Michel Gondry is a French filmmaker most famous for directing and co-writing the 2004 film
‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ for which he, Charlie Kaufman, and Pierre
Bismuth won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Prior to his feature film debut titled ‘Human Nature,’ he made a name for himself as a
music video director—working with such artists as Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers, Bjork,
and The White Stripes.
He often incorporates his personal thoughts and fears from his childhood into his work—
most notably, a recurring nightmare in which his hands grow to an enormous size.
Gondry actually got his start as a music video director after making music videos for his
own band called Oui Oui—he was the drummer.
Icelandic singer Bjork noticed his work and hired him to direct the music video for her
song ‘Human Behavior.’
He has also directed a variety of television commercials and one he made for Levi’s holds
the Guinness World Record for ‘most awards won by a TV commercial.’
His style most resembles that of a creative child.
Everything is inventive and crafty—with practical effects and production design often
made from ordinary materials.
And this mise-en-scène always fits the narrative of his films, which often follow creative
and child-like protagonists.
Gondry has described himself as someone who has been twelve years old ‘forever.’
Two years after directing ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,’ Gondry directed the
first film he wrote entirely himself titled ‘The Science of Sleep,’ which follows
a quirky young man who falls in love with his neighbor.
The film plays heavily with dreamlike imagery, which Gondry has had a strong interest in
since his early work.
After ‘The Science of Sleep,’ he wrote and directed the Jack Black/Mos Def comedy
‘Be Kind Rewind.’
The film wholly incorporated his hand-made budgetless aesthetic, which ignores imperfections
in favor of creative solutions.
In ‘Be Kind Rewind,’ a video store clerk and his friend must remake or ‘swede’
all of the movies they carry after the tapes get erased.
They go on to remake the movies using whatever they have on hand, much in the same way children
might creatively play around with a video camera.
With the era of YouTube in full swing, people from around the world were encouraged to express
their creativity and ‘swede’ their favorite movies in short form with
whatever materials they had.
This included a remake of ‘Taxi Driver’ by Gondry himself.
Gondry followed ‘Be Kind Rewind’ with 2011’s ‘The Green Hornet,’ which was
a slight departure from his low-budget aesthetic.
‘The Green Hornet’ applied Gondry’s inventive charm to a more mainstream and
high budget studio film.
Gondry was originally attached to the project back in 1997 and the film was going to
be his feature film debut.
After the film entered ‘development hell,’ many other directors were attached and
then removed until it finally ended back with Gondry as the director.
He returned to the low-budget indie world the following year with ‘The We and the I,’
a film that takes place entirely on a bus as students travel home from their last
day of high school.
The film was an American production shot in New York City, but he would return to France
for his next two films—the first of which was an adaptation of a 1947 novel—
‘Froth on the Daydream’ by Boris Vian.
The film is titled ‘Mood Indigo’ and follows the relationship of a couple as they
fall in love and the woman falls ill.
The film is tremendously clever and whimsical, despite such an ultimately tragic story.
Gondry has also done three documentaries—‘Dave Chappelle’s Block Party,’
‘The Thorn in the Heart,’ and his most recent, ‘Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?’ in which Gondry
animates a conversation he had with notable philosopher Noam Chomsky.
His latest film titled ‘Microbe & Gasoline’ for which Gondry was the sole writer, follows
two young boys who build a house/car hybrid to travel away from their hometown and all
the people who mistreat them.
Gondry said that the first half of the film is based on his actual experiences growing
up and the second half is a fantasy.
The film perfectly mixes Gondry’s unique personality and creativity and sheds light
on his personal perspective.
“I really had the complex that my father had at some point— to not be good enough.
And then I decided I would go for it.
I decided I would be as good as Picasso or whatever and obviously
there is a difference.
But, I mean, at some point, if you want to consider yourself as somebody who creates
things, you have to just ignore all that and just say okay, what you’re doing, what you’re
putting out is different because you put yourself into it.”