells it so entertainingly. Dany Boon (who made a comic impression in Welcome to the Sticks) is Bazil, whose father was killed by a landmine and who, as an adult, is wounded in the head by a bullet bouncing around his video store. He lives. But, wandering Paris, he comes across a group of eccentrics who work in a cave on all kinds of inventions. They welcome Bazil. In the meantime, two of the biggest and wealthiest arms dealers in Paris are rivals in getting contracts – and it is their companies who have been responsible for Bazil's situation.

This leads to all kinds of comic situations as Bazil and his friends (scientists, misfits, a surveyor who is a whizz at assessing heights, weights and distances, an a contortionist) eventually wreak mischief and then havoc on the two dealers.

Bazil is the innocent abroad who is a nice man who has been victimised – and he and his associates use comic means to achieve a comeuppance.

Plenty of smiles and some laughs. Fascination for the set designs and costumes. And a mischievous delight in following Bazil and co in their sometimes entertainingly outlandish escapades.

1. An entertainment? A fantasy? A contemporary message film about the poor? About arms-dealing? About international corporations and conspiracies? The style of parody, satire and fantasy?

2. The work of the director, his career, his range of fantasy – with the solemn and the serious, even violent touch? Sentiment? The visuals? The communities, eccentrics, odd characters, their appearance, clothes, activities? The blend of the bizarre and the sweet?

3. The visuals for the characters, the sets, Paris, the cave, the mansions? Real at times and stylised at times? The aural atmosphere of the film, sounds, music, different, eccentric?

4. The title and the group and their activities?

5. The introduction to Bazil? As hero? The story of his father, Algeria, 1979, the desert, defusing the bomb, his death? The hero father?

6. The introduction to the adult Bazil, working in the video store, reading, the vehicle passing, the bullet, the ricochet, the injury, the bullet in his brain, in hospital, saved but the bullet remaining? The risk for his dying?

7. No job, no home, wandering the city, begging? People helping? His encounter with the group, going to the cave, joining the group?

8. The portrait of the community – their characters, appearances, contributions? The expert on picking locks, the girl who was the contortionist, the ethnographer and his work with maps, the young boy, the inventor, the woman who was a personalised but impersonal calculator, the stuntman and his injuries? The cook and the mother of the group? The routines, life, meals, work?

9. The theme of the weapons dealers, as characters, rivals, their way of life, their meetings, the double-deals, their hostility, sabotage? Selling to suspicious regimes? The visit of the Africans and their pleading their cause, money? The French and the satire on post-colonialism?

10. The group, the decision to abduct the arms dealers, forcing them to confessions? Their treatment, the comic interrogations – and torture?

11. The decision to put the expose on the internet, shaming the dealers, their loss of reputation?

12. Bazil, his finding a meaning in life, the solving of the mystery of his father’s death, avenging it, his own accident? The film’s attitude towards arms dealers and contemporary dealings with suspect regimes?

13. A good-natured satire – and comically inventive?