I Lost My Body

A simple animation and yet so poetic and melancholic. It's slow and cozy to watch, it unexpectedly got my feelings carried away through the story of this young boy finding his reasons to continue living. "I lost my body" is all about losses in life that many of us go through, and the uniquevocual reason we continue to live is hope to find that part of us that's missing, such as love. A very few movies out there have the capacity to touch hearts these days, this is one of them.

I typically take a lot of notes while watching movies at home as it helps jog my memory if I wait a few weeks before I put out a "review" of the film. With I Lost My Body, I found myself completely entranced in the film and stopped looking down at my notebook after 15-20 minutes. Beautifully animated and a wonderfully strung together story, this is one of the best animated films of the last 10 years. One of the few absolute wins coming from original Netflix films. And that score by Dan Levy....that score!

9.4/10

Intending to watch the cartoon "I lost my body", I didn't really count on anything. Not a bad rating and reviews for the work, but it was the Oscar nomination in the Best Animated Film category that interested me.

From the very first minutes, the picture attracts the viewer's attention with an unusual and peculiar drawing, which, as a rule, is characteristic of author's projects. The work of director Jeremy Klapen is immediately interesting due to the unusual presentation of the material, the initially incomprehensible concept of a severed hand that wanders through a predatory city, and the undoubtedly attractive soundtrack.

The material is fed through flashbacks of the main character Noufel, scenes of his current life and with the help of a separate story arc of the hand, so to speak. The further the creators move us through the story of a young man, the more the sad world of this young man opens up to us. The director skillfully pulls the viewer by these and other nerves, allowing him to plunge into the guy's world and identify himself with him. Watching the sad story of Noufel, who was once full of enthusiasm and dreamed of a lot: a bright future with his parents, a wonderful career, just a happy life. However, children's dreams can be naive, and fate disposes so that much is not destined to come true. So it became with Noufel. A young man lives a gray life, he is alone in this huge city, which in fact may well be predatory and dangerous. Sometimes it seems that he does not have a specific goal, he has already got used to his fate and is now simply trying to survive by working as a pizza deliveryman. His dreams of becoming an astronaut or a musician are now only in his memories, which are inextricably linked with his long-gone parents.

However, everything suddenly changes when Noufel literally falls in love with a girl, or rather with her voice, when the couple communicates over the intercom on a rainy evening. And then something flares up in the guy. He tries to rekindle the flame of life in himself, suddenly realizing that he is not able to be alone in this vast world.

Another storyline is a metaphorical journey of a severed hand in search of a lost body. At first, you don't even understand what kind of brush it is, and where it is in a hurry. But, believe me, closer to the final you will definitely understand. Everyone, I think, will draw their own conclusion, both about the lonely wandering hand and about the picture as a whole.

The severed brush, as I saw it, is all of us, every single person who somehow lost something important from childhood, the ability to see the world with children's eyes, the desire to comprehend new things and the feeling that everything is possible in this world. At some point, when you are already becoming an adult, you suddenly realize that there are a lot of difficulties, prohibitions, locks that are created by society and/or by yourself. In the cartoon, as I saw it, for Noufel, the starting point of no return was the departure of his parents, who did not allow him to recover and become what he so dreamed of. He had no support, he stopped striving himself. For the audience, it can be a lot of those points that everyone will think about independently and be sure to grieve on this topic, realizing how long ago the time when he was really free has passed.

Emotions from this picture are very difficult to convey in words, and to do it in such a way as to really interest a potential viewer, but believe me, you will be able to immerse yourself in this interesting deeply personal story. There is nothing masterpiece here, the plot is quite simple, but the general concept of the work closer to the finale will allow the cartoon to unfold in a way that the highest-quality dramas sometimes do not. Maybe this is just my perception of the picture, but viewing this work will definitely not be superfluous.

The music in the movie is just gorgeous. I want to listen to it again, it allows me to remind both about the work itself and about the warm inner feeling of sadness that I experienced when watching the cartoon. Jeremy Klapen's work earned a nomination for a prestigious award, but even more it taught me personally to see my life through the prism of the flow of time, bringing together everything that once happened to us. After all, this skill makes it clear how to make your life happier when you see the life of the main character of the picture. Each of us should learn to be at least a little happier than we are today. And such works help to find the way to this happiness in our difficult times.

8 out of 10.

'I Lost My Body (2018)' is an unconventional experience, more of a poem than a traditional film. It mixes the surreal with the mundane; intertwines the past with the present. Somehow, its disparate elements come together to form one complete whole. It's surprisingly nuanced, as successful in its relationship drama as in its five-fingered antics. It's strangely satisfying, too. Its wonderful animation, realist aesthetic and almost ethereal main theme all add up to an experience that's as bizarre as it is beautiful. It's difficult to explain how but the piece undeniably finds a real sense of poignancy. It's remarkable, really. Of course, its 'arty' nature is likely to put off a good chunk of its audience; it isn't as straightforward as its premise would suggest, after all. Yet, the flick is all the better for it. It's genuinely affecting in a subtle but significant way. It's pretty great, even if it isn't always massively entertaining. 7/10

The surreal nature of I Lost My Body where a mysterious severed hand travels on its own to assumedly find its owner blends with the sweet little romantic comedy to make you smile. It is delightful to watch but even more delightful to take in the nonstop score and soundtrack (the hip hop songs are the shiz) that just fits well to the story of Naoufel, a teenage confused with life and who falls in love with a girl after speaking to her for five minutes through an intercom. The romance is pure and so is the charming overall quality of this French pie that just melts in your mouth as you relish it. The comedy, the romance, the surrealism, and the sheer storyline will make you think about I Lost My Body for days after you have left the hall. Watch it for the cunningness of the hand or the innocence of the chemistry between the the lovers. TN.

(Watched and reviewed at its India premiere at the 21st MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.)