62-415: Micmacs is a 2009 French comedy film by French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet . Its original French title is MicMacs à tire-larigot (loosely "Non-stop shenanigans"). The film is billed as a " satire on the world arms trade". It premiered on 15 September 2009 at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival as a gala screening at Roy Thomson Hall . A young boy named Bazil loses his military father, who
124-557: A Colt revolver that passed from owner to owner throughout the Old West, similar to Anthony Mann 's film Winchester '73 (1950). Donati indicated that Leone was interested in a more revisionist take on the genre than his earlier works, wanting to show the Old West "like it really was". Leone abandoned this project in favor of A Place Only Mary Knows , though Donati wrote a treatment and the project remained in gestation for years after Leone's death. An adaptation based on Leone's subject
186-723: A camp sensibility lay behind the successful Carry On films , while in America subversive independent film-maker John Waters made camp films for college audiences with his drag queen friends that eventually found a mainstream audience. The success of the American television show Saturday Night Live drove decades of cinema with racier content allowed on television drawing on the program's stars and characters, with bigger successes including Wayne's World , Mean Girls , Ghostbusters and Animal House . Parody and joke-based films continue to find audiences. While comedic films are among
248-517: A magnum opus . According to biographer Sir Christopher Frayling , Leone was deeply hurt by the studio-imposed editing and poor commercial reception of Once Upon a Time in America in North America. It was his last film. In 1988, he was head of the jury at the 45th Venice International Film Festival . Leone died on 30 April 1989 at his home in Rome of a heart attack at the age of 60. He
310-520: A Time in the West emerged as a long and violent dreamlike meditation upon the mythology of the American Old West, with many stylistic references to iconic Western films. Audience tension is maintained throughout this nearly three-hour film by concealing both the hero's identity and his unpredictable motivation until the final predictable shootout scene. Perhaps unsurpassed as a retribution drama,
372-400: A Time in the West , Leone directed Duck, You Sucker! ( Giù la testa , 1971). Leone was intending merely to produce the film, but due to artistic differences with then-director Peter Bogdanovich , Leone was asked to direct the film, instead. Duck, You Sucker! is a Mexican Revolution action drama, starring James Coburn as an Irish revolutionary and Rod Steiger as a Mexican bandit who
434-420: A contemporary adaptation of Cervantes ' 17th-century novel Don Quixote with Clint Eastwood in the title role and Eli Wallach as Sancho Panza . He had discussed doing the project throughout the 1960s–1970s, and he started seriously considering it toward the end of his life. In 1987, Sergio Leone contacted his old collaborators Sergio Donati and Fulvio Morsella, pitching an idea for a TV miniseries about
496-438: A fashion magazine, with clearly drawn moral opposites, even down to the hero wearing a white hat and the villain wearing a black hat (except for the most successful of the "traditional western cowboys" – Hopalong Cassidy , who wore a black outfit upon a pale horse). Leone's characters were, in contrast, more "realistic" and complex: usually lone wolves in their behavior; they rarely shaved, looked dirty, and sweated profusely, with
558-433: A henchman captures Bazil on the roof and brings him down. The two executives recognise him and figure out what has happened. They decide to take Bazil to a safe house in order to question him. Elastic Girl comes out of her hiding place, and calls in the rest of the crew to rescue Bazil. After a car chase through Paris, Bazil is saved and Marconi and De Fennouillet are captured. The two CEOs are bound and hooded, and they hear
620-482: A legal challenge from the Japanese director, though Kurosawa's film was, in turn, probably based on the 1929 Dashiell Hammett novel, Red Harvest . A Fistful of Dollars is also notable for establishing Clint Eastwood as a star. Until that time, Eastwood had been an American television actor with few credited film roles. The look of A Fistful of Dollars was established by its Spanish locations, which presented
682-473: A long plane flight followed by a ride in a car. When they are allowed to see again, they are in the middle of the desert. In a scene inspired by Sergio Leone 's Once Upon a Time in the West , De Fennouillet is sitting on Marconi's shoulders with a live grenade in his mouth, while Marconi stands on a live land mine. A small crowd wearing desert outfits sit watching them, holding photographs of landmine victims. The men beg for mercy and confess to supplying arms to
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#1732793588303744-490: A microphone down his chimney. He hears a phone conversation arranging a meeting between Marconi and associates of Omar Boulounga, an African dictator seeking arms for an upcoming violent conflict. Mama Chow demands to know what Bazil is up to and the crew decides to help him exact revenge on the two arms dealers. They first incapacitate Boulounga's men by planting drugs on them in an airport. Remington, claiming to be Boulounga's right-hand man, meets with De Fenouillet and proposes
806-644: A pun referring to the three colors of the Italian flag, the star and to director Verdone, 1981) and Troppo Forte ( Great! , 1986). During this period, Leone also directed various award-winning TV commercials for European television. In 1978, he was a member of the jury at the 28th Berlin International Film Festival . Leone turned down the offer to direct The Godfather , in favor of working on another gangster story he had conceived earlier. He devoted 10 years to this project, based on
868-485: A remake of. Although the written treatment never got turned into a full screenplay, Leone's son Andrea had it published in a June 2004 issue of the Italian cinema magazine Ciak . It is not certain if the treatment's publication will ever lead to a full production in America or Italy. While finishing work on Once Upon a Time in America in 1982, Leone was impressed with Harrison Salisbury 's non-fiction book The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad , and he planned on adapting
930-410: A score of 62 out of 100, based on 31 critics. Comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor . These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending , with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the oldest genres in film, and it is derived from classical comedy in theatre . Some of
992-535: A separate genre, but rather, provides a better understanding of the film. Sergio Leone Sergio Leone ( / l i ˈ oʊ n i / lee- OH -nee , Italian: [ˈsɛrdʒo leˈoːne] ; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian filmmaker, credited as the pioneer of the spaghetti Western genre. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cinema. Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots . His films include
1054-445: A shell casing that she found from the bullet that had struck him. Bazil, who has miming and sign language talents, becomes a homeless busker until he is taken in by a man named Slammer ( Jean-Pierre Marielle ) to Tire-Larigots, a shelter carved under a mountain of recycling material. Bazil is befriended by the other scavenging dwellers: Elastic Girl ( Julie Ferrier ), a contortionist ; Mama Chow ( Yolande Moreau ), who feeds and mothers
1116-405: A strong suggestion of criminal behavior. The characters were also morally ambiguous by appearing generously compassionate, or nakedly and brutally self-serving, as the situation demanded. Relationships revolved around power and retributions were emotion-driven rather than conscience-driven. Some critics have noted the irony of an Italian director who could not speak English, and had never even visited
1178-720: A truck full of bombs from Marconi's plant. Marconi assumes that De Fennouillet is responsible, and arranges to sabotage a machine causing a massive explosion in De Fennouillet's factory. Next, Elastic Girl breaks into Marconi's apartment searching for blackmail material while Bazil waits and listens on the roof. Marconi arrives unexpectedly, and Elastic Girl is forced to hide in the refrigerator. De Fenouillet sends an armed team to attack Marconi, but Boulounga's men arrive first and take him hostage. Boulounga's men are about to execute Marconi when they are shot by De Fennouillet's men. De Fenouillet is, in turn, about to murder Marconi when
1240-524: A violent and morally complex vision of the American Old West . The film paid tribute to traditional American Western films, but significantly departed from them in storyline, plot, characterization, and mood. Leone gains credit for one great breakthrough in the Western genre still followed today; in traditional Western films, many heroes and villains looked alike as if they had just stepped out of
1302-591: Is blown up while attempting to defuse a land mine in the Western Sahara. Thirty years later, Bazil ( Dany Boon ) is working in a video rental shop in Paris when a stray bullet from a shoot-out in the street enters his forehead. Doctors save him but decide against removing the bullet, though it may kill him at any moment, for fear of damaging his brain further. Bazil returns to his workplace to find that he has been replaced. As he leaves, his replacement gives him
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#17327935883031364-410: Is conned into becoming a revolutionary. Leone continued to produce, and on occasion, step in to reshoot scenes, in other films. One of these films was My Name Is Nobody (1973) by Tonino Valerii , a comedy Western film that poked fun at the spaghetti Western genre. It starred Henry Fonda as an old gunslinger facing a final confrontation after the death of his brother. Terence Hill also starred in
1426-465: Is currently in production. Appointed director is Italian film-maker Stefano Sollima . Leone was also an avid fan of Margaret Mitchell 's novel Gone with the Wind and the 1939 film adaptation . His relatives and close friends stated that he talked about filming a remake that was closer to the original novel, but it never advanced beyond discussions to any serious form of production. In 1969, Leone
1488-604: Is to enroll men into the Union Army . The other is Richard Burns, a Southern shady businessman transplanted to the North after a successful heist with his ex-lover and partner, Mary. They try searching for the buried treasure left behind in an unmarked grave outside Atlanta in "A Place Only Mary Knows". Joined by a freed slave and an Italian immigrant , Francesco, who arrives via the Port of Boston , they try desperately to avoid
1550-825: The Dollars Trilogy of Westerns featuring Clint Eastwood : A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966); and the Once Upon a Time films: Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Duck, You Sucker! (1971), and Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Born on 3 January 1929 in Rome , Leone was the son of the cinema pioneer Vincenzo Leone (known as Roberto Roberti or Leone Roberto Roberti) and silent film actress Edvige Valcarenghi (known as Bice Waleran). His mother
1612-475: The IRA , ETA , and Darfur combatants. Marconi and De Fenouillet fall and discover that the grenade and mine are not armed. The small audience is revealed to be Bazil and his friends in disguise, who have been recording the event with a video camera. In a flashback inspired by Brian De Palma 's Mission: Impossible , we see that Bazil and his friends simulated the entire plane flight with various sound effects, and
1674-458: The American market, abandoning its flashback structure for a linear narrative. This version suffered heavy criticism and flopped. The original version, released in the rest of the world, achieved somewhat better box office returns and a mixed critical response. When the original version of the film was released on home video in the US, it gained major critical acclaim, with some critics hailing the film as
1736-653: The American studios. When director Mario Bonnard fell ill during the production of the 1959 Italian epic The Last Days of Pompeii ( Gli Ultimi Giorni di Pompei ), starring Steve Reeves , Leone was asked to step in and complete the film. As a result, when the time came to make his solo directorial debut with The Colossus of Rhodes ( Il Colosso di Rodi , 1961), Leone was well-equipped to produce low-budget films that looked like larger-budget Hollywood movies. Italian : Il cinema deve essere spettacolo, è questo che il pubblico vuole. E per me lo spettacolo più bello è quello del mito. Cinema must be spectacle, that's what
1798-551: The Bad and the Ugly ( Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo , 1966), completed what has come to be known as the Man with No Name trilogy (or the Dollars Trilogy ), with each film being more financially successful and more technically accomplished than its predecessor. The films featured innovative music scores by Ennio Morricone , who worked closely with Leone in devising the themes. Leone had a personal way of shooting scenes with Morricone's music ongoing. In addition, Clint Eastwood stayed with
1860-571: The Bad and the Ugly and Duck, You Sucker! but his idea of adapting the novel itself never got past the planning stages. Leone was an early choice to direct Flash Gordon (1980). Leone was a fan of the original Alex Raymond comic strip, but turned down the film because the script did not resemble Raymond's work. He received the America Award from the Italy–USA Foundation posthumously in 2014. In 2019, Poste Italiane issued
1922-628: The Night was shot. Jeunet also filmed in several train stations, including Gare de Lyon , Gare Saint-Lazare , and the Charles De Gaulle airport train station . Though the film contains no obvious special effects sequences, digital color manipulation is used throughout, and specific digital manipulations were used on about 350 shots. These manipulations often involved removing people and objects in backgrounds of scenes shot on Paris streets. The closeup of Dany Boon's face during Marconi's speech
Micmacs (film) - Misplaced Pages Continue
1984-503: The United States, let alone the American Old West, almost single-handedly redefining the typical vision of the American cowboy . According to Christopher Frayling 's book Something to do with Death , Leone knew a great deal about the American Old West. It fascinated him as a child, which carried into his adulthood and his films. Leone's next two films, For a Few Dollars More ( Per qualche dollaro in più , 1965) and The Good,
2046-435: The battles of the ongoing war between the states. The film was to have been a homage to classic writers from literature such as Edgar Lee Masters ( Spoon River Anthology ), Ambrose Bierce ( An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge ), Mark Twain ( The Private History of a Campaign that Failed ), Stephen Crane ( The Red Badge of Courage ), and Margaret Mitchell ( Gone with the Wind ), whose novel he had wanted to film
2108-525: The book as a war epic. Although no formal script had been completed or leaked, Leone came up with the opening scene and basic plot. According to the documentary Once Upon a Time, Sergio Leone , the film opened in medias res as the camera goes from focusing on a Soviet hiding from the Nazis ' artillery fire to panning hundreds of feet away to show the German Army Panzer divisions approaching
2170-510: The crew; Remington ( Omar Sy ) a former ethnographer from Africa who speaks entirely in old-fashioned language clichés; Buster ( Dominique Pinon ), a former human cannonball ; Tiny Pete (Michel Crémadès), an artist who designs moving sculptures from scavenged trash; and Calculator ( Marie-Julie Baup ), a young woman who measures and calculates things with a glance. Slammer himself is a former convict who miraculously survived an execution by guillotine . While scavenging for trash, Bazil discovers
2232-563: The desert setting is simply a clearing in a Paris suburb. Bazil and Calculator upload their video to YouTube , and Marconi and De Fenouillet are publicly disgraced. Bazil and Elastic Girl become a couple. Jean-Pierre Jeunet originally wrote the character of Bazil for Jamel Debbouze , but Debbouze left the project after three weeks, citing artistic and financial disagreements. The role was later given to Dany Boon . Jeunet toured arms manufacturing plants in Belgium for research when developing
2294-658: The earliest silent films were slapstick comedies , which often relied on visual depictions, such as sight gags and pratfalls, so they could be enjoyed without requiring sound. To provide drama and excitement to silent movies, live music was played in sync with the action on the screen, on pianos, organs, and other instruments. When sound films became more prevalent during the 1920s, comedy films grew in popularity, as laughter could result from both burlesque situations but also from humorous dialogue . Comedy, compared with other film genres , places more focus on individual star actors, with many former stand-up comics transitioning to
2356-556: The end, the cameraman dies on the day of the liberation of the city, when he is currently filming the surrender of the Germans. And the girl is aware of his death by chance seeing a movie news: the camera sees it explode under a shell". By 1989, Leone set the film's budget at $ 100 million, and had secured half of that amount in financing from independent backers from the Soviet Union. He had convinced Ennio Morricone to compose
2418-556: The film as the young stranger who helps Fonda leave the dying West with style. Leone's other productions included A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe (1975, another Western comedy starring Terence Hill); The Cat ( Il Gatto ; 1977, starring Ugo Tognazzi ), and A Dangerous Toy ( Il Giocattolo ; 1979, starring Nino Manfredi ). Leone also produced three comedies by actor/director Carlo Verdone , which were Fun Is Beautiful ( Un Sacco Bello , 1980), Bianco, rosso e Verdone ( White, Red and Verdone – Verdone means "strong green" –
2480-515: The film industry due to their popularity. In The Screenwriters Taxonomy (2017), Eric R. Williams contends that film genres are fundamentally based upon a film's atmosphere, character, and story, and therefore, the labels "drama" and "comedy" are too broad to be considered a genre. Instead, his taxonomy argues that comedy is a type of film that contains at least a dozen different sub-types. A number of hybrid genres have emerged, such as action comedy and romantic comedy . The first comedy film
2542-456: The film score, and Tonino Delli Colli was tapped to be the cinematographer . Shooting was scheduled to begin sometime in 1990. The project was canceled when Leone died two days before he was to officially sign on for the film. Alex Cox offered to replace Leone as director, but was unable to secure the remaining $ 50 million required to produce the film. According to Frayling's biography of Leone, Something to Do with Death , he envisioned
Micmacs (film) - Misplaced Pages Continue
2604-681: The film series, joined later by Eli Wallach , Lee van Cleef , and Klaus Kinski . Based on the success of the Man with No Name trilogy, Leone was invited to the United States in 1967 to direct Once Upon a Time in the West ( C'era una volta il West ) for Paramount Pictures . The film was shot mostly in Almería , Spain, and Cinecittà in Rome. It was also briefly shot in Monument Valley , Utah . The film starred Charles Bronson , Henry Fonda , Jason Robards , and Claudia Cardinale . Once Upon
2666-448: The film's poster, usually hidden in quick shots. The film opens with the final sequence of The Big Sleep , with the original score by Max Steiner . Steiner's score is used throughout the film, but Jeunet also required original music. The music which appears is by Raphaël Beau, an unknown school teacher with no prior professional recording or scoring experience. Beau composed music cues for various scenes. Jeunet loved his music but moved
2728-663: The film's script was written by Leone and his longtime friend and collaborator Sergio Donati , from a story by Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento , both of whom went on to have significant careers as directors. Before its release, it was ruthlessly edited by Paramount, which perhaps contributed to its low box-office results in the United States. Nevertheless, it was a huge hit in Europe, grossing nearly three times its $ 5 million budget among French audiences, and highly praised among North American film students. It has come to be regarded by many as Leone's best film. After Once Upon
2790-684: The film. Some dialogue was taken directly from interviews from arms dealers. The sabotaged machine in De Fenouillet's factory was modeled exactly after an actual machine in a plant which Jeunet visited. The film was shot in several locations in and around Paris including the exterior of the Musée d'Orsay and the Crimée bridge on the Canal de l'Ourcq , where the Marcel Carné 's 1946 film Gates of
2852-540: The meaning of ethnicity and friendship. It received a raucous, record-breaking ovation of nearly 20 minutes at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival (reportedly heard by diners at restaurants across the street from the Palais ), at a time in Cannes's history before marathon applause became a regular occurrence. Despite such a fawning reception, Warner Brothers felt it was too long. The studio drastically recut it down to two hours for
2914-754: The most popular with audiences at the box office, there is an 'historical bias against a close and serious consideration of comedy' when it comes to critical reception and conferring of awards, such as at the Academy Awards . Film writer Cailian Savage observes "Comedies have won Oscars, although they’ve usually been comedy-dramas, involved very depressing scenes, or appealed to stone-hearted drama lovers in some other way, such as Shakespeare in Love ." According to Williams' taxonomy , all film descriptions should contain their type (comedy or drama) combined with one (or more) sub-genres. This combination does not create
2976-425: The novel The Hoods by former mobster Harry Grey , which focused on a quartet of New York City Jewish gangsters of the 1920s and 1930s who had been friends since childhood. The finished four-hour film, Once Upon a Time in America (1984), featured Robert De Niro and James Woods . It was a meditation on another aspect of popular American mythology, the role of greed and violence and their uneasy coexistence with
3038-410: The offices and factories of the firms that manufactured the landmine that orphaned him and the bullet he was shot with, on opposite sides of a street. He enters the latter to ask for compensation but is thrown out violently on orders of CEO Nicolas Thibault de Fenouillet. He then infiltrates the other company and manages to hear a speech by its CEO, François Marconi. Bazil follows Marconi home and hangs
3100-584: The original lines filmed. The character of Elastic Girl performs several contortions on screen which were not digital effects. Julie Ferrier, who played the character, is fairly flexible and did some of the movement herself. The difficult contortions were performed by Julia Gunthel , also known as Zlata. Jeunet and cinematographer Tetsuo Nagata had discovered Gunthel doing an erotic show in Germany. Tiny Pete's moving sculptures were designed and built by sculptor Gilbert Peyre. The film contains five appearances of
3162-471: The production for the movie Bicycle Thieves in 1948. Leone began writing screenplays during the 1950s, primarily for the " sword and sandal " (or peplum ) historical epics, popular at the time. He also worked as an assistant director on several large-scale international productions shot at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome, notably Quo Vadis (1951) and Ben-Hur (1959), financially backed by
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#17327935883033224-542: The public wants. And for me the most beautiful spectacle is that of the myth. In the mid-1960s, historical epics fell out of favor with audiences, but Leone had shifted his attention to a subgenre which came to be known as the " spaghetti Western ", owing its origin to the American Western . His film A Fistful of Dollars ( Per un pugno di dollari , 1964) was based upon Akira Kurosawa 's Edo -era samurai adventure Yojimbo (1961). Leone's film elicited
3286-512: The same deal which was offered to Marconi. Later, Remington calls each of Marconi and De Fennouillet and angrily cancels the deal. He tells Marconi that he will be dealing with De Fennouillet, and tells De Fennouillet that he will be dealing with Marconi. The two CEOs are furious and declare war on each other. Bazil and his friends break into Marconi's house and steal and replace his luxury cars, and steal De Fenouillet's collection of body-part relics from historical persons. They also steal and destroy
3348-405: The songs to different scenes in the final version of the film. Jeunet also decided to reference his earlier film Amélie in the shot when Bazil first lowers his microphone into a chimney. The planned scene would show Amélie and Nino in a small apartment with several crying children. Amélie star Audrey Tautou was shooting Coco Before Chanel , and was unavailable to shoot the scene. The shot
3410-512: The use of comedy film to make social statements by building their narratives around sensitive cultural, political or social issues. Such films include Dr Strangelove, or How I Learned to Love the Bomb , Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? and The Graduate . In America, the sexual revolution drove an appetite for comedies that celebrated and parodied changing social morals, including Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Fanny Hill . In Britain,
3472-611: The walls of the city. The plot was to focus on an American photographer on assignment (whom Leone wanted to be played by Robert De Niro) becoming trapped in Leningrad as the German Luftwaffe begin to bombard the city. Throughout the course of the film, he becomes romantically involved with a Soviet woman, whom he later impregnates, as they attempt to survive the prolonged siege and the secret police , because relationships with foreigners are forbidden. According to Leone, "In
3534-414: Was L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895), directed and produced by film pioneer Louis Lumière . Less than a minute long, it shows a boy playing a prank on a gardener. The most notable comedy actors of the silent film era (1895–1927) were Charlie Chaplin , Harold Lloyd , and Buster Keaton , though they were able to make the transition into “ talkies ” after the 1920s. Film-makers in the 1960s skillfully employed
3596-478: Was buried in the cemetery of Pratica di Mare . A treatment for an "Americanized" Western was written by Leone, Luca Morsella, and Fabio Toncelli. It is speculated to have been Leone's last Western and was to have starred Mickey Rourke and Richard Gere as the two main leads. Set during the height of the American Civil War , the story focused on a Union drafter, Mike Kutcher from Georgia , whose job
3658-465: Was contracted to direct 99 and 44/100% Dead with Marcello Mastroianni and Charles Bronson starring. He was replaced as director by John Frankenheimer , while Mastroianni was recast with Richard Harris . Leone was a fan of Louis-Ferdinand Céline 's novel Journey to the End of the Night and was considering a film adaptation in the late 1960s; he incorporated elements of the story into The Good,
3720-469: Was of Milanese and remote Austrian descent. During his schooldays, Leone was a classmate of his later musical collaborator Ennio Morricone in third grade. After watching his father work on film sets, Leone began his own career in the film industry at the age of 18 after dropping out of law studies at the university. Working in Italian cinema , he began as an assistant to Vittorio De Sica during
3782-411: Was out of focus when shot, but his performance was so good that Jeunet decided to digitally focus the face rather than reshooting. De Fenouillet's first appearance in his office was constructed entirely in post production from footage filmed for a different scene. Bazil, Buster, and Slammer were digitally removed from the frame, and De Fenouillet was given dialogue whose audio would synchronize exactly with
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#17327935883033844-404: Was replaced by an homage to Jeunet's Delicatessen . In the final scene, Dominique Pinon sits with Marie-Laure Dougnac and plays a musical saw . According to Box Office Mojo , Micmacs grossed $ 16,331,174 in the worldwide box office. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 74% approval rating with an average rating of 6.6/10 based on 133 reviews. Metacritic gave the film
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