ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

Reviews 

I LOST MY BODY – Review by Susan Granger

Susan Granger 0 Comments , , ,
0 Flares 0 Flares ×

In French with English subtitles, “I Lost My Body” begins in a Parisian laboratory, where a severed hand decides to reconnect with its body. Its quest is to find an Algerian immigrant lad named Naoufel, who delivers pizzas and has fallen in love with Gabrielle, a librarian.

Based on Guillaume Laurant’s “Happy Hand,” it’s been seven years in production. According to director Jeremy Clapin, his goal is for viewers to forget they are watching an animation film by making the non-linear film structured as a puzzle.

Clapin describes his work as “an urban, modern fairy tale about destiny and resilience; it tells us that to change things, we must surprise ourselves, dare to do something unusual, stay away from the straight and narrow…The hand is really a tiny piece of you struggling with the bigger things around you. (It’s) destiny.”

Winning the Nespresso Grand Prize in the International Critics’ Week section of last year’s Cannes Film Festival – it’s the first animated film to claim that honor. And, since a record 32 animated entries were Oscar-qualified, to be among the chosen five is also quite an honor.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “I Lost My Body” is a skittering 6.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I Lost My Body won AWFJ’s EDA Award for Best Animated Film 2019.

0 Flares Twitter 0 Facebook 0 0 Flares ×

Susan Granger

Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at R.K.O., M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures; her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M. As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O'Brien and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, Phi Beta Kappa, with highest honors in journalism. During her adult life, Susan has been on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic. Her newspaper reviews have been syndicated around the world, and she has appeared on American Movie Classics cable television. In addition, her celebrity interviews and articles have been published in REDBOOK, PLAYBOY, FAMILY CIRCLE, COSMOPOLITAN, WORKING WOMAN and THE NEW YORK TIMES, as well as in PARIS MATCH, ELLE, HELLO, CARIBBEAN WORLD, ISLAND LIFE, MACO DESTINATIONS, NEWS LIMITED NEWSPAPERS (Australia), UK DAILY MAIL, UK SUNDAY MIRROR, DS (France), LA REPUBBLICA (Italy), BUNTE (Germany), VIP TRAVELLER (Krisworld) and many other international publications through SSG Syndicate. Susan also lectures on the "Magic and Mythology of Hollywood" and "Don't Take It Personally: Conquering Criticism and other Survival Skills," originally published on tape by Dove Audio.