Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Jean-Pierre Jeunet (; born 3 September 1953) is a French director and screenwriter.

Jeunet debuted as a director with the 1991 black comedy Delicatessen, collaborating with Marc Caro. Jeunet then co-wrote and -directed with Caro again on The City of Lost Children (1995). His work with science fiction and horror led him to direct Alien Resurrection (1997), the fourth film in the Alien film series and his first and thus far only American film. In 2001, Jeunet achieved his biggest success with Amélie, which won him international acclaim; the film reached BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century.

Life and career Jean-Pierre Jeunet was born in Roanne, 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. They met at an animation festival in Annecy in the 1970s.

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 videos, such as Jean-Michel Jarre's Zoolook (together with Caro).

Jeunet's films often resonate with the late twentieth-century French film movement cinéma du look and allude to themes and aesthetics involving German expressionism, French poetic realism, and the French New Wave.

They next made The City of Lost Children (1995), a dark, multi-layered fantasy film about a mad scientist who steals children's dreams so that he can live indefinitely. The success of The City of Lost Children led to an invitation to direct the fourth film in the Alien series, Alien Resurrection (1997). This is where Jeunet and Caro ended up going their separate ways, as Jeunet believed this to be an amazing opportunity whereas Caro was not interested in working on a big-budget Hollywood movie on which he would lack creative control. Caro ended up assisting for a few weeks with costumes and set design, but then he decided to start a solo career in illustration and computer graphics. Amélie was a huge critical and commercial success worldwide and was nominated for several Academy Awards. For his work on the film, Jeunet won 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 and Jodie Foster, chronicled a woman's search for her missing lover after World War I.

In 2005 Jean-Pierre Jeunet was involved in the creation of a detailed history project about the life of French aviator Louis Blériot. After a year Jeunet felt the movie was too close in historic timeline to A Very Long Engagement and the project was abandoned.

In 2009, he released Micmacs, which is about a man and his friends who come up with an intricate and original plan to destroy two big weapons manufacturers.

Jeunet has also directed numerous commercials, including a 2'25" film for Chanel N° 5 featuring his frequent collaborator Audrey Tautou.

In 2013, Jeunet released The Young and Prodigious T. S. Spivet, an adaptation of Reif Larsen's book The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet that starred Kyle Catlett.

In 2016, Jeunet and Romain Segaud co-directed the three-minute stop-motion animation film Deux escargots s'en vont, based on a poem by Jacques Prévert.

Since his last release, Jeunet has tried to get other projects funded but has found it impossible to find investors willing to take a risk on his quirky films. He stated in 2019 that he may go to Netflix "as a last resort", and indeed his next film, Bigbug, was released by the streaming video company in 2022.

Filmography

Feature film Year English Title Original Title Director Writer Notes 1991 Delicatessen Co-directed with Marc Caro 1995 The City of Lost Children La Cité des enfants perdus 1997 Alien Resurrection 2001 Amélie Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain 2004 A Very Long Engagement Un long dimanche de fiançailles Also producer 2009 Micmacs MicMacs à tire-larigot 2013 The Young and Prodigious T. S. Spivet 2022 Bigbug 2026 Violette Changer l'eau des fleurs Post-production

Short film Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes 1983 No Rest for Billy Brakko (Pas de repos pour Billy Brakko) Also editor 1989 Things I Like, Things I Don't Like (Foutaises) Also editor 2016 Deux escargots s'en vont Co-directed with Romain Segaud

Music video 1984: La Fille aux bas nylon by Julien Clerc 1985: Zoolook by Jean-Michel Jarre, with Marc Caro 1987: 1987: Hélène by Julien Clerc 1988: Souvenez-vous de nous by 1989: Cache ta joie by Claudia Phillips 1991: L'Autre Joue by Lio 2017: Pourvu by Gauvain Sers

Appearances 1981: Le Bunker de la dernière rafale 1983: Pas de repos pour Billy Brakko 2015: Institut Lumière remake, by Martin Scorsese (short film)

Awards and nominations Academy Awards Year Category Title Result 2001 Best Foreign Language Film Amélie Best Original Screenplay

César Awards Year Category Title Result 1981 Best Animated Short Le Manège 1991 Foutaises 1992 Best Debut Delicatessen Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation 2001 Best Film Amélie Best Director Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation 2004 Best Film A Very Long Engagement Best Director Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation

European Film Awards Year Category Title Result 1991 Best Film Delicatessen 2001 Amélie Best Director Best European Film 2005 Best Director A Very Long Engagement

Edgar Awards Year Category Title Result 2005 Best Scenery Amélie

Awards and nominations received by Jeunet's films

Decorations Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (2016)