MICHEL GONDRY
BY DILA FAUZIA
The Beauty of doing films is that you construct what ever you do block by block and you can build something that will stay. - Michel Gondry
MICHEL GONDRY
Swinburne University of Technology Faculty of Health, Arts and Design School of Design Published and Printed in Melbourne, Australia Dila F. Hasan 101050530 I would like to thank my family and friends for their advice and encouragement during the development of this project over the past 12 weeks. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from Swinburne University of Technology. Declaration of Originality Unless specifically referenced in the bibliography, the mark and all other material in this book is the original creation of the author. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This print publication requires the production of a minimum 30 page (pp) minimum 3000 word document from selected topics creating a mono-thematic document that demonstrates through a publication the exploration of navigation, inventive typography, creative image making, a unit providing an opportunity to create outstanding documents and publications that may form examples of many fundamental aspects of Communication Design.
Elements of Clip
Table Of Content
08.
BIOGRAPHY
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Famous Clips
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Early life
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Behind the scenes
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Career
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inspired people
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Sources Table of Content...
08.
BIOGRAPHY
Pioneering director Michel Gondry’s remarkable creative energy and ability to innovate have resulted in some of the most visually stunning music videos in the history of the medium, and his wild imagination and organic, childlike imagery raised the bar of what one could achieve in the short format. In particular, his technique of placing numerous cameras around a subject and combining the images to form a visually astonishing sweeping effect has become so popular that it has since gone on to achieve timeless notoriety in such films as the The Matrix.
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Though Gondry’s earliest career ambitions were to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps as an inventor, his skills as a draughtsman led him to art college in Paris, where he would form the band Oui Oui with some close friends. It was the remarkably visionary videos that Gondry created for the band that propelled his early sparks of inspiration into a virtual inferno of creativity. Mixing animation with live action to create a series of wildly surreal and strangely beautiful worlds, the videos would serve as a calling card to the world of film. It was his videos for Oui Oui (in particular the video for the song “La Ville”) that peaked the interest of eccentric singer Björk, and the two artists were soon collaborating on the video for her song “Human Behavior” from her post-Sugarcubes solo debut. With a family background that consists of a number of inventors and technological innovators, Gondry, not surprisingly, is seen as a bottomless wealth of imaginative innovation. Michel Gondry is a native of Versailles who was raised in a freethinking family that encouraged and supported his creative endeavors; his parents harbored a deep love of pop music and the works of Duke Ellington, in particular. Gondry’s grandfather Constant Martin is often credited with creating one of the earliest synthesizers (the Clavioline), and although his father would often bemoan his own lack of musical inspiration, he kept the spirit alive by owning a shop that sold
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musical instruments. Though the shop would eventually go out of business due to the elder Gondry’s generosity toward burgeoning musicians (Michel claims that his father would practically give his instruments away), that generosity did extend to his immediate family, and young Michel and his brother were given a drum kit and a bass guitar, respectively, before the shop closed its doors.Subsequently forming a punk rock band with his brother, Gondry would also collaborate with his siblings on a series of short films in which the youngsters were constantly striving to break new technological ground.
album. A visually extravagant study in the quirks of humans as expressed through various species of the animal kingdom, the groundbreaking video first aired in 1993, stunning viewers across the globe. Its organically outlandish images perfectly complimented the singer’s unique musical style and served as the beginning of an enduring collaboration between the two artists.
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Though Gondry would frequently return to work with Björk in the following years, the success of the “Human Behavior” video found such popular artists as the Rolling Stones, Massive Attack, Kylie Minogue, and Beck clamoring to collaborate with the visionary director. Always looking to create and invent new ways of shooting music videos, Gondry offered something fresh and original in each of his new efforts, effectively breathing fresh air into the somewhat stagnant (at the time) format. His video for the French band IAM’s track “Je Danse le Mia” pioneered the morphing technique that would become increasingly prevalent in film and video throughout the 1990s. During this time, Gondry would also helm commercials for such notable clients as Levi’s, Nike, and BMW. Subsequent videos for such bands as the White
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Stripes and the Foo Fighters found him consistently working with some of the hippest bands around. His brother Olivier “Twist” Gondry is also a television commercial and music video director creating videos for bands such as The Stills, Hot Hot Heat, Daft Punk and The Vines. Michel’s son Paul Gondry is an artist, actor, and film director as well. Gondry was an Artist in Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005 and 2006. Later directing the music video for the Paul McCartney song “Dance Tonight”, in which Gondry makes a cameo appearance. Gondry directed “Unnatural Love”, the fifth episode in season two of HBO’s Flight of the Conchords. Interior Design one third of the 2008 anthology film Tokyo! was next for Gondry.
Interior Design was based on the comic book “Cecil and Jordan in New York” by Gabrielle Bell but was adapted from New York City to Tokyo for the film. In 2009, The Thorn in the Heart, another feature documentary, was released, it is about Michel’s aunt Suzette and her son Jean-Yves. In 2011, Gondry directed The Green Hornet, a superhero film by Sony starring Seth Rogen, Jay Chou and Christoph Waltz; Rogen co-wrote the script. In 2011, he was the head of the jury for the short film competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
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Michel Gondry is a film, music video, and commercial director as well as an artist and a screenwriter. He was born and raised in Versailles, France.His parents were musicians and hippies. His grandfather was inventor Constant Martin, Who perfected and successfully commercialized radio sets, most famously the Clavioline, a precursor to the synthesizer. Gondry’s parents encouraged him and his brother, Olivier “Twist� Gondry, also a television commercial and music video director, to pursue their artistic interests.
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early life
At a young age, Michel Gondry would create animated short films using his father’s Super 8 Camera and complex flipbooks. After high school, he enrolled in an art college in Paris. Gondry started his filmmaking career while living in Paris by directing music videos for his rock band, Oui Oui (he was the drummer). His work caught the attention of Icelandic songstress Bjork, who selected Gondry to direct the music video for her debut single “Human Behaviour” in 1993. Like the song, the video is inspired by British broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough. It is about the relationship between humans and animals, and Gondry shot the video from a bear’s point of view. The video debuted to much acclaim and Michel Gondry moved to London and started directing commercials. In 1997, he relocated to New York City, despite his limited understanding of English. Nevertheless, Gondry became one of the most sought-after music video directors in the business, collaborating with bands like Daft Punk, The White Stripes, The Chemical Brothers, The Vines, Stereogram, Radiohead, and Beck. In 1998, while directing
a commercial for Smirnoff Vodka, Gondry developed the “bullet time” special effect, which creates as slowed-down version of an unfilmable event, like a bullet flying. Later that year, the Wachowski siblings adapted this technique for their 1999 smash hit film, The Matrix. Gondry’s 2004 commercial for Levi’s 501 Jeans holds the title for “most awards won by a TV commercial” in the Guinness Book of World Records. Michel Gondry segued into feature film directing in 2001 Michel Gondry with seguedHuman into feature directing in 2001 written by Nature,film a quirky comedy-drama with Human Nature, quirky comedy-drama written by Rhys Ifans, CharlieaKaufman and starring Patricia Arquette, Charlie KaufmanTimandRobbins, starring and Patricia Arquette, Rhys Ifans, Miranda Otto. It had its world premiere Tim Robbins, and Miranda Otto. It worldCannes premiereFilm Festival and out of competition athadtheits2001 out of competition at the 2001 Festival andLine Features in was released in theCannes UnitedFilm States by Fine was released inApril the United FineaLine in 2002. States The filmbywas box Features office disappointment and from critics, whoandnonetheless apApril 2002. Thegarnered film wasmixed a box reviews office disappointment preciated Gondry’s quirky garnered mixed reviews from critics, whostyle. nonetheless appreciated Gondry’s quirky style.
Kaufman and Gondry collaborated again to make Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which opened in 2004. It became one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, and Kaufman, Gondry, and Pierre Bismuth won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Star Kate Winslet was nominated for Best Actress for her performance as Clementine Kruczynski, but lost to Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby. In 2010, critics for periodicals and websites like Empire, Premiere, Time Out New York, Entertainment Weekly, and The A.V. Club revisited [Eternal Sunshine] calling it one of the best films of the decade. In 2005, Gondry directed Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, a musical documentary about the comedian’s efforts to organize a large, free concert in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Gondry’s next narrative feature film The Science of Sleep, came out in 2006. The film, which Gondry wrote, was based on a 10-year-old’s bedtime story. It combines elements of surrealism, science fiction, fantasy, and comedy and was generally well-received by critics.
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He used design elements from the film to create an installation called “The Science of Sleep: An Exhibition of Sculpture, and Pathological Creepy Little Gifts” at Deitch Projects in New York City. From 2005-2006, Gondry was an Artist in Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the mid-2000s, Gondry tried his hand at television, directing an episode of HBO’s Flight of the Conchords. In 2008, he wrote and directed Be Kind Rewind, a $20-million comedy starring Jack Black and Mos Def as video store clerks who must re-create the store’s entire catalog of VHS films after a freak disaster erases the tapes. It performed fairly well at the box office, earning approximately $30 million worldwide.
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The documentary A Thorn in the Heart, which Gondry made about his Aunt Suzette and her son Jean-Yves, The documentary A Thorn in theGondry Heart,took whichonGondry came out in 2009. In 2011, his bigmade about his Aunt Suzette and her son Jean-Yves, gest budget film to date, The Green Hornet, a comic came in 2009.starring In 2011, Gondry took onThehisreviews bigbookout adaptation Seth Rogen. gest budget film to date, The Green Hornet, a comic were fairly dismal (especially in comparison to Gonbook starring Seth Rogen. dry’sadaptation previous work). Additionally, the The film’sreviews inflated were fairly dismal (especially in comparison to budget and rushed 3-D conversion drew theGonire of dry’s previous work). alike Additionally, the film’s inflated viewers and critics and it performed tepidly at budget rushed 3-Dwent conversion the ire of the boxand office. Gondry back to drew his independent, viewers and critics alike and it performed tepidly quirky roots with his following feature film, TheatWe theandboxtheoffice. Gondry went back to hisofindependent, I, which screened as part the Directors’ quirky roots with his following feature film, TheItWehas Fortnight at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. and the I, which screened as part of the Directors’ thus far only been released in France. Fortnight at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. It has thus far only been released in France.
To date, Michel Gondry has directed close to 100 music videos for a diverse array of artists like Paul McCartney, Kanye West, Cody ChestnuTT, Lenny Kravitz, The Rolling Stones, Sinead O’Connor, Belinda Carlisle, Wyclef Jean, Sheryl Crow, The Foo Fighters, The White Stripes, The Polyphonic Spree, and Kylie Minogue. His commercial portfolio includes spots for Adidas, Coca-Cola, Fiat, GAP, Heineken, Motorola, Nike, Polaroid, and Volvo. He continues to be a visual innovator, making short films and releasing them on his Vimeo channel. Gondry’s son, Paul, has followed in his father’s artistic footsteps, directing music videos and creating art. They live in Brooklyn, New York. Hollywood became interested in Gondry’s success and he directed his first feature movie Human Nature (2001), adapting a Charlie Kaufman’s scenario, which was shown in the 2001 Cannes Festival. Although it wasn’t a big success, this film allowed him to direct Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), for which he again collaborated with Charlie Kaufman. The movie became a popular independent film and he and his co-writers won an Oscar for it.
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20.
Career
Gondry’s vision and career began with his emphasis on emotion. Much of his inspiration, he says, came from the film Le voyage en ballon. He stated: “When I watch this movie, I dream I’m flying and then I do stories where people are flying. I think it’s directly influencing.” His career as a filmmaker began with creating music videos for the French rock band Oui Oui, in which he also served as a drummer. The style of his videos for Oui Oui caught the attention of music artist Björk, who asked him to direct the video for her song “Human Behaviour”. 21...
The collaboration proved long-lasting, with Gondry directing a total of eight music videos for Björk. Other artists who have collaborated with Gondry on more than one occasion include Daft Punk, The White Stripes, The Chemical Brothers, The Vines, Steriogram, Radiohead, and Beck. Gondry’s video for Lucas Secon’s Lucas With The Lid Off was nominated in the Best Music Video (short form) category at the 37th Grammy Awards,(one of two Gondry music videos nominated that year along with Sinéad O’Connor’s Fire On Babylon) Gondry has also created numerous television commercials. He pioneered the “bullet time” technique later adapted in The Matrix (he met Joel Silver, the producer of the film, and said he had no choice but to accept the deal for a small amount) in a 1998 commercial for Smirnoff vodka, as well as directing a trio of inventive holiday-themed advertisements for clothing retailer Gap. Gondry, along with directors Spike Jonze and David Fincher, is representative of the influx of music video directors into feature film. Gondry made his feature film debut in 2001 with Human Nature, garnering mixed reviews. His second film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (also his second col22...
laboration with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman), was released in 2004 and received very favorable reviews, becoming one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year. Eternal Sunshine utilizes many of the image manipulation techniques that Gondry had experimented with in his music videos. Gondry won an Academy Award alongside Kaufman and Pierre Bismuth for the screenplay of Eternal Sunshine. The style of Gondry’s music videos often relies on videography and camera tricks which play with frames of reference. Gondry also directed the musical documentary Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2006) which followed comedian Dave Chappelle as he attempted to hold a large, free concert in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. His following film, The Science of Sleep, hit theaters in September 2006. This film stars Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, and marked a return to the fantastical, surreal techniques he employed in Eternal Sunshine. According to the Guinness World Records 2004, Michel Gondry’s Levi’s 501 Jeans “Drugstore” spot holds the record for “Most awards won by a TV commercial”. The commercial was
never aired in North America because of the suggestive content involving purchasing latex condoms. He was asked by French comic duet Éric and Ramzy to direct Seuls Two, but declined; by his suggestion, Éric and Ramzy subsequently asked Mr Oizo to direct another movie, Steak. In September 2006, Gondry made his debut as an installation artist at Deitch Projects in New York City’s SoHo gallery district. The show, called “The Science of Sleep: An Exhibition of Sculpture and Pathological Creepy Little Gifts” featured props from his film, The Science of Sleep, as well as film clips and a selection of gifts that the artist had given to women he was interested in, many of them former or current collaborators, Karen Baird, Kishu Chand, Dorothy Barrick and Lauri Faggioni. A leitmotif of the film is a ‘Disastrology’ calendar; Gondry commissioned the painter Baptiste Ibar to draw harrowing images of natural and human disasters. His film The We and the I was selected to be screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. On January 3, 2013, Gondry released his latest animated short Haircut Mouse on his official Vimeo channel. In February 2013, Gondry released a hand-drawn animated documentary on famed linguist Noam Chomsky titled Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?. In 2014 he was selected as a member of the jury for the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. On January 23, 2013, Gondry was confirmed to have produced the video for Metronomy’s upcoming single, Love Letters, as it was named Zane Lowe’s Hottest Record in the World.
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Famous clips
For his follow up to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Michel Gondry went a little bit smaller, but no less personal or emotional. The film is Science of Sleep, which Warner Independent has put out a very handsome special edition, that features an insightful commentary and fairly in depth making of. I say that truly, these are actually worthwhile supplements to dig into, as Gondry and company reveal interesting things about the film’s genesis. The release of the film on DVD gave me an excuse to talk to one of the most amazing artists working today.
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ETER N
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Lacuna is a company in Michel Gondry’s film The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which offers a procedure to have specific events removed from one’s memory. Both main characters, Joel Barish and Clementine Kruczynski, opt to have this procedure following a painful breakup— each therein erasing the memory of the other. The word, “lacuna” itself means gap or emptiness which, as the story reveals, is exactly what the service provides. The film shows associations, bridges by which memories are interconnected, still persist even after the deletion of the memories to which they are tied. Eternal Sunshine offers an intricate mix of psychological and philosophical subjects that help underscore the importance and influence of association. The film plays with the ideas of of memory, society, and perception, questioning the balance 26...
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of association’s effects on a character, and a character’s effect on the memories they form. The first scene shows Joel skipping work, he says that he does not understand why he does this, and further that he is not an impulsive person. As the story progresses, this claim shows all too true. It is only after Joel encounters Clementine, a enthusiastically spontaneous character, that he begins to shed these layers of insecurity. Even as it is revealed that Joel’s memory has already been erased, the story shows that this seemingly impulsive course of action is triggered by a remnant of his past relationship. This suggests that even with his memory removed, the associations that persist after the procedure drive the character to change.
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TL E S S M Before undergoing the erasure process, a session of brain mapping is required in order to pinpoint the target memories. This is accomplished through a series of association with artifacts from Joel and Clementine’s relationship. The mapping shows the location of memories related to the objects shown. The deletion of these memories is meant to enable the advertised “spotless mind.” The receptionist of the company, Mary Sevevo, recites several literary quotes underscoring this idealized bliss of the forgetful. As it shows, the reality is not so clean; those who undergo the procedure are not content with their loss, but are left instead a canvas with holes. One critique of the film creates this analogy, “a relationship is a loom. It weaves lives into one another. Just how
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much unweaving you would have to do in order to erase all traces of one is unclear” (Reeve, 18). This helps underscore the film’s use of association as an innate structure of human memory. This is displayed in Joel’s journey through his subconscious as the erasure procedure takes place. The progression is that of the paths constructed earlier and is not linear, but still traceable through Joel’s mind. The presentation of both Joel’s internal memory and consciousness as aware of what is happening offers insight into his relationship with Clementine and his growing regret of having chosen to undergo the procedure. Rather than the blissful ignorance the procedure seems to offer, Joel is conscious to his loss twice over.
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“The Science of Sleep,” Michel Gondry’s beguiling new film, is so profoundly idiosyncratic, and so confident in its oddity, that any attempt to describe it is bound to be misleading. While points of comparison are available — to “Human Nature” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” Mr. Gondry’s collaborations with Charlie Kaufman; to early Surrealist artworks or the later films of Luis Buñuel — they don’t do much to illuminate the puzzling, mostly delightful experience of watching “The Science of Sleep” unfold. So it may be best to tack in the opposite direction, with a description that is no less accurate for seeming completely illogical. What I’m trying to say is that “The Science of Sleep,” for all its blithe disregard of the laws of physics, film grammar and narrative coherence, strikes me as perfectly realistic, as authentic a slice of life as I’ve encountered on screen in quite some time. Some immediate qualification is called for, since the life that Mr. Gondry explores, in a spirit at once rigorous and playful, is the inner life of an eccentric, somewhat troubled fellow. Filmed in not-espe-
cially-glamorous parts of Paris, the film takes place in a zone where dreams, wishes and fears mingle with, and at times obliterate, the literal facts of everyday existence. Beginning deep inside the head of its hero, an anxious young man named Stephane (Gael García Bernal), “The Science of Sleep” creates a world of intense peculiarity, where time seems to move in loops and curlicues, and where the basic axiom that a thing and its opposite can’t both be true seems not to apply. Plot summary, therefore, is both irrelevant and impossible. Which is not to say that the movie lacks a story, only that, like a dream, the narrative moves sideways as well as forward, revising and contradicting itself as it goes along. Mr. Gondry, who would rather invent than explain, makes a plausible case that a love story (which is what “The Science of Sleep” is) cannot really be told any other way. Love is too bound up with memories, fantasies, projections and misperceptions to conform to a conventional, linear structure.
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Mr. Gondry’s debt to Surrealism lies in his embrace of the notion that the unconscious is a kingdom governed by its own perverse logic, beyond the control of reason. His vision of the unconscious, however, is remarkably benign. The dream world of “The Science of Sleep” is not haunted by primal sexual terror or constructed for purposes of social criticism, the way Buñuel’s landscapes were. It has, instead, a wide-eyed, picture-book quality, an air of almost aggressive innocence. After a while, the spell wears off. Not because the film’s inventiveness wanes, but because its mood changes, slowly but noticeably, from eager enthrallment to desperation. The gray of daylight seeps in around the edges, and Stephane’s dreams become less an escape from the frustrations of ordinary life than another potential source of disappointment.
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His childlike behavior, especially around Stephanie, begins to seem intemperate and regressive, a petulant refusal to wake up into the rational, adult world. And so you leave this buoyant, impish movie feeling a little blue: sorry that it had to end and also wishing, perhaps, that it amounted to more. But its fugitive, ephemeral quality is part of its point: dreams, after all, are hard to remember, and perhaps don’t hold the meanings they seem to. Without them, though, our minds would be emptier and our lives much smaller. So while “The Science of Sleep” may not, in the end, be terribly deep, it is undoubtedly — and deeply — refreshing.
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Mood Indigo, the latest flight of fancy from French fabulist Michel Gondry, is an adaptation of Froth On The Daydream, a classic novel by Boris Vian. That may surprise some viewers, as the film is also, arguably, the most Gondryesque thing Gondry has ever done. A whimsical Parisian romance starring Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou, Mood Indigo borrows and refines techniques—stop motion, in-camera effects, oversized prosthetic limbs—the director has employed throughout his entire career. There’s a little of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, a little of Be Kind Rewind, and a lot of The Science Of Sleep, except that none of those films break
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so completely with the laws of reality. In some respects, the movie plays like a feature-length tribute to its maker’s massive body of music-video work, unfolding as it does in five-minute chunks of surrealism. The A.V. Club talked to Gondry about his love for practical effects, his distrust of Method acting, and his creative relationship with Eternal Sunshine screenwriter Charlie Kaufman.Arguably the western world’s leading surrealistic feature filmmaker, director Michel Gondry has infused his movies with the same playful experimentalism he’s brought to groundbreaking music videos for Bjork and The White Stripes. From The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, Gondry’s films have explored the unending dance of human creativity and passion in the face of obstacles both real and imagined. His latest film, Mood Indigo, marks a kind of full circle, returning Gondry to one of his early inspirations as he adapts French author Boris Vian’s 1947 romantic fantasy novel Froth on the Daydream (published in America as Foam of the Daze). The film stars Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou (pictured above) as Colin and Chloe,
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two lovers making their way through the most inventive dreamscape Gondry has ever devised, only to find their lives darkened by unforeseen, possibly unalterable circumstances. We spoke with Gondry last week about the influence of surrealism on Mood Indigo, his return to filmmaking in France, and his next film, which will again star Tautou.
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Behind the scenes
“My generation is really the Lego generation.” This is Michel Gondry’s explanation for his music video of The White Stripes’ Fell in Love with a Girl, which is meticulously animated using only Lego blocks. As with much of the material included in the new DVD anthology of his videos and short films, the video is whimsical, vibrant, and fascinating in its aesthetic and technical detail. But it is also typical of Gondry that the inspiration for this work should come from a childhood toy, as much of his work is inspired by memories from his childhood and is filled with teddy bears, train sets, model airplanes, and colorful creatures.
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But Gondry’s statement is also emblematic of the director’s approach to the pop music and culture that his music videos are intended to promote. He does not consider himself a part of “Generation X”, much less the more obvious “MTV Generation.” Rather, Gondry aligns himself with a children’s toy that is both an internationally popular commercial brand and a creative medium. For Gondry, pop music is much like Lego: it is a mass-produced commodity, but it can also be manipulated in creative, even deeply personal ways for the individual who enjoys it. Indeed, he uses pop music much like a child might play with Lego blocks, to create a unique, expressive universe of bold color and dream-like imagery. Because of this, Gondry’s videos never seem to serve as star-vehicles for their respective musicians. They never use their subjects as mere pop icons alone, but as part of a surreal world that is peculiar to Gondry, sometimes even autobiographical. The DVD’s booklet is filled with anecdotes and reminiscences from Gondry’s life and their relation to the videos he has made for Björk, The Chemical Brothers, Beck, Cibo Matto, and Daft Punk. In the 34...
documentary included on the disk, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters explains that details of his band’s Everlong video were inspired by Gondry’s childhood nightmares about having enormous hands. In the video, Grohl attacks his girlfriend’s would-be assailants with similarly oversized hands. Perhaps the best example of the director’s merging of real life and pop music is his video for Radiohead’s Knives Out (sadly absent from this collection) that tells the story of Gondry’s relationship with his ex-girlfriend and her struggle with leukemia, starring singer Thom Yorke as Gondry himself and using, among other materials, a toy train set, a dancing skeleton, and a life-size Operation board game. In this respect, it often seems that Michel Gondry is less a music video director creating short, artful commercials for major-label pop albums than he is an idiosyncratic auteur with a distinctive and personal body of work that happens to feature internationally famous pop stars as actors. But such a statement makes Gondry sound like a bit of an egomaniac, and it also fails to convey the sense of fun and wonder inherent in his work. Through his videos,
videos, interviews, and anecdotes, Gondry comes across as playvideos, interviews, andinanecdotes, comes across as playful, charming, and decidedly French (yes, a good way).Gondry His work charming, and decidedly (yes, innosa good way). His work displays some of theful, magic and ingenuity of Méliès;French the cuddly displays some of the magic and ingenuity of Méliès; talgia of Amélie and Toto le Héros; and the experimentalism of the the cuddly nostalgia Luc of Amélie and TotoSchuiten, le Héros;among and the experimentalism of the comic books of Moebius, and François others. of Moebius, Schuiten, among others. The result is a stylecomic that isbooks eccentric on the Luc one and hand,François but inviting The result is a style that is eccentric on the one hand, but inviting and accessible on the other. and accessible on the other. The documentary included with the collection is entitled I’ve Been 12 Forever, and indeed part of the accessibility of Gondry’s work is a result of this essentially childlike style. It is freely associative and colorful and would be unbearably twee if not for the tinge of nostalgia that accompanies his references to the world of his childhood. For these reasons, Gondry’s work, with its warm eccentricity and surrealism, and affection for dazzling visual and technical detail, is continually a pleasure to watch. Indeed, to compare Gondry with Georges Méliès is not so far-fetched: both directors delight in all types of technical trickery, from the sophisticated to the rudimentary. Gondry’s affinity with early cinema pioneers like Méliès can be seen in his video for Deadweight in which Beck is led down a city street by his own shoes. The trick was achieved almost entirely in-camera, by reversing footage of Beck walking backwards,
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dragging his shoes, which are tied to his ankles with fishing wire. It is an utterly simple but successful effect which Beck himself describes as a “Buster Keaton trick.” Many of Gondry’s videos eschew complicated special effects in similar ways. All of his three videos for The White Stripes avoid digital technology in favor of more crude effects that match the simple, raw quality of the band’s music. In Dead Leaves & the Dirty Ground, video images projected directly onto scenes with live actors function as flashbacks or disconnected fantasies Confounding the viewer’s ability to distinguish between the two. In Hyperballad, Gondry layers multiple images of the singer (some real, others animated) with lights, models of cityof events that had previously occurred in the same locations. The video for The Hardest Button to Button does not utilize any special effects, merely a metronomic editing rhythm that mimics the song’s structure and creates the illusion of movement within the frame.
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When Gondry does use CGI or other more advanced technologies, he usually combines them with simpler devices, so that the result is rarely plastic or coolly technical. Many of his videos with Björk combine CGI with a number of effects, models, and real footage in astonishing and even bewildering ways. Joga combines aerial photography of surreal Icelandic landscapes with rather artificial digital manipulations, And the previously mentioned Fell in Love with a Girl is animated with Lego blocks without digital manipulation of any kind. Similarly, Gondry’s video for Cibo Matto’s Sugar Water, while mind-bogglingly complex, uses only a single, minutely detailed take that is split into two panels on the screen (one of which is played in reverse) to illustrate two narratives that converge in the exact midpoint of the song. Again, the video uses no effects, other than sheer ingenuity and compulsive precision.
Confounding the viewer’s ability to distinguish between the two. In Hyperballad, Gondry layers multiple images of the singer (some real, others animated) with lights, models of cityscape, and digitally animated clouds with disorienting results that surprise the viewer without trying her patience. Similarly, both of Gondry’s astonishing videos for The Chemical Brothers integrate multiple technologies with real footage. Star Guitar features a rhythmically mutating landscape seen from the window of a train, created from a combination of actual images and digital manipulation, while Let Forever Be combines cheesy 80’s video effects with a precisely choreographed dance sequence that mimics those effects (plus a touch of morphing). The viewer is thus not immediately able to determine how all this trickery is achieved, and so a certain sense of wonder and magic is maintained. “I still don’t really understand it, I have to say,” confesses one of The Chemical Brothers of the latter video. However, lest one get the impression that Gondry’s body of work amounts to a bag of tricks, his videos also reveal an approach to cinematography that is unique, even antithetical to the conventions of music videos in general. The average shot length of a Gondry video is often far longer than videos by other directors on MTV or elsewhere. Indeed, some of his videos (such as Star Guitar, Sugar Water and Hyperballad) consist of only a single take, or what appears to be one. Often it is the use of this device that makes Gondry’s most rudimentary tricks more effective – the apparent simplicity of the camerawork and editing make the images seem more realistic and less manipulated. His videos for Massive Attack’s Protection, Lucas’ Lucas with the Lid Off, and Kylie Minogue’s Come Into My World (which consists of a single, cleverly edited 1440 degree pan) all achieve temporal and spatial disorientation by combining long takes with other effects. In other instances, the long takes (as well as tracking and use of the steadicam) establish a particular mood that is not otherwise created 37...
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te i o dance number is filmed in meditative long takes and slow tracking shots. The effect is hypnotic and oddly reminiscent of Kubrick’s cinematography, even as the dance number itself is intentionally absurd. Gondry’s sensitivity to the structure of pop music is another of his peculiar strengths as a director, due in part to his experience as a drummer in the French neo-punk band Oui Oui (for whom he directed his first music videos). Indeed, his facility with matching visual images with music in the video form is perhaps part of the reason that his debut feature film, Human Nature, lacked much of the charm and visual intensity of his shorter work. (Also, the primarily linguistic appeal of a Charlie Kaufman script may not be the best basis for a film by a director who, as he confesses in the documentary, does not generally understand the lyrics to
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songs written in English). In particular, Gondry’s affinity for synchronization is unmistakable in the way his videos match visual elements with sound (the mutating landscapes in Star Guitar and Joga, the dancers in Around the World). Also, his analogous interest in synchronicity (evident insongs the mind-bending narrativeIn loops of Sugar Wateraffinity and Björk’s Bachewritten in English). particular, Gondry’s for synchronilorette) with thein the repetitive of popvisual musicelements in general. zationcorrelates is unmistakable way hisstructure videos match with Electro-pop, like Kylie Minogue’s Come Into My World or The sound (the mutating landscapes in Star Guitar and Joga, theChemical dancers in Brothers’ StarWorld). Guitar,Also, is often cyclical,in synchronicity and the images(evident that Around the his maddeningly analogous interest Gondry for thesenarrative songs mirror repetitive arrangements. In in thecreates mind-bending loops oftheir Sugar Water and Björk’s Bachethislorette) regard,correlates the Minogue video is particularly interesting, as it depicts with the repetitive structure of pop music in general. a Electro-pop, potentially infinite series of multiple withChemical each like Kylie Minogue’s ComeKylies, Into Mymultiplying World or The 360-degree pan of the camera. Thus, the pop star herself becomes Brothers’ Star Guitar, is often maddeningly cyclical, and the imagesa that Gondry creates for these songs mirror their repetitive arrangements. In this regard, the Minogue video is particularly interesting, as it depicts a potentially infinite series of multiple Kylies, multiplying with each 360-degree pan of the camera. Thus, the pop star herself becomes a
literally mass-produced commodity, and Gondry blithely uses her image as one of the many figurative Lego blocks that make up the video. This new DVD collection of Gondry’s videos reveals many aspects of the director’s inventive visual style, his facility with technical manipulations, and his consistent personal symbolism. At the same time, it also speaks to the creative possibilities inherent in the music video form and the vitality and depth that a unique sensibility can bring to it. Though it may strike some as a shallow commercial medium, without redeeming aesthetic value or cinematic interest, the work of Michel Gondry demonstrates that the music video can not only sell records, but also invest pop music with intimacy and emotion.
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The idea that magic could be an underlying driving force in artistic creation, especially in the domain of the moving image, may seem at first sight a far fetched thought and one that has little foundation. It is, however, a serious bundle of thoughts that have remained in a minute pocket of cellular space, ever since I came across the work of Michel Gondry back in 2006. It was during an editing session of an interview with Gondry that the name Méliès popped up regarding narrative in film. The forerunner of film narrative, Georges Méliès (1861 – 1938), had gained many a title in the history of cinema. It is perhaps his lesser talked about mastery of illusion however that leads us to a fascinating facet of the French innovator and one that links itself both to Gondry and a whole generation of film makers. 40...
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to attend shows by the great English illusionist John Nevil Maskelyne during a sojourn in London in 1884 and on his return to Paris later acquired the famous French illusionist Robert Houdin’s theatre which became his place of work as director and performing magician. After acquiring his first camera in 1896, he began filming his illusions and projecting his first films at the theatre. It was however a sudden turn of fate that would turn his little box of film into an immense box of tricks. A turn that would help him take illusion a step further. There is a wonderful anecdote about Méliès and his ‘stumbling’ upon his first camera effect. Outside the majestic Opéra in Paris, Méliès was one day carefully filming a typical street scene when suddenly his camera jammed for several
Creation of the moving image relies heavily on the capacity to manipulate images with editing, compositing and the use of special effects. Filming techniques that all have their origin in the work of Georges Méliès. Aside the technical implementation of such effects I wonder on the deeper level of creation and ask, is there a little magician in all of us then ? One who drives our desire to make images appear, disappear, animate or transform, helping us transcend reality and evoke the more magical realms of our imaginations ? In the opening chapter of Elizabeth’s Ezra’ study on George Méliès, she describes the first (paying) public demonstration of the Lumière brothers cinématographe in Paris 23 December 1895. She particularly expresses the sheer awe, amazement and even fear amongst the public as they watched an ordinary Parisian street scene ‘come to life’ before their very 42...
eyes. The effect was magical, an illusion of the highest form, due in part to its ‘realism’ and in part to the public’s ignorance of the technology. It was however that very magical side that inspired the beginnings of a certain young man to take Lumière’s invention beyond simple scientific demonstration; eyes.that Thegave effectuswas magical, illusion of the ofhighest form, one some of theanfirst examples the moving due inasparta means to its ‘realism’ and inbased part on to the public’simagiignoimage to tell stories our wildest rance of the technology. It was however that very magical nations. That particular event marked the beginning of Meliès’ side that inspired the beginningsIt was of ahowever certain young to career in cinematic storytelling. not theman begintake Lumière’s invention beyond simple scientific demonning of his career as such. stration; that gave uslink some of the first examples of the Magic wasonea fundamental to Méliès’ life and a strong link moving as a means stories use basedof ontheourLumière’s wildest with howimage he would developtoatellnarrative imaginations. That particular event marked the beginning of cinematographe throughout his film making career. He had Meliès’drawn career in cinematic wasmore however not been to the theatre atstorytelling. an early age,It and specifithe beginning of his career as such. cally to the art conjuring. He had had the opportunity Magic was a fundamental link to Méliès’ life and a strong link with how he would develop a narrative use of the Lumière’s cinematographe throughout his film making career. He had been drawn to the theatre at an early age, and more specifically to the art of conjuring. He had had the opportunity 43...
minutes. He managed to get the film to work again and resumed filming. On viewing later, he realised that other subjects turned up suddenly on the screen at the time the film had jammed. This of course was due to the time lapse between the end and restarting of filming and which visually created a stunning effect of disappearance and sudden appearance of horse carriages and people. This little accident became known as ‘substitution splicing’ and was the start in a number of visual effects that Méliès was to develop: Superposition, matte, transparency and indeed editing. These techniques can be seen in a large number of his films: Un Homme de Têtes (1898), Affiches en Goguettes (1905) and Voyage dans la Lune (1902). Some of which had also taken direct inspiration from stage magic classics: Les Cartes Vivantes (1904). These are today common video and image compositing techniques, the complexity of which, compared to Méliès’ time, have lost their sense in today’s push button society yet I believe have not lost their importance as a means for image manipulation, movement and ultimately storytelling. We are perhaps no longer dupe to illusion yet strangely this does not take anything away from our emotional involvement and indeed illusion often solicits our intellect to question the more bedazzling of effects in todays ‘eye candy culture.’ And that underlines the fact that the spectacle of illusion still does have power amid the spectator as it does essentially amid the creator. The technology of film is in fair share an extension of this desire, a desire to perform tricks and tricks that become part of the bigger story.
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To return to the work of Michel Gondry, it can be noted that he uses a number of ‘artisan,’ home made techniques in his film. Everything from stop motion animation to make shift stage sets and mechanical contraptions, that strive not for realism but rather have more to do with the sense of the stage illusionist who wants to awaken the freer side of our imaginations, beyond the shackles of our practical realities. His mention of Méliès was perhaps more than just a historical wink at cinematic narration, it was also an acknowledgment of his own desire to perform magic on screen. And who has never wanted to perform a magic trick, whether it be to entertain or to understand the workings of the art of illusion.
There is currently a major exhibition on Georges Méliès at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris, along with the publication of two special edition box set dvds and a 350 page illustrated book. With an important presentation of newly acquired artifacts, this is the best exhibit there has been on an undeniably crucial figure of not only cinematic history but of creation of the moving image at large.
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Sources COntents
Dellamorte, A. (2007). Exclusive Interview - Michel Gondry. Retrieved from http://collider.com/entertainment/archive_detail. asp/aid/3495/cid/13/tcid/1 Exclusive: Director Michel Gondry on His French Romantic Fantasy MOOD INDIGO | Nerdist. (2014). Nerdist. Retrieved 2 September 2016, from http://nerdist.com/exclusive-director-michel-gondry-on-his-french-romantic-fantasy-mood-indigo/
Webster, M. (2008) Marvellous Méliès. Retrieved from http://motiondesign.wordpress.com/category/1910/ Michel Gondry. (2016). IMDb. Retrieved 29 August 2016, from http:// www.imdb.com/name/nm0327273/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm Michel Gondry Biography | List of Works, Study Guides & Essays. Gradesaver.com. Retrieved 29 August 2016, from http://www. gradesaver.com/author/michel-gondry Music Videos | Michel Gondry. (2016). Michelgondry.com. Retrieved 29 August 2016, from http://www.michelgondry.com/?cat=70
Goldsmith, L. (2004). The Work of Director Michel Gondry. Retrieved from http://notcoming.com/features/gondry/
Scorsese, M. (Director). (2011). Hugo. [Motion Picture]. Hollywood, Ca: Paramount Pictures.
Lyne, C. (2016). Michel Gondry: the most unpredictable man in film. the Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2016, from https:// www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jun/04/michel-gondry-noam-chomsky
The Science of Sleep - Movies - Review. (2016). Nytimes. com. Retrieved 2 September 2016, from http://www.nytimes. com/2006/09/22/movies/22slee.html?_r=0 The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Memory and Association | The Artifice. (2016). The-artifice.com. Retrieved 2 September 2016, from http://the-artifice.com/the-eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind-memory-association/
Michel Gondry on Mood Indigo, special effects, Jim Carrey, and Charlie Kaufman. (2014). Avclub.com. Retrieved 2 September 2016, from http://www.avclub.com/article/michel-gondry-mood-indigospecial-effects-jim-carr-207140 Michel Gondry Biography - Rotten Tomatoes. (2016). Rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 1 September 2016, from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/michel_gondry/biography Michel Gondry - Partizan. (2016). Partizan. Retrieved 29 August 2016, from http://www.partizan.com/director/michel-gondry
The Films of Michel Gondry, Ranked Worst to Best | IndieWire. (2016). Indiewire.com. Retrieved 29 August 2016, from http://www. indiewire.com/2014/07/the-films-of-michel-gondry-rankedworst-to-best-24001/ Yuan, J. (2013). Michel Gondry on The We and the I, Bronx Kids, and Mood Indigo. Retrieved from http://www.vulture.com/2013/03/ michel-gondry-the-we-and-the-i-mood-indigo-interview.html
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BULLETS CLIP ART. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.clipartbest. com/bullets-clip-art FILM ROLL CLIPART IMAGE. (2016). Retrieved from http:// worldartsme.com/film-roll-clipart.html#gal_post_13475_filmroll-clipart-1.jpg Film Camera. (2016). Retrieved from https://au.pinterest.com/ pin/477381629221334474/ Film Strip. (2016). Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/photos/ film%20strip/ FILM ROLL CLIPART IMAGE. (2016). Retrieved from http:// worldartsme.com/film-roll-clipart.html#gal_post_13475_filmroll-clipart-1.jpg Movie Clipart Border Film Roll Clipart. (2016). Retrieved from http:// www.clipartkid.com/film-roll-cliparts/ Mood Indigo. (2014). Retrieved from http://drafthousefilms.com/ film/mood-indigo
The Science of Sleep. (2016). Retrieved from https://subscene. com/subtitles/the-science-of-sleep-la-science-des-rves/english/347760 Picture of the Week #58: Ben Kingsley as George Méliès in Hugo Cabret. (2010). Retrieved from https://drnorth.wordpress.com/ category/georges-melies/ Roll Film Free Vector Clipart Images. (2016). Retrieved from http:// www.clipartbro.com/categories/roll-film-free-vector-clipart Silver, C. (2016). An Auteurist History of Film: “Georges Méliès and His Rivals”. Retrieved from https://moma.org/explore/inside_out/2009/10/06/an-auteurist-history-of-film-georgesmlis-and-his-rivals/ 15 Unforgettable Facts About ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’. (2016). Retrieved from http://mentalfloss.com/article/67681/15-unforgettable-facts-about-eternal-sunshine-spotless-mind 160-162-The Astronomer’s Dream 1898. (2012). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKmg4_baySk
Pioneering director Michel Gondry’s remarkable creative energy and ability to innovate have resulted in some of the most visually stunning music videos in the history of the medium, and his wild imagination and organic, childlike imagery raised the bar of what one could achieve in the short format. In particular, his technique of placing numerous cameras around a subject and combining the images to form a visually astonishing sweeping effect has become so popular that it has since gone on to achieve timeless notoriety in such films as the The Matrix. Michel Gondry is a film, music video, and commercial director as well as an artist and a screenwriter. His parents were musicians and hippies. His grandfather was inventor Constant Martin, Who perfected and successfully commercialized radio sets, most famously the Clavioline, a precursor to the synthesizer. His career as a filmmaker began with creating music videos for the French rock band Oui Oui, in which he also served as a drummer. The style of his videos for Oui Oui caught the attention of music artist Björk, who asked him to direct the video for her song “Human Behaviour”.
MICHEL GONDRY
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