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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Wall Street Journal THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
Release date: March 19, 2004 (U.S.)
“It goes by like a fevered dream of love, but one that you will remember vividly, with profound pleasure.”
RUNTIME 1 h 48 min GENRE Romance | Drama | Sci-Fi LANGUAGE English FILMING LOCATION New York
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
THE FILMS OF
DIRECTOR
Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry WRITER Charlie Kaufman Michel Gondry Pierre Bismuth PRODUCTION CO
MAIN CAST
Focus Features
Jim Carrey Kate Winslet
“Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders.” A rich, flamboyant, yet fragile piece with deep and personal touch
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
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The Story PLOT SUMMARY FILM SPECS Runtime | 1 h 48 min Genre | Romance, Sci-Fi Language | English Film Location | New York Writer | Michel Gondry, Charlie Kaufman, Pierre Bismuth
Joel (Jim Carrey) is an emotionally withdrawn man and Clementine (Kate Winslet) is his girlfriend who has a dysfunctional free spirit. They are inexplicably attracted to each other despite their distinctly different personalities. They do not realize it at the time, but they are former lovers now separated after two years together. After a nasty fight with each other, Clementine has had her memories of their relationship erased from her mind. Upon learning this, Joel is very devastated and goes to the doctor to get the same procedure
done. However, while unconscious, Joel has a second thought and decides that he wants to keep his memories of Clementine. Much of the movie takes place in Joel’s brain when he tries to find a way to preserve his memories of Clementine, and Lacuna techies try to erase the memories. As a result, we see their love and courtship go in reverse: Those memories are slowly erased while Joel tries his best to resist the whole procedure and hide inside his mind.
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Clementine | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
“I’m always anxious thinking I’m not living my life to the fullest, you know? Taking advantage of every possibility?”
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The Ideas JIM CARREY On Easing Memories “In the moment, especially, when you’re going through something. You think, ‘I don’t need this! I don’t need to live in a fight or flight response! Why can’t I just let this go?’ But, in retrospect, it always
seems to work out. You look back on something that was a disaster and find some gems in there.” On Tendency to Erase Things “I think quick fixes are big, for sure. We all erase stuff every morning when we go to Starbucks. You know what I mean? We’re like (mimes drinking down coffee), “Don’t let it come up again! Don’t let it come up again!” I think we suppress, we don’t completely erase. I think we would, in the moment, definitely choose that a lot of times when we are on our knees screaming at God.”
On Losing Because of Erasing “I think it is about making the same mistakes over and over again—not that you wouldn’t anyway—if you knew. These days everybody seems to expect that fairy tale [that] you will be together forever with someone and I don’t really subscribe to that. I’d love that to happen if that happened, but 10 years is enough. 10 years is a good thing with somebody, I think. It’s a nice thing. A lot of good love can happen in 10 years.”
MAIN CAST Jim Carrey | Joel Kate Winslet | Clementine Thomas Jay Ryan | Frank Mark Ruffalo | Stan Jane Adams | Carrie Tom Wilkinson | Dr. Mierzwiak David Cross | Rob Kirsten Dunst | Mary
—An interview with liveabout.com on Eternal Sunshine
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Kristy Strouse | In Their Own League
“It is the kind of romance that is just grounded enough, in reality, to inspire and incite, but whimsical enough to deserve its own special place in the genre’s history.”
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The Science of Sleep
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The Science of Sleep The NYTimes THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
the of
Release date: September 29, 2006 (U.S.)
“It is so profoundly idiosyncratic, and so confident in its oddity, that any attempt to describe it will be misleading.”
RUNTIME 1 h 45 min GENRE MAIN CAST
Comedy | Drama | Fantasy
Gael García Bernal
LANGUAGE French | English | Spanish FILMING LOCATION Chérence | Forges | Paris
DIRECTOR Michel Gondry
The Science of Sleep
The Science of Sleep
Charlotte Gainsbourg THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
WRITER Michel Gondry PRODUCTION CO Partizan Films Gaumont France 3 Cinéma
“Randomness is very difficult to achieve. Organization always merges back if you don’t pay attention.” A smart and refreshing view of the young and the dreamers
The Science of Sleep THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
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Cynthia Fuchs | Common Sense Media
“A journey through a young man’s dreams and desires, it’s at once lyrical, strange, and resistant to interpretation.”
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The Story PLOT SUMMARY Stéphane (Gael García Bernal) is a man whose dreams and imagination often interfere with his ability to interact with reality. He is coaxed back to his home after his father passes away, and his mother helps him find a mundane typesetting job in a calendar printing company. While leaving his apartment to go to work one day, Stéphane injures his hand helping his new neighbor, a girl named Stéphanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), move a piano into her apartment. Stéphanie, invites him into her apartment. Stéphane soon realizes that Stéphanie, similar to
himself, is creative and artistic. So they start to plan a project for use in a short animated film. As they get along with each other, surreal and naturalistic elements begin to overlap, and the viewer is often uncertain of which portions constitute reality and which are just dreams. Stéphane becomes more enamored with Stéphanie the more he spends time with her and shares many inventions with her.
FILM SPECS Runtime | 1 h 45 min Genre | Drama, Fantasy Language | French, English, Spanish Film Location | Chérence, Forges, Paris Writer | Michel Gondry
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The Ideas MICHEL GONDRY On Making the Animation Work “With regard to the animation, it’s true that most of the dreams have been shot before the live action. It’s a process that’s hard to explain to a producer because, you know, you do principal photography and you get your green light a few days before you start to shoot really. We had to put our money on the table to do the animation sequences that we [shot] ten months before because we did not even have the actors signed.
It was the only way for me to have those ready on stage when we did those sequences because I didn’t want to use blue screen. I wanted the actor to participate [with] this landscape, to be able to see them and enjoy them in some way. It was like I was showing them my toys. They would help them in the tone they have.
time to connect with what’s actually happening around them and they even end up to not connecting with each other.”
MAIN CAST Gael García Bernal | Stéphane Charlotte Gainsbourg | Stéphanie
—An interview with The Evening Class on The Science of Sleep
Emma de Caunes | Zoé Alain Chabat | Guy Miou-Miou | Christine Stéphane Metzger | Sylvain
The blue screen’s so cold, or the green screen, whatever, it’s so cold because the actor does not have
Sacha Bourdo | Serge Yvette Petit | Ivana Aurélia Petit | Martine
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Stéphane | The Science of Sleep
“I’ll show you how dreams are prepared… First, we put in some random thoughts. And then, we add a little bit of reminiscences of the day...mixed with some memories from the past.”
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Be Kind Rewind
For detailed information about the festival, visit: cloudoffantasy.com
Be Kind Rewind The Guardian THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
Or download our app from the app store: “Cloud of Fantasy”
the of
Release date: February 22, 2008 (U.S.)
“A film that’s sweet and wellintentioned, but with a heart where its brain should be.”
RUNTIME 1 h 42 min
Be Kind Rewind
GENRE Comedy LANGUAGE English FILMING LOCATION New Jersey
THE FILMS OF
MAIN CAST
Michel Gondry
Jack Black Yasiin Bey
DIRECTOR Michel Gondry WRITER Michel Gondry
THE FILMS OF
PRODUCTION CO
Michel Gondry
New Line Cinema Focus Features
Be Kind Rewind
“The past belongs to us, and we can change it.” Gondry’s delightful ode to handmade DIY craftsmanship at it’s finest
Be Kind Rewind
THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
For detailed information about the festival, visit: cloudoffantasy.com Or download our app from the app store: “Cloud of Fantasy”
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The Story PLOT SUMMARY FILM SPECS Runtime | 1 h 42 min Genre | Comedy Language | English Film Location | New Jersey Writer | Michel Gondry
In New Jersey, Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) owns an old VHS Be Kind Rewind Video Store in a condemned building, where he works with his stepson Mike (Yasiin Bey). The City Hall wants to relocate the store and demolish the building. Mr. Fletcher needs to travel and advises Mike to keep his dysfunctional friend Jerry (Jack Black) out of the store. Jerry thinks of a conspiracy theory against the machines and decides to sabotage the power plant. He has an accident and gets magnetized. When Jerry visits Mike in the video store, he accidentally erases all
the tapes. Jerry and Mike decide to hide the accident and remake the film by themselves. Words spread from Miss Falewicz’s nephew of the hilarious results of Mike and Jerry’s filming, and soon the store is seeing more requests for such type of movies. Mike, Jerry, and Alma quickly pass off those movies as being “sweded”, insisting the films came from Sweden and thus they are able to demand long wait times and higher costs for the rental.
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Troy Patterson | Spin
A surprisingly quiet and whimsical comedy about a ridiculous and unlikely series of events that turns into a nearlyas-likely miracle.
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to include the people living there. In the end, those are the kids you see watching the movies. And to me, the reason why they have this very genuine expression of pride and happiness on their faces is that they’d seen us shooting this movie that didn’t make sense at the time, and once it was all put together, it was really fun to watch. That is one way I applied my theory to the movie, this concept that people would enjoy films better if they shot them themselves.”
MAIN CAST Jack Black | Jerry Yasiin Bey | Mike Danny Glover | Mr. Fletcher Mia Farrow | Miss Falewicz Melonie Diaz | Alma Irv Gooch | W ilson Chandler Parker | Craig Arjay Smith | Manny
—An interview with Vulture on Be Kind Rewind
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Alma | Be Kind Rewind
“You know you’re in love with a person when you talk to them for a minimum of 20 minutes a day in your head.”
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Mood Indigo
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Mood Indigo Toronto Star THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
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Release date: July 18, 2014 (U.S.)
“The rich display and rapid-fire visual imagings of Mood Indigo, even when muted by sorrow, are unrelenting.”
RUNTIME 1 h 34 min
Mood Indigo
GENRE Comedy | Drama | Fantasy LANGUAGE French | English FILMING LOCATION
THE FILMS OF
MAIN CAST
Paris, France
Romain Duris
Michel Gondry
Charlotte Gainsbourg
DIRECTOR Michel Gondry WRITER Michel Gondry Luc Bossi Boris Vian | Original Novel PRODUCTION CO StudioCanal Brio Films Scope Pictures Hérodiade France 2 Cinéma Belgacom
THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
Mood Indigo
“If we screw this moment, we try the next. And if we fail the next...we have our whole lives to get it right.” As inventive, sweet and sombre as a Duke Ellington song
Mood Indigo
THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
For detailed information about the festival, visit: cloudoffantasy.com Or download our app from the app store: “Cloud of Fantasy”
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Emily Robinson | Bust Magazine
“Gondry’s latest endeavor reads like a twisted storybook, weaving realistic tropes with fantastic visions of both the light and the dark.”
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The Story PLOT SUMMARY Set in a charmingly surreal Paris, wealthy bachelor Colin (Romain Duris) spends his time developing his pianocktail and devouring otherworldly dishes prepared by his trusty chef Nicolas. When Colin knows that his friend Chick, a fellow acolyte of philosopher Jean-Sol Partre, has an American girlfriend, our lonely hero joins a friend’s party in hopes of falling in love himself. He soon meets Chloé (Audrey Tautou) and before they know it, they are dancing
to Duke Ellington and plunging headfirst into a romance. However, Their whirlwind courtship is tested when an unusual illness plagues Chloé; a flower begins to grow in her lungs. In order to save her, Colin discovers the only cure is to surround Chloé with an unending supply of fresh flowers.
FILM SPECS Runtime | 1 h 34 min Genre | Drama, Fantasy Language | English, French Film Location | Paris Writer | Michel Gondry
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MAIN CAST Romain Duris | Colin Audrey Tautou | Chloé Gad Elmaleh | Chick Omar Sy | Nicolas Charlotte Le Bon | Isis Aïssa Maïga | Alise Sacha Bourdo | Mary
On Ideas Before the Production “When I was asked to direct the picture and before I read the book again, I sort of put on paper my first memories of the book. When the screenplay eventually written, I actually wanted to incorporate my memories of reading the book when I was in my almost late teens. I remember vividly reading the scene in the ice rink, where the guy stretches and then everybody smashes on the floor. That was
something that stayed with me for years. I think it’s a very romantic movie, but it does not shy away to be dark at the end. In fact, the mouse gets killed at the end of the book. We couldn’t kill the mouse. It was just too hard. It seemed like Boris Vian wanted nothing to be left at the end of the book. That was sort of a very dark idea, but I think when you’re different you like scenes that are very dark.” —An interview with IndieWire on Mood Indigo.
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Colin | Mood Indigo
“I’m both in despair and horribly happy.”
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Microbe & Gasoline
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Microbe & Gasoline Chicago Sun-Times THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
the of
Release date: July 8, 2015 (U.S.)
“We appreciate the personalities of these two kids, and we’re glad that they found each other.”
RUNTIME 1 h 45 min
Microbe & Gasoline
GENRE Adventure | Comedy | Drama LANGUAGE French | Japanese FILMING LOCATION Versailles
Microbe & Gasoline
THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry DIRECTOR Michel Gondry WRITER Michel Gondry
MAIN CAST
PRODUCTION CO
Ange Dargent
StudioCanal
Théophile Baquet
Partizan
“Go back to the last thought you remember. It’ll take you to the next one, and the one after that, until you get the right one.” Charming, melancholy, and, in the end, not terribly memorable
Microbe & Gasoline THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
For detailed information about the festival, visit: cloudoffantasy.com Or download our app from the app store: “Cloud of Fantasy”
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The Story PLOT SUMMARY Gasoline refers to the nickname of Théo (Théophile Baquet), a transfer student and mechanical whiz who conceives the notion that he and his classmate, Daniel (Ange Dargent), nicknamed Microbe, for his small size, could escape their oppressive families. Both are social outsiders. “Microbe and Gasoline” minimizes the class differences between the boys. Théo’s bitter, angry parents are a junk dealer and his unkempt wife, who is ailing after two heart attacks. Daniel is one of three sons who are raised by a clinging and overprotective middle-class mother.
Although their life on the road has its perils, the journey feels like an idyllic, gentle rite of passage. The house on wheels proves to be a successful disguise that enables them to park near the side of a road and avoid police harassment as it seems like a rooted structure. Of course, they also have small misadventures. They’re welcomed while stopping on the property of dentist but flee from a window as he tries to examine their teeth.
FILM SPECS Runtime | 1 h 45 min Genre | Adventure, Drama Language | French, Japanese Film Location | Versailles Writer | Michel Gondry
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Michael O’Sullivan | The Washington Post
“It’s in love with love and friendship and the act of creation— both of mechanical devices and the self.”
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The Ideas MICHEL GONDRY On Touching the Personal Topic “I think especially after Mood Indigo, which was an adaptation of a very iconic French book, I wanted to do something really coming from me, something personal. Thus I turned back to myself and some memories. I focused on the friendship that I had developed in my teenage years. Everybody has tons of memories, and if they connect to each other, and they serve the story, then I keep them. Some I write down and then I cross them [out] because
they are outside the main story. I really wanted to keep the ones that explained why the two individuals, the two teenagers, become friends with each other.”
It was more that I was trying to adapt the type of activities we were doing at this time to kids living now.”
MAIN CAST Ange Dargent | Daniel
—An interview with Film Comment on Microbe & Gasoline
Théophile Baquet | Théo Diane Besnier | Laura
On the Young Protagonists “They like to make stuff with their hands. That is why they bond as well. Daniel likes to paint and draw, Théo loves to construct stuff, to work with mechanical stuff. So they are not really into video games and iPhones and all this technology too much. That was not a statement I was trying to make.
Audrey Tautou | Marie-Thérèse Agathe Peigney | Agathe Vincent Lamoureux | Steve Douglas Brosset | Oscar Charles Raymond | Kevin Ferdinand Roux-Balme | Simon Marc Delarue | Romain
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Théo | Microbe & Gasoline
“Have you ever dreamed of total independence?”
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DVD Series
TRANCE
THE FILMS OF
Michel Gondry
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“I kind of like the idea of taking a concept and going all the way with it, even if it’s not completely plausible. It’s something that I like about making movies.” —Michel Gondry