Synopsis: Chaotic colourful comical caper involving clowns, cannibals and cellos
Directors: Jean-Marie Jeunet, Marc Caro
Actors: Dominique Pinon, Marie-Laure Dougnac, Jean-Claude Dreyfus
Date: 1991
How viewed: Lovefilm rental
Rating: 5/5
David Meyer says:
The weird angle action shots and the insane stunts suggest Spielberg on LSD, a childlike and goodhearted imagination run completely riot.
I say:
I recall seeing this around the time it came out, and not being overly impressed, but I've totally changed my mind - it's absolutely brilliant! It's Sweeney Todd meets David Lynch meets Terry Gilliam meets 'The Triplets of Belleville' meets Tom and Jerry, and then some. In a desolate land where the food has run out, new residents in the rooms above a butchers are slaughtered and eaten, but the butcher's daughter falls in love with the latest tenant and tries to save him from the chop, aided (naturally!) by the troglodytes who live in the sewers. The film is so full of invention - it's like a real life cartoon, with every actor a caricature, and extraordinary scenes, such a filling a room with water so that when the pursuers open the door they are swept away in a torrent, the old guy living in a room full of frogs and snails, which he is gradually eating, the woman constantly trying to commit suicide by the most contrived methods, and the classic scene of a couple making love in a bed with noisy springs and everyone else in the building doing something to the same rhythm. Thus, despite the somewhat gruesome storyline you can't help grinning all the way through it. Thoroughly recommended!
I say:
I recall seeing this around the time it came out, and not being overly impressed, but I've totally changed my mind - it's absolutely brilliant! It's Sweeney Todd meets David Lynch meets Terry Gilliam meets 'The Triplets of Belleville' meets Tom and Jerry, and then some. In a desolate land where the food has run out, new residents in the rooms above a butchers are slaughtered and eaten, but the butcher's daughter falls in love with the latest tenant and tries to save him from the chop, aided (naturally!) by the troglodytes who live in the sewers. The film is so full of invention - it's like a real life cartoon, with every actor a caricature, and extraordinary scenes, such a filling a room with water so that when the pursuers open the door they are swept away in a torrent, the old guy living in a room full of frogs and snails, which he is gradually eating, the woman constantly trying to commit suicide by the most contrived methods, and the classic scene of a couple making love in a bed with noisy springs and everyone else in the building doing something to the same rhythm. Thus, despite the somewhat gruesome storyline you can't help grinning all the way through it. Thoroughly recommended!
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