I Lost My Body
Composite Score: 81.63
Starring: Hakim Faris, Victoire Du Bois, Patrick d’Assumçao, Alfonso Arfi, Hichem Mesbah, Myriam Loucif, and Bellamine Abdelmalek
Director: Jérémy Clapin
Writers: Jérémy Clapin and Guillaume Laurant
Genres: Animation, Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Mystery
MPAA Rating: TV-MA
Box Office: $1.14 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
I Lost My Body is a French animated film from Netflix that follows a severed hand on its journey across town to reunite with its body and the story of Naoufel, its body, in the days leading up to the loss of said hand. The Netflix film description on the streamer described I Lost My Body as a mesmerizing mystery, and I think that sums up the overall tone of the film well. It soothes through its simple and unique story, pared-down animation style, and synthetic score. Though it tells the story of a young man who loses his hand in a freak accident, the film does not drift heavily into the realm of tragedy, rather exploring the romance, beauty, and hope of life despite any and all circumstances. The film fully engages its audience for its brief run-time and should certainly earn a place among your watchlist, if you haven’t already seen it.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Naoufel is not the perfect protagonist, which works well enough for the story that I Lost My Body tells but creates some slight issues with the romance in the film. Naoufel lies to Gabrielle basically from the jump, stalking her place of work, following her to her uncle’s apartment from there, pretending to be seeking employment from her uncle, not telling her that he already knew that she worked at the library – not the best look, man. When these deceptions are brought to light, Gabrielle reasonably runs off, leaving Naoufel to get drunk and go to a party on his own. The film does a solid job of not making any of Naoufel’s deceptions feel chivalrous or heroic, but it also implies to some extent that because he really loves her and the romance they had as a result of the deceptions was genuine, she should forgive him. (And maybe she does forgive him, the ending is a little ambiguous about this.) Not to say that people don’t have their own romance journeys, but there’s a lot more that – if they work out – those two will need to unpack before any kind of true relationship can be had.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
I Lost My Body’s premise – a severed hand travelling across town and remembering things – works so uniquely well. It is whimsical and absurd in all the right ways, providing essentially a series of survival adventure sequences with an unspeaking hand as the protagonist broken up by human narrative about childhood, lost parents, growing up, and falling in love. The film genuinely believes in itself, just as its main character – the hand – does, almost forcing you to buy in to whatever the film has to throw at you. In particular, the film’s sequences with the hand fighting off rats or killing a pigeon that tries to throw it onto the street or floating across a busy highway by grabbing hold of an umbrella are so ridiculously imaginative that you can’t help but enjoy it.
Though simple, the film’s story of romance between Naoufel and Gabrielle provides a solid narrative to drive the audience to want to follow the story of the hand. To some extent, the film’s storytelling intertwines the two stories, Naoufel’s and his hand’s, so well that enjoying one forces you to enjoy the other. You can’t have the story of the hand without the story of Naoufel, but the story of Naoufel wouldn’t get told had it not been for his severed hand, so there is this symbiotic story structure that intrigues and keeps you watching both parts for the whole film. It’s a very rewarding watch because of this unique structure.
I Lost My Body’s unique structure and premise are what make it so great. Simple narrative, basic themes, and a mildly problematic attempt at romance keep it from rising higher on this list, but originality makes it a film that still bears watching. There’s not much else to say about it. It’s incredibly original and makes you want to keep watching and also knows what it is trying to do and doesn’t overstay its welcome by being longer than it needs to be. It’s the ideal foreign animated film for adults, and Netflix did a solid job with making it.
