Big Bug

Big Bug doesn’t have the tongue-in-cheek mix of romantic whimsy, gallows humour and visual wit that made Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro’s retro-futuristic fable, Delicatessen (1991) such a delightful film. The pair re-teamed for much less successful The City of Lost Children (1998) before going their separate ways with Jeunet hitting another high with 2001’s much-loved Amélie.  .

His latest film, a kind of updating of Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle (1958), a satire of Modernism’s dreams of a utopian future when the home would become, as Le Corbusier put it, "a machine for living" only now the future is a dystopia whose denizens are literally trapped by their complete dependence on IT and AI. Once again the visuals are splendid. That this splendour has a certain coldness is entirely appropriate even if the viewing experience is also rather chilly (once again literally so) as a result.

It’s 2045 and a bourgeois family and their guests find themselves unable to leave their home after their robotic staff including the humanoid domestic, Monique (Claude Perron), decides HAL-like, not to let them leave their home.  Unlike Buñuel’s classic The Exterminating Angel  (1962) the reason for this is not existential but rather the fact that a ruthless breed of androids called Yonyx (all played by Jeunet veteran, François Levantal) are in control of society.

This summary makes Big Bug sound like a direct descendant of Blade Runner (1992). There is indeed a family resemblance as Jeunet has lifted elements from it like the flying cars and omnipresent giant advertising screens floating through the sky but the film is, if certainly not whimsical, then satirically comedic.

Some from the rather over-stuffed cast list (including a briefly-seen Dominique Pinon) you will recognize from Jeunet’s earlier films including notably, Elsa Zylberstein as the homeowner who has recently separated from her philandering husband and is being insistently wooed by a would-be lover (Stéphane De Groodt). Most of the film’s chuckles come from this pair and Monique’s disapproval of their antics but Jeunet charms us with his trademark visual inventiveness, notably in the trio of robots that the humans have to negotiate with in order to leave the house.

As satire Big Bug works well enough with Jeunet never laboring his points many of which recall Terry Gilliam’s masterful depiction of a Big Brother world, Brazil (1985). Viewers no doubt will find themselves wondering how many of Jeunet’s predictions are on the money. There’s even a reference to Covid50!
Let’s hope he’s not right. Either way whether a fan of Jeunet’s or not Big Bug is an awesome-looking addition to the director’s substantial oeuvre.

 

Want something different?