I relish the bizarre. Especially on film. Why? Because good or bad or in-between, 99% of the films I see are not bizarre. But some are. And when the incomprehensible gets on the big screen and does whatever unpredictable and irresponsible things bizarre movies do, I gotta give it props. Hey man, somehow you got this thing to a mass audience. It’s like building a stunt course for your pet gerbil, then dressing him as Even Knievel, taping the disaster, and getting a million hits on YouTube … was it a good idea? Probably not. But it certainly was new.
This picture comes from the perspective of a disembodied hand. Do I need to repeat that? Go ahead and read it again in case you didn’t catch the gist. See, there’s this hand. And it’s in a fridge, but it desperately wants to get back to its body clear cross town. Well gosh; this seems a unique understanding of biology. Oh, get this: It can see and think. Again, I must have missed that day in 10th grade bio. Watch it climb stairs, wrestle pigeons, and fall from rooftops. And you know what’s really scary for a disembodied hand? The Metro. Did I not mention this is a French film?
Interspersed with our hand’s job is the backstory of the once two-handed orphan Naoufel (Hakim Faris), a luckless pizza delivery kid who falls in love with a voice (Victoire Du Bois), a voice that won’t open the door for him. This is the second time in two animated French films (Mutafukaz) that the hero has been a weird kid who’s really crappy at his pizza delivery job. Is this all ya got in Paris?
Hold up a sec: An independent acting disembodied hand on the loose?! Why, gosh, I haven’t seen that since theater #14 (currently showing The Addams Family).
Determined to get turned down in person, Naoufel tracks his would-be squeeze to the garage where her woodworking uncle needs an assistant. I think we can all see this one coming. I Lost My Body spent a fair amount of time focusing on the hand while it was attached to Naoufel. The film happily engaged in showing many of the uses a young boy has for his right hand, but –thankfully- it didn’t get to all of them.
Life is intimidating from the perspective of a disembodied hand. And the hand seems to know perfectly well that it can’t just roam around the city as a hand cuz people will freak out, so it has to hide. My favorite bit along these lines is when the hand sifts through garbage and finds an empty ravioli container that it wears as a shell like a hermit crab.
There are many unanswered question in this film, not the least of which is: Why was the hand where it was in the first place? I Lost My Body sought not to answer such questions but simply tell how Naoufel and hand-of- Naoufel go about their newfound arrangements. I cannot say this is great art, but it is fairly unique art, and for that I heartily applaud … or at least give this film the sound of one hand clapping.
This French kid presents a stage grand
Known for tricks all over the land
You don’t need a logician
To see the magician
Naoufel has mastered slight of hand
Rated TV-MA, 81 Minutes
Director: Jérémy Clapin
Writer: Jérémy Clapin and Guillaume Laurant
Genre: The world of dismembered body parts
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Handymen
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The sensible
