Jean-Pierre Jeunet (review)

Abstract

Elizabeth Ezra. Jean-Pierre Jeunet. urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008. Jean-Pierre Jeunet by Elizabeth Ezra is the first full book published on the contemporary French film director. Part of the reputable Contemporary Film Directors series, the book proposes engaging commentaries of Jeunet's short and full-length films. Thematic chapters follow a brief introduction, and the book closes with a translation and transcription of a 2005 French television interview with Jeunet. A complete bibliography of secondary sources in both French and English finishes the book; Isabelle Vandershelden's French Film Guide: Amelie (U. of Illinois Press, 2007) just missed inclusion. Images from the director's features and the 1981 short, Le Bunker de la derniere rafale, parcel the book; the rare film images, from L'Evasion and Le Manege, the ones aficionados hanker to see, are disappointingly absent. To compensate, the author puts forth full descriptions and partial analyses of these early shorts. The author studies numerous threads woven through Jeunet's cinema over the years while supplying enough film detail for those who have yet to see the films. Her brief synopses are clear and well situated in developed analyses. The strong point of this project is the in-depth cultural content and context which the author provides. For example, situating into French History Jeunet's earlier films, Delicatessen and La Cite des enfants perdus, allows Ezra to present some convincing correlations between film narratives and their contemporaneous contexts, evoking the Klaus Barbie trial, the French colonial project, and the conflict in Algeria. She takes risks which lead to original thought-provoking readings; at times, however, her analyses stop short which is the case when discussing Jeunet's earlier works alongside cinema du look directors, without delving into the director's career in commercial filmmaking. Uncovering Jeunet's approach to cinema as a director of music clips and television advertisements would have brought about an interesting discussion of his passion for mise-en-scene, pre-production methods and post-production techniques. Rather than providing full monographs, chapters focus around one feature film while reactivating inquiry into themes such as prosthe sis and corporeal mutation, codes, reproduction and cloning, collect ing, the transnational as well as French idiosyncrasies. Commentaries are rich in film and national literary history: Montaigne, Hugo, Perec, Gance, Came, Kassovitz have all found a proper place. …