Modern Maestros: Michel Gondry

Robert here, back with another entry in my series on great contemporary directors.

Maestro: Michel Gondry
Known For: Quirky, visually fantastical films and documentaries.
Influences: Cartoons, silent comedians and their films, and (as is evident from Be Kind Rewand) 80's comedies.
Masterpieces: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Disasters: They're most definitely not all perfect, but no disasters.
Better than you remember: Nope
Box Office: $34 mil for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Favorite Actor: He in fact doesn't reuse actors. The closest candidate for this category is Mos Def who was a featured performer in Dave Chappelle's Block Party and then starred in Be Kind Rewind.

We might as well begin with the elephant in the room. Your opinion of Michel Gondry probably depends entirely on your opinion of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I've heard tell that there are people who believe that the film is wildly overpraised and overrated. If you're one of those people, you should probably just skip the next two paragraphs. I think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of the great films of our time. Is it the brilliant, original miracle of a concept that many fans think it is? Probably not. As the world's unified naysayers love to remark, there really aren't any new ideas. The basic message of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is essentially the same as the joke Woody Allen uses to close Annie Hall. Romance is bizzare, unpredictable, and often miserable. But in the end "we need the eggs." What Eternal Sunshine does do is present these themes and ideas in a wonderful package, beautifully combining the sentimental with the sarcastic, the romantic with the realistic. It do so with such cleverness, how could its director not be considered among one of modern cinema's greats?

The quick and common answer to that is the claim that the majority of credit for Eternal Sunshine goes to writer Charlie Kaufman. While I love Kaufman (including his much debated Synecdoche, New York) it's unfair to write-off the contribution of Gondry. Was Kaufman's script responsible for the surprisingly pared-down, career-best performance of Jim Carrey? Was it responsible for Kate Winslet's deserving Oscar-nominated turn as Clementine? Of course not. Nor can Kaufman be credited with decisions like filming the house destruction finale with flashlights for lighting, maximizing the intimacy and emotional impact. If Charlie Kaufman's script is the reason that the film is, then Gondry's direction is the reason the film works and if Gondry had made no other films, this one may still alone qualify him to be a Modern Maestro. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has moments of such visual inventiveness and such bittersweet profundity that to watch it is to be reminded why I fell in love with the movies.

Nothing like using up two paragraphs on the same film to underline what I'm sure Gondry already knows is the downside of the success of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It may indeed be the greatest film the man ever directs. It will also likely be the film that overshadows all of his other efforts. But there's something admirable about how Gondry soldiers on, attempting to stay as prolific as possible. He's produced four (and a third?) films since 2004, not a record, but in today's indie film climate, not a bad pace either. With The Science of Sleep, Gondry's most notable film aside from Eternal Sunshine, the director continues to fish around in the lovelorn mind, pondering if any logic can be applied to the wondrous workings of the heart. Here, as in Eternal Sunshine, in fact as in all of Gondry's films, his characters are perpetual man-children, lacking the maturity and sensibility that could win them the girl. And yet good sense can't possibly coexist with the ludicrous impulsiveness of love, can it? Gondry mocks any such notion with the title The Science of Sleep just as he did in his first film Human Nature (Where scientists displayed and discovered anything but clear though in mankind's quest for love).

Along the while, Gondry has found time to make films about his family, cultural phenomena and homaging his favorite movies. His next film, slated for release next year will be The Green Hornet, a film already facing a mixed reaction. Whether it will be good, I can't say, but I'm sure it will be interesting, arresting, unconventional, as can be expected from the director of... let's say, "many good films."

Link Widow

Final Girl on the Sorority Row movie poster. Too funny
Noh Way on Away We Go by way of Auntie Mame. Good stuff (though I disagree that Maggie Gyllenhaal's scene is the best in the movie. If anything it's the worst scene in the movie -- though well portrayed by Gyllenhaal -- betraying the movies ridiculous and ugly superiority complex towards half of the lives it happens to glance at)
Times an article on Skin's problems finding distribution (Reminder: that's the movie wherein Sophie Okonedo is a black girl with white parents in Apartheid era South Africa)
Movies Kick Ass revisits Judy Holliday's controversial Oscar win for Born Yesterday


Forces of Geek and a zillion other blogs have posted the new Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow photos from Iron Man 2. Straight boys confuse me so much sometimes. This comment isn't about Forces of Geek (who don't comment themselves) but about the tone of the posts on a bajillion other blogs. Almost all the fanboy/moviegeek sites had previously complained that Scarjo was miscast and I very much agreed. Now, suddenly, everyone is on board because she's well... hot. How is this a revelation? Had they never seen Scarlett Johansson before?
Cinema Blend Russell Brand takes over for the Easter Bunny in I Hop? How bizarre. My first job ever was playing the Easter Bunny at the mall. And now I'm not joking. So I feel a special affinity.
Fin de Cinema more titles announced for Toronto including Kristin Scott Thomas and Sergi Lopez in Partir
Coming Soon Stephen Chow pulls out of Green Hornet. Is that movie ever going to get made?
The House Next Door has a great interview with one of the directors of Battlestar Galactica

Commie Link-Loving Sons of Guns

/Film Michel Gondry to direct Seth Rogen's Green Hornet
BlogStage an opening date for Spider-Man the musical which is now called Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Whaaaa?
Bright Lights... on the subtextual Oscar highlights
Dear Jesus experiences those 'commie homo-loving sonofguns' at the Oscars being shown in Mormon homes


Empire Freida Pinto in a Woody Allen movie next. No comment.
Sunset Gun Who's Afraid of Angelina Jolie?
Roger Ebert also loved the Oscar broadcast ... possibly even more than I did. I'm aware that there's the normal slew of negative reviews out there but I think it's foolish to get hung up on Oscar reviews. The host in particular should NEVER read Oscar reviews. Basically you could copy and paste Oscar night reviews verbatim with only the hosts name changed. The negative reviews are always the same "it was boring. it was long. nobody cares about these movies. it's out of touch. above all the host sucked". It doesn't even matter what actually transpired on the broadcast. These reviews will always exist. They're a time tested tradition right up there with opening the envelopes. It's the nature of the beast.

So I loved the broadcast (my review) and these reviews don't bother me a bit. My efforts to get more positive like Poppy (Happy-Go-Lucky, y'all) must be paying off (slowly). I'm glad there are others like Ebert feeling the love. At the very least you have to give Hugh & team points for effort. They were working their asses off to make that a better show than it has been the past few years. I'm glad the ratings were slightly up.

Finally, if you're a film lover who is leaning towards film making you might want to check out this list by Movie Maker of the best cities for movie makers to live in. Their reasoning sounds complex so I shan't try to summarize but please know that I was surprised to see my city of origin there (Detroit #11) but not at all surprised to see my pre-NYC home in the mix (Salt Lake City #17). So if you're a filmmaker... say yes to Michigan. Michigan needs all the help it can get these days. Everyone is leaving and nobody has work. How that makes it a good city for movie making I don't know but if Movie Maker says it, it must be true.
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