Micmacs à tire-larigot

Hands down my favorite film of the festival, I can't believe that Micmacs almost didn't make my list. I don't know what I was thinking.
This movie had two screenings, one at Roy Thomson Hall and the other, which I attended, at Ryerson. I should have known that it's a big-billed film and why the heck wouldn't I want to see it?
Oh my gosh, this movie was amazing.
I find it hard to pick a favorite anything in life. Colour, artist, singer, actor, piece of music, type of food, etc. Out of all of the films that I've ever seen, I can confidently say that Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain is my favorite. That's how stand-out good it was. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet made both.
I love his whimsical style, his jokes, his attention to detail, his choice of music...everything. I love the actors and actresses that he reuses in his films (duh!, Dominique Pinon - among others), I love it all!
The film stars Dany Boon as Bazil (although, I would have loved to see the originally cast, Jamel Debbouze in the role, but M. Boon was truly excellent) whose father is killed by a landmine and he, himself gets shot by a stray bullet from a local arms manufacturer. Flashfoward to the present where he finds a new family in a form of a very motley crew, each with their own story and talents. Throw in a little Mission Impossible (M. Jeunet said so!) to Bazil's plan at revenge and voila, a hit movie.
At one point in the film, I actually thought that this was a film with a serious political message and although M. Jeunet (on-hand for a Q&A - wahoo!) admitted, that obviously, one could see a grand message, it's a ridiculous message to harp as it's clearly common sense, this film is a comedy. M. Jeunet made it sound like he'd whipped this film together in a short amount of time and had just pieced it together from notes of things that he wanted to put in movies and things that he enjoyed, and I suppose I can kind of see that as this movie just seems so much like, well, exactly what he likes to do in his movies. M. Jeunet told us that he had been creating a movie adaptation of Yann Martel's award winning book, Life of Pi, but his ideas required a ridiculous budget and so he turned his attention away from that proposed film and seemingly threw this film together.
This is the first screening that I've attended that gave a standing ovation to the director and of course it was well-deserved.
So, it's clear that I loved the movie. I really need to watch Delicatessen. Obviously, I would highly recommend this film and I hope it wins some kind of recognition. If not, I hope that at least one gazillion people watch it. And if they don't laugh out loud, there's something wrong with them. Bonus part for me, I got to practice my French comprehension again. See, there's nothing bad about this film!

- picture courtesy of www.tiff09.ca