Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Encyclopedia
Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a French
film director
.
, Loire
, France
. He bought his first camera at the age of 17 and made short films while studying animation
at Cinémation Studios. He befriended Marc Caro
, a designer and comic book
artist who became his longtime collaborator and co-director.
Together, Jeunet and Caro directed award-winning animations. Their first live action film was The Bunker of the Last Gunshots (1981), a short film about soldiers in a bleak futuristic world. Jeunet also directed numerous advertisements and music video
s, such as Jean Michel Jarre
's Zoolook
(together with Caro).
Jeunet and Caro's first feature film was Delicatessen
(1991), a black comedy
set in a famine
-plagued post-apocalyptic world, in which an apartment building above a delicatessen is ruled by a butcher
who kills people in order to feed his tenants.
They next made The City of Lost Children
(1995), a dark, multi-layered fantasy film
about a mad scientist who kidnaps children in order to steal their dreams thus preventing him from aging prematurely.
The success of The City of Lost Children led to an invitation to direct the fourth movie in the Alien
series–Alien Resurrection (1997). Like his subsequent films, this one is credited only to Jeunet, although Caro did some work on the art design.
Jeunet returned to France. The clout of having a Hollywood
film under his belt gave him free rein on his next project, Amélie
, starring Audrey Tautou
. Amélie diverges in tone from his earlier films, as it has romantic and comedic elements and lacks his previous films' dark mise-en-scene. This change is sometimes attributed to Caro's minimal participation. This story, about a woman who takes pleasure in doing good deeds but cannot find love herself, was a huge critical and commercial success worldwide and was nominated for several Academy Awards
. For this film, Jeunet also gained a European Film Award for Best Director.
In 2004, Jeunet released A Very Long Engagement
, an adaptation of the novel by Sébastien Japrisot
. The film, starring Audrey Tautou, chronicled a woman's search for her missing lover after World War I
.
In 2006 Jeunet rejected an offer to direct Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix
.
In 2007, Jeunet pulled out of directing Yann Martel
's novel Life of Pi
for budgetary reasons.
In 2009 he released Micmacs à tire-larigot
.
Jeunet has also directed numerous commercials including a 2'25" film for Chanel N° 5 featuring his frequently used actress Audrey Tautou
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
.
Life and career
Jean-Pierre Jeunet was born in RoanneRoanne
Roanne is a commune in the Loire department in central France.It is located northwest of Lyon on the Loire River.-Economy:...
, Loire
Loire
Loire is an administrative department in the east-central part of France occupying the River Loire's upper reaches.-History:Loire was created in 1793 when after just 3½ years the young Rhône-et-Loire department was split into two. This was a response to counter-Revolutionary activities in Lyon...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He bought his first camera at the age of 17 and made short films while studying animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
at Cinémation Studios. He befriended Marc Caro
Marc Caro
Marc Caro, born April 2, 1956, is a French filmmaker and cartoonist, best known for his co-directing projects with Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The two of them met at a film festival in 1974, and directed three short and two feature length films together....
, a designer and comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
artist who became his longtime collaborator and co-director.
Together, Jeunet and Caro directed award-winning animations. Their first live action film was The Bunker of the Last Gunshots (1981), a short film about soldiers in a bleak futuristic world. Jeunet also directed numerous advertisements and music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s, such as Jean Michel Jarre
Jean Michel Jarre
Jean Michel André Jarre is a French composer, performer and music producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and New Age genres, and known as an organiser of outdoor spectacles of his music featuring lights, laser displays, and fireworks.Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and...
's Zoolook
Zoolook
Zoolook is the fourth overall mainstream studio album by Jean Michel Jarre, and released on Disques Dreyfus in 1984. It makes extensive use of digital recording techniques and sampling. It is considered by many fans as one of Jarre's most experimental albums to date...
(together with Caro).
Jeunet and Caro's first feature film was Delicatessen
Delicatessen (film)
Delicatessen is a 1991 French black comedy film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, starring Dominique Pinon and Karin Viard. It is set in an apartment building in a post-apocalyptic France of an ambiguous time period. The story focuses on the tenants of the building and their desperate...
(1991), a black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
set in a famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
-plagued post-apocalyptic world, in which an apartment building above a delicatessen is ruled by a butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
who kills people in order to feed his tenants.
They next made The City of Lost Children
The City of Lost Children
The City of Lost Children is a dystopian French fantasy/drama film by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet released in 1995. The film is stylistically related to the previous and subsequent Jeunet films, Delicatessen and Amélie. It was entered into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:A mad scientist,...
(1995), a dark, multi-layered fantasy film
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...
about a mad scientist who kidnaps children in order to steal their dreams thus preventing him from aging prematurely.
The success of The City of Lost Children led to an invitation to direct the fourth movie in the Alien
Alien (franchise)
The Alien film series is a science fiction horror film franchise, focusing on Lieutenant Ellen Ripley and her battle with an extraterrestrial lifeform, commonly referred to as "the Alien"...
series–Alien Resurrection (1997). Like his subsequent films, this one is credited only to Jeunet, although Caro did some work on the art design.
Jeunet returned to France. The clout of having a Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
film under his belt gave him free rein on his next project, Amélie
Amélie
Amélie is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre...
, starring Audrey Tautou
Audrey Tautou
Audrey Justine Tautou is a French model and film actress, best known for playing the title character in the award-winning 2001 film Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, Sophie Neveu in the 2006 thriller The Da Vinci Code, Irène in Priceless and Coco Chanel in Coco avant Chanel...
. Amélie diverges in tone from his earlier films, as it has romantic and comedic elements and lacks his previous films' dark mise-en-scene. This change is sometimes attributed to Caro's minimal participation. This story, about a woman who takes pleasure in doing good deeds but cannot find love herself, was a huge critical and commercial success worldwide and was nominated for several Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
. For this film, Jeunet also gained a European Film Award for Best Director.
In 2004, Jeunet released A Very Long Engagement
A Very Long Engagement
A Very Long Engagement is a 2004 French romantic war film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou. It is a fictional tale about a young woman's desperate search for her fiancé who might have been killed on the battle of the Somme, during World War I...
, an adaptation of the novel by Sébastien Japrisot
Sébastien Japrisot
Sébastien Japrisot was a French author, screenwriter and film director, born in Marseille. His pseudonym was an anagram of Jean-Baptiste Rossi, his real name...
. The film, starring Audrey Tautou, chronicled a woman's search for her missing lover after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
In 2006 Jeunet rejected an offer to direct Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a 2007 fantasy film directed by David Yates and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the fifth instalment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Michael Goldenberg and produced by David Heyman and David Barron...
.
In 2007, Jeunet pulled out of directing Yann Martel
Yann Martel
Yann Martel is a Canadian author best known for the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi.-Early life:Martel was born in Salamanca, Spain where his father was posted as a diplomat for the Canadian government. He was raised in Costa Rica, France, Mexico, and Canada...
's novel Life of Pi
Life of Pi
Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age...
for budgetary reasons.
In 2009 he released Micmacs à tire-larigot
Micmacs à tire-larigot
Micmacs is a 2009 French comedy film by French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Its original French title is Les MicMacs à tire-larigot, . The film is billed as a "satire on the world arms trade"...
.
Jeunet has also directed numerous commercials including a 2'25" film for Chanel N° 5 featuring his frequently used actress Audrey Tautou
Audrey Tautou
Audrey Justine Tautou is a French model and film actress, best known for playing the title character in the award-winning 2001 film Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, Sophie Neveu in the 2006 thriller The Da Vinci Code, Irène in Priceless and Coco Chanel in Coco avant Chanel...
.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Director | Writer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Delicatessen Delicatessen (film) Delicatessen is a 1991 French black comedy film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, starring Dominique Pinon and Karin Viard. It is set in an apartment building in a post-apocalyptic France of an ambiguous time period. The story focuses on the tenants of the building and their desperate... |
||
| 1995 | The City of Lost Children The City of Lost Children The City of Lost Children is a dystopian French fantasy/drama film by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet released in 1995. The film is stylistically related to the previous and subsequent Jeunet films, Delicatessen and Amélie. It was entered into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:A mad scientist,... |
||
| 1997 | Alien Ressurection | ||
| 2001 | Amélie Amélie Amélie is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre... |
||
| 2004 | A Very Long Engagement A Very Long Engagement A Very Long Engagement is a 2004 French romantic war film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou. It is a fictional tale about a young woman's desperate search for her fiancé who might have been killed on the battle of the Somme, during World War I... |
||
| 2009 | Micmacs | ||
Collaborations
| Delicatessen Delicatessen (film) Delicatessen is a 1991 French black comedy film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, starring Dominique Pinon and Karin Viard. It is set in an apartment building in a post-apocalyptic France of an ambiguous time period. The story focuses on the tenants of the building and their desperate... |
The City of Lost Children The City of Lost Children The City of Lost Children is a dystopian French fantasy/drama film by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet released in 1995. The film is stylistically related to the previous and subsequent Jeunet films, Delicatessen and Amélie. It was entered into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:A mad scientist,... |
Alien Resurrection |
Amélie Amélie Amélie is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre... |
A Very Long Engagement A Very Long Engagement A Very Long Engagement is a 2004 French romantic war film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou. It is a fictional tale about a young woman's desperate search for her fiancé who might have been killed on the battle of the Somme, during World War I... |
Micmacs Micmacs à tire-larigot Micmacs is a 2009 French comedy film by French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Its original French title is Les MicMacs à tire-larigot, . The film is billed as a "satire on the world arms trade"... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marc Caro Marc Caro Marc Caro, born April 2, 1956, is a French filmmaker and cartoonist, best known for his co-directing projects with Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The two of them met at a film festival in 1974, and directed three short and two feature length films together.... |
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| Jean-Claude Dreyfus Jean-Claude Dreyfus Jean-Claude Dreyfus is a French actor. He began his career in film acting in 1973 in the film Comment réussir quand on est con et pleurnichard. Dreyfus is notable for his portrayal of a butcher in the black comedy Delicatessen by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet... |
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| André Dussollier André Dussollier André Dussollier is a French actor.-Filmography:* 1970 : Ils, directed by Jean-Daniel Simon* 1972 : Les Chemins de pierre, directed by Joseph Drimal... |
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| Ticky Holgado Ticky Holgado Ticky Holgado , pseudonym of Joseph Holgado, was a French actor and a frequent collaborator with Jean-Pierre Jeunet.... |
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| Mathieu Kassovitz Mathieu Kassovitz Mathieu Kassovitz is a French director, screenwriter, producer and actor, best known for his Cannes-winning drama La Haine. Kassovitz is also the founder of MNP Entreprise, a film production company.... |
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| Yolande Moreau Yolande Moreau Yolande Moreau is a Belgian comedienne, actress and film director.-Biography:She has won two César Awards for Best Actress, in 2005 for When the Sea Rises and in 2009 for Séraphine.... |
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| Ron Perlman Ron Perlman Ronald N. "Ron" Perlman is an American television, film and voice over actor. He is known for having played Vincent in the TV series Beauty and the Beast , a Deathstroke figure known as Slade in the animated series Teen Titans, Clarence "Clay" Morrow in Sons of Anarchy, the comic book character... |
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| Dominique Pinon Dominique Pinon Dominique Pinon is a French actor whose most famous roles have been in the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Jean-Jacques Beineix. In the theatre, he has appeared in the plays of Gildas Bourdet, Jorge Lavelli and Valère Novarina... |
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| Rufus Rufus (actor) Rufus is the stage name of Italo-French actor Jacques Narcy. He is also called Zio Vittorio... |
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| Audrey Tautou Audrey Tautou Audrey Justine Tautou is a French model and film actress, best known for playing the title character in the award-winning 2001 film Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, Sophie Neveu in the 2006 thriller The Da Vinci Code, Irène in Priceless and Coco Chanel in Coco avant Chanel... |
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