{ "id": "epcggfr5mr", "slug": "micmacs", "title": "Micmacs", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-2009-to-2010", "label": "Comedies of 2009 to 2010", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-2009-to-2010" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-2009-to-2010.yr-2009", "label": "Released in 2009", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-2009-to-2010.yr-2009" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020: Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Micmacs (Micmacs à tire-larigot) is Jean-Pierre Jeunet's 2009 French comedy starring Dany Boon as Bazil, a man with a bullet in his brain who joins junkyard outcasts to destroy two arms manufacturers; released October 28, 2009, grossing about $17 million worldwide.", "snippet": "Micmacs (Micmacs à tire-larigot) is Jean-Pierre Jeunet's 2009 French comedy starring Dany Boon as Bazil, a man with a bullet in his brain who joins junkyard outcasts to destroy two arms manufacturers; released October 28, 2009, grossing about $17 million worldwide.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-2009-to-2010.yr-2009", "markdown": "# Micmacs\n\n**Micmacs** (original title *Micmacs à tire-larigot*) is a 2009 French comedy directed by [Jean-Pierre Jeunet](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-pierre-jeunet), in which a Parisian video store clerk with a bullet lodged in his brain joins a band of junkyard scavengers to destroy two arms manufacturers. Produced in 2008 by Epithète Films, Tapioca Films, and Warner Bros. Entertainment France, it was released in France and Belgium on October 28, 2009, and distributed in the United States by [Sony Pictures Classics](https://www.edgepedia.org/sony-pictures-classics).[1](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/29208/micmacs) • [2](https://www.sonyclassics.com/downloads/Micmacs-Release.pdf)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and writers | Jean-Pierre Jeunet, co-writing with Guillaume Laurant[1](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/29208/micmacs) |\n| Lead cast | Dany Boon as Bazil, with André Dussollier, Nicolas Marié, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Julie Ferrier, Omar Sy, Dominique Pinon, and Yolande Moreau[3](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/108053/) |\n| French release | October 28, 2009; runtime 104 minutes; visa number 118.828 issued September 11, 2009[1](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/29208/micmacs) • [4](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/118828) |\n| Budget | Estimated at 27 million euros at production announcement; Box Office Mojo lists $42,000,000[5](https://cineuropa.org/fr/newsdetail/80961) • [6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1149361/credits/) |\n| Box office | $16,979,882 worldwide, of which $1,262,079 (7.4%) came from the United States[6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1149361/credits/) |\n| Key crew | Cinematography Tetsuo Nagata, editing Hervé Schneid, production design Aline Bonetto, costumes Madeline Fontaine, music Raphaël Beau[3](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/108053/) • [7](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/micmacs/10011343/credits/) |\n| US rating | R, for some sexuality and brief violence[8](https://moviearchive.phase9.tv/movies/micmacs.shtml) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nThe film opens in the Moroccan desert at the end of the 1970s, where a landmine explosion kills a French mine-clearing expert, leaving his nine-year-old son Bazil an orphan. Years later, the adult Bazil, working in a video store, is hit in the head by a stray bullet during a street shootout. He survives, but doctors leave the bullet in place, and he lives on the brink of sudden death. Losing his job, he ends up on the streets of Paris.[3](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/108053/)\n\nBazil is taken in by a group of scavengers living in an Ali Baba-style cave built into a junkyard, each with a distinctive talent: Remington, an ethnographer who uses outdated expressions; Calculette, who can count anything instantly; Fracasse, determined to beat the human cannonball record; Placard, who survived the guillotine; the contortionist Rubber Girl; Petit Pete, a diminutive inventor; and Tambouille, who has adopted them all after losing her twin daughters in a hall of mirrors.[3](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/108053/) • [9](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/feb/28/micmacs-philip-french-film-review)\n\nWhile scavenging, Bazil finds himself in front of the headquarters of two arms manufacturers and recognizes the logos of the firms behind both the mine that killed his father and the bullet in his brain. With the gang's help, he devises an elaborate scheme to turn the two chief executives against each other in order to destroy them both.[3](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/108053/) The schemes involve eccentric contraptions in the style of Heath Robinson and [Rube Goldberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/rube-goldberg), built by Tiny Pete.[9](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/feb/28/micmacs-philip-french-film-review)\n\n## Production and origins\n\nJeunet announced the project in November 2007 as his sixth feature, with [Jamel Debbouze](https://www.edgepedia.org/jamel-debbouze) announced in the lead and shooting planned for April 2008. Debbouze later withdrew for personal reasons, and the role went to [Dany Boon](https://www.edgepedia.org/dany-boon).[5](https://cineuropa.org/fr/newsdetail/80961) • [10](https://www.sonyclassics.com/micmacs/micmacspress.pdf)\n\n**After Life of Pi.** Jeunet had spent two years developing an adaptation of [Yann Martel](https://www.edgepedia.org/yann-martel)'s *Life of Pi* for 20th Century Fox, writing the script, spending six months on storyboards, and scouting locations in India and Spain, before leaving the project as too expensive; [Ang Lee](https://www.edgepedia.org/ang-lee) later directed it. Jeunet said he was \"starving to shoot\" afterward and assembled the film from three ideas in his notebook: a long-standing preoccupation with arms dealers, a revenge story in the spirit of *Once Upon a Time in the West*, and a band of original, odd characters like the seven dwarfs. He cited [Charlie Chaplin](https://www.edgepedia.org/charlie-chaplin)'s *The Great Dictator* as reassurance that a serious subject could carry slapstick, and described the plot's manipulations, such as a fake trip to the desert, as reminiscent of *Mission: Impossible*.[11](https://www.moviemaker.com/jean-pierre-jeunet-micmacs-amelie-20100526/) • [12](https://www.premiumhollywood.com/2010/06/01/a-press-day-chat-with-director-jean-pierre-jeunet-of-micmacs/) • [10](https://www.sonyclassics.com/micmacs/micmacspress.pdf)\n\nHis fascination with arms dealers dated to the editing of *The City of Lost Children* in Saint-Cloud, next to Dassault factories, where he lunched among engineers who designed weapons without apparent concern. For the film, he and his team interviewed actual weapons dealers, including a Belgian manufacturer of tank-penetrating arrows, and found them, in his words, nice and open-minded men who considered themselves on the right side.[10](https://www.sonyclassics.com/micmacs/micmacspress.pdf) • [12](https://www.premiumhollywood.com/2010/06/01/a-press-day-chat-with-director-jean-pierre-jeunet-of-micmacs/) • [13](https://www.ioncinema.com/news/uncategorized/interview-jean-pierre-jeunet-micmacs)\n\nThe title's meaning was a running joke at the film's Toronto premiere, where Jeunet and Dany Boon performed a sketch pretending \"micmac\" was a hamburger name spoken with a full mouth; the word actually means \"shenanigans\" or schemes.[14](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2009/09/16/toronto-derniere-nicolas-cage-en-surregime_5980644_3476.html) • [18](https://fadeinonline.com/jean-pierre-jeunet-interview/)\n\n## Release and reception\n\nThe film premiered as a Gala Presentation at the [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-international-film-festival) on September 15, 2009.[2](https://www.sonyclassics.com/downloads/Micmacs-Release.pdf) Sony Pictures Classics acquired United States and Latin American rights from TF1 International on September 1, 2009, and released it in limited US engagements beginning May 28, 2010 in New York.[2](https://www.sonyclassics.com/downloads/Micmacs-Release.pdf) • [8](https://moviearchive.phase9.tv/movies/micmacs.shtml) Other release dates included the Czech Republic (November 26, 2009), the United Kingdom (January 8, 2010), Germany (July 22, 2010), Italy (December 17, 2010), and Spain (June 17, 2011).[3](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/108053/) • [15](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/en-us/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=166111)\n\nCommercially, the film earned $16,979,882 worldwide against a budget [Box Office Mojo](https://www.edgepedia.org/box-office-mojo) lists at $42,000,000, with 92.6% of the gross coming from international markets.[6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1149361/credits/) In Spain it sold 37,042 admissions.[15](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/en-us/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=166111)\n\n**Critical response.** On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 71% Tomatometer from 143 reviews and a 74% audience score, with the critics consensus calling it \"a little too whimsical for its own good\" while delivering Jeunet's inventive silliness.[16](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/micmacs) The Guardian's Philip French placed it in a lineage running from Keaton, Chaplin, and Tati to the stylized worlds of Lynch, Burton, and Gilliam, praising its hallucinatory lighting while judging it mockery rather than satire.[9](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/feb/28/micmacs-philip-french-film-review) His colleague Andrew Pulver found it engaging but short of the *Amélie* standard.[17](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/feb/25/micmacs-film-review) Unifrance's records list the film among the 2010 [César Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/cesar-awards) entries for Best Production Design (Aline Bonetto), Best Sound (Vincent Arnardi, Gérard Hardy, Jean Umansky), and Best Costume Design (Madeline Fontaine).[1](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/29208/micmacs)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Micmacs de Jean-Pierre Jeunet (2008), Unifrance](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/29208/micmacs)\n2. [Sony Pictures Classics press release, September 1, 2009](https://www.sonyclassics.com/downloads/Micmacs-Release.pdf)\n3. [Micmacs (Micmacs à tire-larigot), Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/108053/)\n4. [Visa 118828, CNC](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/118828)\n5. [Micmacs à tire-larigot pour Jeunet et Jamel Debbouze, Cineuropa (2007)](https://cineuropa.org/fr/newsdetail/80961)\n6. [Micmacs (2009), Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1149361/credits/)\n7. [Micmacs Cast & Crew, Moviefone](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/micmacs/10011343/credits/)\n8. [Micmacs, phase9 movie archive](https://moviearchive.phase9.tv/movies/micmacs.shtml)\n9. [Philip French, \"Micmacs\" review, The Guardian (2010)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/feb/28/micmacs-philip-french-film-review)\n10. [Micmacs press kit, Sony Pictures Classics](https://www.sonyclassics.com/micmacs/micmacspress.pdf)\n11. [Phillip Williams, \"Of Micmacs and Moviemaking,\" MovieMaker Magazine (2010)](https://www.moviemaker.com/jean-pierre-jeunet-micmacs-amelie-20100526/)\n12. [Press day chat with Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Premium Hollywood (2010)](https://www.premiumhollywood.com/2010/06/01/a-press-day-chat-with-director-jean-pierre-jeunet-of-micmacs/)\n13. [Interview: Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Micmacs), IONCINEMA.com](https://www.ioncinema.com/news/uncategorized/interview-jean-pierre-jeunet-micmacs)\n14. [Toronto dernière, Le Monde (2009)](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2009/09/16/toronto-derniere-nicolas-cage-en-surregime_5980644_3476.html)\n15. [MICMACS, ICAA Film Database](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/en-us/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=166111)\n16. [Micmacs, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/micmacs)\n17. [Andrew Pulver, \"Micmacs\" review, The Guardian (2010)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/feb/25/micmacs-film-review)\n18. [Jean Pierre Jeunet Interview, fadeinonline.com](https://fadeinonline.com/jean-pierre-jeunet-interview/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2009 to 2010 › Released in 2009*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/micmacs", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/micmacs.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Micmacs\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/micmacs. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Micmacs](https://www.edgepedia.org/micmacs)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/micmacs](https://www.edgepedia.org/micmacs). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Micmacs\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/micmacs. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Micmacs is Jean-Pierre Jeunet's 2009 French comedy starring Dany Boon as Bazil, a man with a bullet in his brain who joins junkyard outcasts to destroy two arms manufacturers; released October 28, 2009, grossing about $17 million worldwide." }