I Lost My Body: I Found A Masterpiece

By José Alberto Hermosillo

I Lost My Body, USA Poster. Photo courtesy Netflix ©2019 

“I Lost My Body” is a hypnotic and poetic animated masterpiece. Remarkable, surreal, bold, and fantastique!

The non-linear narrative unfolds in two parallel and symbolic universes, the Body and the Hand, which intricately converge at the heart-rending moment of separation.

The two leading players must face their unique reality. Naoufel, the body, is searching for love. The Hand, with a mind of its own, is searching for its body. Both characters struggle with a sense of belonging, intermittent recollections of their tragic past, and a mysterious quest to find what truly matters.

I Lost My Body, Gabrielle, and Naoufel. Photo courtesy Netflix ©2019

Working as a pizza delivery boy, Naoufel meets Gabrielle, a young librarian who leaves a lasting impression on him. This is the first occasion someone shows him a ray of affection, and Naoufel falls for Gabrielle.

Gabrielle is a self-absorbed, hardworking woman who looks after her elderly father, the owner of a carpentry shop on the verge of closing.

To break the routine and be close to Gabrielle, Naoufel gets a job at the older man’s shop, where his life will change forever.

 

I Lost My Body. Photo courtesy Netflix ©2019

“I Lost My Body” is an artistic representation of life grappling with tough existential questions.

The sublime and intricate French production is an adaptation of Guillaume Laurant’s novel Happy Hand.

Jérémy Chapin, director and Guillaume Laurant, writer. I Lost My Body. Photo José Alberto Hermosillo, Festival in LA ©2019

Mr. Laurant received his first Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay for Amélie in 2001. He also co-wrote A Very Long Engagement in 2004. Throughout a formal narrative, proper use of dialogue and symbolism - in Laurent’s newest adaptation, viewers can get a sense of his innovative “freestyle poetry.”

“It must be peaceful to be cut off from the world like that. To see nothing... hear nothing...” Naoufel.

Jérémy Chapin, director of I Lost My Body. Photo José Alberto Hermosillo, Festival in LA ©2019

First-time director Jérémy Chapin took a modern approach to the book’s narrative and structure. The auteur teamed up with Laurent to adapt the script.

 

Chapin’s style consists of making the invisible visible, which he masterfully achieves in “I Lost My Body.”

Before filming, Chapin asked himself, “How do we make a hand a vibrant character?” He began by looking at his Hand and discovered how to show the Hand’s point of view, then used that perspective to animate the inanimate.

I Lost My Body, The Hand. Photo courtesy Netflix ©2019

 

To lend authenticity to their unique character and to the rest of the film, Chapin underwent an immersive process using various animation techniques: abstract hand drawings, computer-generated animation, and CGI imagery.

“I Lost My Body” is a work of psychological fiction that achieves universality while addressing lost love and other meaningful themes.

CLICK PLAY ON AND CONTINUE READING:

The stunning soundtrack composed by Dan Levy is cosmic, mystical, and whimsical. We perceive ambient sounds blending in with classic, electronic, ethnic, contemporary, French rap, and lullabies. Digging deeper, a fusion of Buddhist and Middle Eastern music identifies with every character and complements the film’s haunting atmosphere.

I Lost My Body, French poster. Netflix ©2019

 

After I saw the film, I was intrigued by the similarities with the crawling Hand of the 1962 Mexican masterpiece “The Exterminating Angel/El ángel exterminador” by Luis Buñuel. I asked the director if he wanted to make a surreal animated piece. He replied, “No. “I Lost My Body” is hard to place in a box... I avidly wanted to find what it means to be a human in the story.” 

Chapin’s experimental narrative explores and mixes different genres: action, drama, suspense, romance, and horror. The concept, bold and volatile, works perfectly.

I Lost My Body, Q&A. Photo José Alberto Hermosillo, Festival in LA ©2019.

In recent years, only a handful of animated films can be considered existentialist: “Waking Life” (2001) and “A Scanner Darkly” (2006), both directed by Richard Linklater (“Boyhood”). Salma Hayek’s production of Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet” poems, 2014. “My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea,” 2016, and the Oscar-nominated Swiss-made stop-motion animation “My Life as a Zucchini” also from 2016.

This highly original European animation is set apart from Hollywood’s conventional narrative by exploring more daring subjects with a fresher approach. If “I Lost My Body” were Pixar, the Hand would be talking.

I Lost My Body, sign. Photo José Alberto Hermosillo, Festival in LA ©2019

“I Lost My Body” won numerous awards, becoming the first animated film to win the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at Cannes 2019, the COLCOA Audience Award, and the Best Feature Award at the Annecy Film Festival. It also won three Anny Awards, including Best Independent Animation, Best Music, and Best Writing. The film crowned its award season with a César Award and an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.

To say, “I lost my body,” means declaring, “I lost myself.” 

Symbolically speaking, one is losing not only a part of the body but also dreams, goals, jobs, friendships, parents, love, and hope.

A melancholic feeling permeates the entire movie. One must find a sense of belonging in a society that continually alienates individuals, driving them to a state of complete emptiness.

“I Lost My Body” has plenty of excitement, evocative moments, and thought-provoking questions, and it hopes to remind us of our forgotten dreams from when we were kids.

Jérémy Chapin, director. Guillaume Laurant, writer. I Lost My Body. Film critic José Alberto Hermosillo, Festival in LA, ©2019

I Lost My Body | Official Trailer | Netflix

Related Articles:

THE ACADEMY MUSEUM OF MOTION PICTURES OPENS AT THE LAST

The Missing: Nightmares, Aliens & A Coming of Age Filipino Love Story

The New Boy: Politically, Spiritually and Religiously Australian

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse: Poetry in Animation

Moomins on the Riviera: Social Satire in Animation

Troop Zero: Young Earthlings on an Astounding Mission

The Art of Self-Defense: Can Karate Cure Loneliness?

My Life as a Zucchini: The Animated Life of a Swiss Boy

Moomins on the Riviera: An Animated Feature with Social Satire

LONG WAY NORTH: EMPOWERS “LITTLE WOMEN”

The Biggest Little Farm: Transforms Land Into a “Farmville” Reality

ZOO: SAVING PRIVATE ELEPHANT

Hunt for the Wilderpeople: Is the Funniest Manhunt Movie Ever

Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom” “Honey, I Blew Up the Dino.”

Barry: And “The Wonder Years” Of Barack Obama

Les Misérables: Boyz n the French Hood 

Tigers Are Not Afraid: And The Lost Boys & Girls of Mexico

Güeros: A Lyrical Love Letter to Mexico City

Ixcanul: Pursuits Guatemala’s First Oscar Nomination

GOAT: WHITE BOYS DO CRY

KICKS: KIDS OF COLOR ROAMING IN SUBURBIA

Ice Poison: Is a Dangerous Drug

Trash Baby: Thriving Teens in Rural America

IF YOU ARE READING FROM A MOBILE DEVICE, CLICK: view web version FOR OTHER COOL FEATURES SUCH AS TRANSLATE POWERED BY GOOGLE, AN INTERACTIVE FILM FESTIVAL CALENDAR, AND MORE.

Festival in LA ©2020

Les Misérables: Boyz n the French Hood

By José Alberto Hermosillo

COLCOA FILM REVIEW: Brilliant, compelling, and merciless masterwork, “Les Misérables” is a fresh new approach to Victor Hugo’s magnum opus, set in today’s urban, conflicted suburbs of France.

The winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes 2019 endures universal themes of inequality, marginalization, greed, violence, and social injustice.

 

Lodj Ly, director of  Les Misérables at COLCOA. Photo José Alberto Hermosillo, Festival in LA ©2019

 

Director Lodj Ly, influenced by his experiences during the 2005 big-city project riots, adapted Les Misérables from his 2017 Award-Winning short film.

 

The timing of this astonishing film debut couldn’t be better. Lodj’s story begins with the eruption of collective euphoria on the streets of Paris, sparked by the victorious celebration of France’s 2018 FIFA World Cup win in Russia. The event unified the country and also highlighted its social differences.

 

The film moves from the iconic Parisian monuments to the not-so-charming projects of Montfermeil, 10 miles east of Paris. Inside those tiny apartments in the middle of the raucous construction site, people crowd in, surviving on limited resources and in difficult circumstances.

 

As the camera moves in, conspicuously, we start to learn more about the composition of the new French society, integrated by Africans, Muslims, and Middle Eastern immigrants. Their descendants: hundreds of young people out on the streets, as a chorus in this never-ending operatic composition, trying to tell us something more meaningful and substantial about people’s struggles.

From the very beginning, the antagonistic groups line up. Among them are the gypsies, owners of a colorful circus; the black immigrants; the mafia guys; the Muslim Brotherhood; and the shady cops.

 

The officers’ actions trigger out-of-control chaos, and the anarchy could jeopardize their well-being. The compromising situation can be overwhelmingly dangerous and explosive, like a Molotov cocktail.

In her more serious role as Le Commissaire, Jeanne Balibar (known for “Barbara” and “I Hate Love”) instructs her police officers about the concept of “solidarity” at the police station: “There is no solidarity without a team; we are alone; you only have each other.” She introduces a new member, Brigadier Stéphane Ruiz, played by Damien Bonnard (from “The Trouble with You” and “Dunkirk”), to the squad. The other two officers, Chris and Gwada (portrayed by Alexis Manetti and Djibril Zonga), are hesitant to accept the rookie.

 

During the patrol, Chris takes the lead, acting above the law and feeling like the new sheriff in a cowboy-movie town. He thinks he can do whatever he wants.

 

The officers’ felonies begin with harassment of teenage girls at a bus stop. They must also deal with merchants and informants at the open market or mediate between gypsies and Muslims over a stolen lion cub.

 

As the story unfolds rapidly, only some trends become fully resolved. The audience wants to follow up on a video taken by a drone operated by a kid who witnessed police brutality. We want to know whether the video went viral and what viewers’ reactions are in the story - after all, things get out of control effervescently. 

Lodj Ly, director of  Les Misérables, and actors Damien Bonnard and Djibril Zonga at COLCOA. Photo José Alberto Hermosillo, Festival in LA ©2019

This new, more visceral adaptation of Les Misérables was inspired by director Lodj Ly’s witnessing of police brutality. 

 

He said his film was hard to finance because of its subject matter. It took him nearly ten years to make. Two hundred people participated in his epic production. The young actors were primarily children from the immigrant community with no experience, hope, or future. By participating in this film, they found new meaning in their lives. 

 

In Lodj Ly’s words, he compromises with the marginalized, underprivileged immigrant community. Therefore, he is creating a film school to introduce children to the visual arts and to let them tell their stories through powerful images of their surroundings. 

 

Lodj Ly, director of  Les Misérables at COLCOA. Photo José Alberto Hermosillo, Festival in LA ©2019

French society unifies when the World Cup is won. Soccer gives a feeling of belonging to a country. But when the game is over, everyone goes back to their differences. 

 

The reality presented in Les Misérables shakes the viewer by juxtaposing collective happiness with the anarchy caused by corrupt cops. The award-winning project vividly depicts young people struggling with a lack of future in an alienating society.

 

The French film is cathartic, offering a small window of hope and the possibility of constructing an inclusive society soon, in an idealistic sense. 

 Djibril Zonga, actor. Photo: José Alberto Hermosillo, Festival in LA ©2019

Lodj Ly, director of  Les Misérables. Film critic José Alberto Hermosillo, Festival in LA, ©2019

 

 

Les Misérables. Official trailer.

 

Related Articles:

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Opens at Last

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, The British Cleaning Lady to the Dior House

Annette: Swings Between “La La Land” and “Moulin Rouge!” Beautifully

THE BEST FILM FESTIVAL POSTERS OF 2019

COLCOA 23rd ANNIVERSARY

The Painted Bird: In the Dawn of the Holocaust

Invisible Life: Melodrama is Not Dead Thanks to Brazilian Cinema  

Papicha: Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Freedom in Algeria

Cyrano, My Love: A Fine French Comedy of Love and Errors

Parasite: Accomplishes the South Korean Dream

Synonyms: A Good Jew in Paris 

Pain and Glory: Almodóvar’s Blast from The Past

Honeyland: The Last Beekeeper of Macedonia

Shoplifters: The Universal Language of Stealing

The Art of Self-Defense: Can Karate Cure Loneliness?

The Biggest Little Farm” Transforms Land Into ‘Farmville”

Endless Poetry: The Atypical Universe of Alejandro Jodorowsky

IF YOU ARE READING FROM A MOBILE DEVICE, CLICK: view web version FOR OTHER COOL FEATURES SUCH AS TRANSLATE POWERED BY GOOGLE, AN INTERACTIVE FILM FESTIVAL CALENDAR, AND MORE.

Festival in LA ©2019

Parasite: Accomplishes the South Korean Dream

By José Alberto Hermosillo

“Parasite” is the most hilarious, intense, and politically diverse movie of the year.

After “Mother” and “Snowpiercer,” Korean director Bong Joon-ho presents another class-consciousness magnum opus, the 2019 Palme d’Or Cannes winner.

In “Parasite,” Joon-ho shows no mercy in picking out the differences between the rich and poor. Joon-Ho’s humanistic approach is undeniable, maintaining a high level of respect for his characters regardless of their economic status or true intentions – since none of them are genuinely evil by nature or utterly uncorrupted by the system.

The South Korean narrative reaches epic proportions, resembling an authentic Greek tragedy through its universal themes of class struggle and life’s irony. 

The symbolism in this film has a truthful meaning in relation to their social status. For a wealthy family, the rain represents a natural way of cleansing and abundance. For the poor, it is a catastrophic chain of events that can wipe them off the face of the earth – it is almost like fumigating “parasites.” 

Parasite, still courtesy of Neon

The incredible journey of trickery and scams begins with Kim Ki-woo, performed by the young and talented actor Woo-sik Choi (“Okja,” “Set Me Free”). The sneaky college dropout takes the opportunity to work as an English tutor at the Park’s residence.

As is often the case, poor people’s ambition knows no bounds. It is similar to that of wealthy individuals; they can’t stop working because they crave more wealth. 

Ki-woo also sees an opportunity to have his sister, Kim Ki-Jung (So-dam Park), tutor a disobedient preschooler who is interested in surreal self-portrait painting and American Indian wildness. 

 

Parasite French poster. Cannes 2019.

Kim’s family’s determination to take over the house leads to another critical park staff member being fired. 

The patriarch of the Kims, Ki-taek, is played exceptionally well by the renowned actor Kang-ho Song (“A Taxi Driver,” “Thirst,” “The Host”). He enters the house as the chauffeur. Aware of not crossing the line, he avoids body odor associated with poor people, which causes wealthy families’ aversion.

In the real world, the rich and poor can’t get that close because of odor. Smell reveals social status, job type, food quality, and behavior. In South Korea, people respond to smells right away. We can’t talk about scent in public, but it is an inherent characteristic of all human beings.

The idea for making “Parasite” emerged in 2013, during the post-production of “Snowpiercer.” While Joon-Ho was working as a college tutor, he met a young, impoverished student employed in a wealthy family’s home. The director followed the student upstairs, and he couldn’t believe how proud the young man was to be working in someone else’s house. This anecdote, along with other personal experiences, inspired him to write his remarkable piece. 

 

Bong Joon-Ho, director of Parasite. Photo José A. Hermosillo, Festival in LA ©2019

 

The Oscar-hopeful director admits with good humor. He is not a “control freak” but likes to control everything. During pre-production, he did the entire storyboard, which was a big help for this linear story.

Like many wealthy South Korean families, the Park’s house has a bunker in its basement in case of an atomic attack by the North Korean leader “Little Rocket Man,” Kim Jong-un. By the way, the jokes about the North Commander are part of the hilarious political satire. 

The performances in “Parasite” are exquisite and natural. The entire cast shines on screen, delivering long-lasting delight.

Funny but true, Kim’s mother quotes: “It’s such a luxury to be kind. If I were rich, I would be kind.” The director says it’s not morally correct, but it’s straightforward.

The art department’s work is monumental; they built the interiors and some of the streets within the studio. That includes well-controlled epic rain flooding. The shooting took 74 days, three times the average film schedule of 24 days.

During the Q&A after a screening in West Los Angeles, the director candidly discussed his film. He said, “In most cases, microaggressions towards the dignity of the underprivileged damage our society.” He continued, “When we watch the news, the media and audience won’t dig a little bit more into the case—what are the motives, necessities, or genuine intentions of people implicated?”
 
At that time, I asked Mr. Joon-Ho to describe the genre of his extraordinary piece. When he writes a script, he is never aware of a specific style because he lets the story take its direction without boxing it into one particular category. Everyone can classify their film according to their perception.

Bong Joon-Ho worked with the same actors in his previous films. They have known each other for a while and feel more comfortable with actors delivering an authentic performance to a perfectionist director.

“Parasite” is an intimate film, not necessarily a movie with special effects. For that reason, Bong Joon-ho achieved the same Dolby Atmos sound quality as Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar® winner, “Roma,” emphasizing the difference between classes – noisy for the poor, quiet for the rich.

Bong Joon-ho, director of Parasite. Photo José A. Hermosillo, Festival in LA ©2019

In society, the essence of the family is to stay together. In “Parasite,” the punishment is to be scattered. The audience cannot hate the Kim family because they have their charm. The spectators’ rule for the poor makes the Kims a likable antihero.       

The film’s morality doesn’t justify killing and is open to interpretation. Remember, none of the characters are criminals; circumstances bring them together, but the calamity reaches all.

Some people may see “Parasite” as socialist propaganda, but I see it as a masterwork reproducing reality in a divided society.

Parasite (Official Trailer)

José A. Hermosillo, a film critic. Festival in LA ©2019

Renowned actor Kang-ho Song (“A Taxi Driver,” “Thirst,” “The Host”).
Film critic José Alberto Hermosillo.
Festival in LA ©2019

Woo-sik Choi & Sun-kyun Lee, and film critic José Alberto Hermosillo, moments before #ParasiteMadeHistory 🥂CONGRATULATIONS 🇰🇷🍾 Festival in LA ©2019

#Parasite cast and crew at the #Oscars2020 red carpet. Photo José A. Hermosillo, Festival in LA ©2019

 

Related Articles:

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Opens at Last

^{MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING - OSCAR WEEK 2020} 

THE WORLD’S BEST FILM FESTIVAL POSTERS 2020

TWENTY BEST MOVIES OF 2020

THE BEST FILM FESTIVAL POSTERS OF 2019

^{“Les Misérables” Boyz n the French Hood
The Painted Bird: In the Dawn of the Holocaust}

“Pain and Glory” Almodóvar’s Blast from The Past
“Honeyland” The Last Beekeeper of Macedonia
^{Invisible Life: Melodrama is Not Dead in Brazilian Cinema}

^{“The Cave,” An Underground “Elysium” for Children in Syria}

^{“The Biggest Little Farm” Transforms Land Into “Farmville”}

^{“Synonyms” A Good Jew in Paris}

^{“Shoplifters” The Universal Language of Stealing}

^{“The Art of Self-Defense” – Can Karate Cure Loneliness?}

^{“Endless Poetry”: The Atypical Universe of Alejandro Jodorowsky}

TO ACCESS OUR INTERACTIVE FILM FESTIVAL CALENDAR FROM YOUR MOBILE DEVICE, CLICK: View web version. 

Festival in LA ©2019