After an appearance at SXSW earlier this month, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s new film “Micmacs” will get another early stateside appearance when the film kicks off the 53rd San Francisco International Film Festival on April 22nd.
The festival is also bookended by Annie Sundberg’s documentary “Joan Rivers – A Piece of Work.” Also set to appear as the fest’s Centerpiece event is actor Josh Radnor’s filmmaking debut and Sundance favorite “Happythankyoumoreplease.” You can view the rest of the extensive lineup featuring 177 films at the festival’s official website. Walter Salles, Robert Duvall, Roger Ebert, James Schamus and Don Hertzfeldt are all set to receive honors at the festival.
As for “Micmacs” (which we casually enjoyed at last September’s TIFF), Jeunet apparently wanted to direct the arms trade satire in 3D prior to the “Avatar”-spurred craze in the technology. “I would have wanted to shoot ‘Micmacs’ in 3-D,” Jeunet told MTV. “It was too early, we didn’t speak about [those possibilities] at that time. But now I regret it because I could imagine [it]. It could have been great.”
This would have put Jeunet into a minority (including an upcoming Wim Wenders film) in the European arthouse crowd having interest in the technology. But, gimmicks be damned, we think Jeunet’s visual flare might actually lend itself to a genuinely cool 3D experience, especially if he returned to his more surreal settings of old in “Delicatessen” and “The City of Lost Children.”
‘Micmacs’ will get limited theatrical run in the U.S. starting on May 28th. You can watch a new American trailer for the film below.