Cuckoo-Clock Heart

The Boy With the Cuckoo-Clock Heart

Aka La Mécanique du Cœur aka Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart aka Jack et la mécanique du cœur aka... and on and on. The story of the boy with the clock grafted onto his heart started as a concept album by the French band Dionysos, and soon became a book, movie, and stage play! Not to mention other projects of theirs which exist in the same universe. I discovered the English version of the movie while scrolling through Netflix sometime in middle school, and it's stuck with me ever since.

Music

La Mécanique du Cœur (album) - (2007)

Sung mainly by Mathias Malzieu playing Jack, and Olivia Ruiz as Acacia. The original album had only 18 songs. Six would be added later as part of the movie soundtrack, and the last song Epilogue would be released later.

Book

La Mécanique du Cœur (novel) - (2007)

Movies

Jack et la Mécanique du Cœur (movie) - (2014)

In the French release of the movie, Jack is once again played by Mathias Malzieu, and Acaia by Olivia Ruiz. Six songs were added to the album, but many only appear in the movie as instrumentals. Any songs that were in the first album were taken directly without edit, with the exception of "King of the Ghost Train", which has the line "fuck you" awkwardly edited out.

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (movie) - (2014)

For the English dub, all actors were replaced. Most of the songs were translated and re-recorded, with the exception of Olivia Ruiz' songs as Acacia. The aformentioned removed "fuck you" was fixed by replacing it with "screw you", replacing the awkward silence.

Le Distributeur d'Aurore Boréale (short) - (2016)

A short film made by Matias which features the similar charcaters of Jack, a love interest, and some sort of inventor. Jack is played by Nicolas Avinée.

Stage

La Mécanique du Cœur le Spectacle (play) - (2015-2018)

A genuine stage play based on the book! Originally kickstarted and performed in 2015 as a co-production of the Collectif du Cabaret Blanc and the Compagnie du Moineau, and later in 2017 and 2018. The adaptation was written by Coralie Jayne, who fell in love with the book and asked permission to adapt it. The actor who played Jack in the short film, Nicolas Avinée, played Jack in the 2017 production.

2015 production

2017 production

2018 production

My Thoughts

Why do I love this series so much?

For starters, I love how much Mathias Malzieu loves his own story. I can relate to having a small set of characters with a vauge lore that gets interpreted in multiple different ways. It feels like a mythology re-interpreted over and over again. I also just think the music is super fun and catchy. While I've met many people around my age in the USA who are familiar with the dubbed movie, digging up the French media is a bit of a challenge and a scavenger hunt from over here.

I have more thoughts but I'll save them mmm unti the hyperfixation is hyperfixating.