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★★★½☆
15 November 2019
A movie review of I LOST MY BODY. |
Director: Jérémy Clapin.
Starring: Hakim Faris, Victoire Du Bois, Patrick d'Assumçao, Hichem Mesbah.
“Not where it is, but where it will be,” Naoufel’s father (Hichem Mesbah)
I saw the French language, English subtitled version.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE with a hand, as it seeks reunification with its body. Watching a hand fleeing a lab or escaping a pigeon is so tense the audience… ahem… palms get sweaty. Forget THE ADDAMS FAMILY and Thing, I LOST MY BODY makes you care about a hand. An appendage comes across as scared or purposeful. That is characterisation! (Of course, there must be a willing suspension of disbelief. This unusual protagonist does not have a brain, hearing or sight. How does it lose consciousness? I’m not complaining, it’s not a criticism, I’m just saying. Anyway, I don’t want to be churlish.)
Starring: Hakim Faris, Victoire Du Bois, Patrick d'Assumçao, Hichem Mesbah.
“Not where it is, but where it will be,” Naoufel’s father (Hichem Mesbah)
I saw the French language, English subtitled version.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE with a hand, as it seeks reunification with its body. Watching a hand fleeing a lab or escaping a pigeon is so tense the audience… ahem… palms get sweaty. Forget THE ADDAMS FAMILY and Thing, I LOST MY BODY makes you care about a hand. An appendage comes across as scared or purposeful. That is characterisation! (Of course, there must be a willing suspension of disbelief. This unusual protagonist does not have a brain, hearing or sight. How does it lose consciousness? I’m not complaining, it’s not a criticism, I’m just saying. Anyway, I don’t want to be churlish.)
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Three narrative threads. Three different times. One in monochrome concerning years ago past. When lead Naoufel was a young boy, a soul-crushing tragedy befalls him. The difference between his intellectual inquisitiveness as a boy, and his world-weary demeanour as a young man, is in sharp contrast as he navigates an analogue Paris.
Beautifully animated, looking like a Japanese animé, energy and flair are in spades. There is a drive for survival when there is an objective. I LOST MY BODY would have got another star if it had offered the reasons for hope. Yes, show the world for all its harshness, but give the audience something to build on when they leave the cinema. The story gives Naoufel someone to live for, but that is precarious. What happens if they are no longer there? What fills the void? I LOST MY BODY does not tell us what motivates this lead at the end, and it needed to. Normally, I’m all for ambiguity, but there are times when some hints are required, otherwise it feels like a fudge.
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Naoufel (Hakim Faris) makes a palpable connection with a voice. I LOST MY BODY is a film where a hand, and then a voice, are vibrant. Naoufel falls for that voice. It belongs to Gabrielle (Victoire Du Bois). He goes out of his way to find out about her. It might have been disturbingly creepy, and she calls him out for his behaviour, but the movie arguably handles with care.
I LOST MY BODY is about isolation and loneliness. How important a loving family is, and where that is not possible the story offers up romantic connection and friendship. And the notion of career satisfaction as another strand of a fulfilling life.
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Imaginative, exciting, tragic, I LOST MY BODY is a story filled with pain. A contender for best animated film of the year.
