Little Indian, Big City, originally titled Un indien dans la ville ("An Indian in the City"), is a 1994 French comedy directed by Hervé Palud, starring Thierry Lhermitte, Patrick Timsit, Ludwig Briand, Miou-Miou, Arielle Dombasle, and Sonia Vollereaux.
French stockbroker Stéphane Marchadot (Lhermitte) wants to divorce his wife Patricia (Miou-Miou) so he can be with another woman, Charlotte (Dombasle). Patricia, however, has been living among the indigenous people of French Guiana for the previous 13 years, forcing Stéphane to travel there to sign the divorce papers. Once he arrives in French Guiana, Patricia tells him that they have a teenaged son, Mimi-Siku (Briand), who has been raised among the local tribesmen. She refuses to sign the papers unless Stéphane takes their son to visit Paris and experience the western world, to which he agrees. There, Mimi-Siku has all sorts of misadventures and falls for the daughter of Stéphane's boss.
The film was given a limited release in America in an English-dubbed form by Touchstone Pictures. It received an American remake, Jungle 2 Jungle, in 1997, starring Tim Allen and Martin Short.
Little Indian, Big Tropes:
- Eiffel Tower Effect: The Eiffel Tower itself plays a major part in the film — one of the first things Stéphane promises Mimi-Siku, who recognizes the image of the tower from a necklace owned by his grandfather, is that he will take him to visit it some day after they return to Paris. Once there, Mimi-Siku sneaks into the Champ de Mars and climbs the tower himself, to the horror of both Stéphane and plenty of visiting tourists.
- Fish out of Water: Mimi-Siku is not used to life in a modern big city like Paris, but he adapts... in his own ways.
- Gay Paree: The film features some rather nice establishing shots of the Parisian skyline along with location filming around the remainder of the city. Charlotte also embodies the Parisian bourgeois stereotypes (which the actress has always lived up to in Real Life).
- Hong Kong Dub: There are several instances in the English dub where passive voice is used or sentences are constructed backwards in order for the voices to match the length of the original French dialogue. The results are not always successful, leading to occasions where the dubbing doesn't completely match up with the actors' lip movements.
- In the Local Tongue: The name Mimi-Siku means "cat piss" in a local tribal language.
- Never Learned to Read: In Mimi-Siku's own words, "me no able read."
- Regional Riff: A tribal-sounding riff frequently plays in the film's soundtrack, including the scene where Mimi-Siku climbs the Eiffel Tower.
- You No Take Candle: Mimi-Siku speaks in broken French due to being raised by the local tribesmen. Oddly, his mother — from whom he most likely learned the language — speaks perfect French.
