by James Mottram
It would be nice to say that Jean-Pierre Jeunet is back where it all began, but that’s not quite true. When we encounter him, he’s at the Cannes Film Festival to celebrate the twentieth anniversary (has it really been that long?) of Amélie. Tonight, the film will be screened on the beach, and even the torrential rain that’s been pouring all day looks to be passing as the sun tries to make an appearance. “Usually when I go on vacation, it rains!” moans Jeunet. “I’m a pessimistic guy!”
It’s easy to see why. When Jeunet submitted the film two decades ago, former Cannes Film Festival president Gilles Jacob refused it, claiming it was ‘uninteresting’. “I was depressed,” says Jeunet. “We said it will be a disaster!” Then his team began showing it to usually cynical critics. “Then the press attaché started to tell me, ‘I don’t know what is happening, but journalists, they love it. This is strange!’” As Jeunet says, almost casually, “It became something.”
That’s putting it mildly. Amélie – starring Audrey Tautou as the titular optimist – turned into a phenomenon. Grossing $174.2 million worldwide, it was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Foreign Language Film. It also won Best Film at the European Film Awards and was up for nine BAFTAs, winning two, including Best Screenplay for Jeunet and Guillaume Laurant. It even spawned a Broadway musical adaptation, though one that Jeunet distanced himself from.
While Jeunet was well known in the film business – his previous film was his first venture in Hollywood, 1997’s Alien Resurrection, the fourth in the xenomorph series – he’d never experienced anything like Amélie.
Living in Montmarte, the Parisian district where the film is set, he would sit at the terrace of the Café des Deux Moulins, featured in the movie. “Every four minutes someone took a picture. It was amazing. When I tried to say, ‘It’s me’, they were like ‘Of course!’ No one ever believed me!”
The whimsical story of a waitress who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better, the positive vibes Amélie radiated made it the ultimate feelgood movie. Coincidentally, it now feels like the perfect time for a re-release, given the last eighteen months the world has experienced. “I don’t know,” Jeunet says, uncertain. “Now, everything is about controversy, scandal, polemic. For everything. I don’t know. Amélie is okay. Because now it’s kind of a monument. But if it was a new release, I’m not sure.”
Did Jeunet see the influence of Amélie on other movies over the years? “You’ve got to be kidding!” he cries. “Yes!” He cites Guillermo Del Toro’s Oscar-winner The Shape of Water as a recent example. “But he told me – because he’s a friend – ‘Oh no no no! You and me, we are influenced by Terry Gilliam!’ Yeah, sure! But I love him, it’s OK, I don’t care.” He’s more than used to such pilfering. His 1991 black comedy Delicatessen, co-directed with Marc Caro, was also hugely influential on the style of other directors.
Unsurprisingly, Jeunet was repeatedly approached to make an Amélie sequel and a spin-off TV series. “We refused to because we know we couldn’t do the same quality. It was such a miracle… we are not able to write something like that again, especially a TV series because at this time it won’t be [starring] Audrey. It will be someone else.” He only sanctioned the musical, by composer Dan Messe, because proceeds went to children’s charity Mécénat Chirurgie cardiaque. But he was not keen. “Ugh! I hate it!” he spits. “It was a disaster.”
He’s still in touch with Tautou, and they remain on friendly terms – at least now. “She hated me because she became a star!” he recalls. “In the promotion, she told me I would like to change my job. And I said ‘Oh, we are looking for a supermarket cashier. I’m gonna help you!’ She said, ‘Okay, I know I’m lucky.’ Yes, you’re lucky, no complaints please! It’s insulting!” It was a tough role for her to follow, I suggest.
“You could tell me the same thing about me. Because when you make such a triumph, it’s not easy after to make a less successful film.”
Jeunet and Tautou followed Amélie with 2004’s wartime drama A Very Long Engagement, and Jeunet went on to make the more idiosyncratic Micmacs (2009) and The Young and Prodigious T. S. Spivet (2013). He also twice worked in Australia, in Sydney and Melbourne, directing black-and-white commercials for Commonwealth Bank – including one based around a beautiful pop-up book idea. “I loved Sydney,” he says. “More than Melbourne!”
While such small projects have kept him afloat, it’s been difficult to make movies of late, he admits. “The world is different now,” he sighs, pointing to the fact that marketing and commerce rule over the film business. For his latest project, Bigbug, he spent three years trying to find the finances. “I was totally depressed. “I was like, ‘I made Amélie – fuck! You should trust me.’ No! Netflix saved my life. In 24 hours – 24 hours – they said ‘Yes! It’s great!’”
Set fifty years from now, it has a typically bonkers-sounding plot about robots kidnapping humans – which clearly didn’t put off the streaming giant. “I warned them: It will be weird. They said, ‘Yes, it’s what we want!’” Starring French actress Elsa Zylberstein, Jeunet calls it “a comedy in confinement” Then his eyes widen. “By coincidence! It’s not about COVID!” This aside, Jeunet has two other scripts ready but after COVID-19 has shifted the cinema landscape, he has no idea what the future holds.
Would he make another big movie? “For Americans, probably not. I had the freedom when I was making Alien Resurrection. It wouldn’t be the case today. Now I heard some stories – the director is just a technician now! I refuse.”
He remembers turning down Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for similar reasons. Already exhausted after completing A Very Long Engagement, the Potter franchise was set in stone. “The costume design was ready, the production design was ready…I just had to say ‘rolling’ and ‘cut’. I love to create a world, but it was already done. Now I regret…for the money!”
A brand-new digital restoration of Amélie releases on DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital on September 1, and will also screen at participating cinemas on September 2.
