satiation of cellophane water long after all other creative wells have gondry
an insubstantial ranking of michel gondry’s movies
new series resuscitating brief overviews of directors’ filmographies i threw together between 2015 and 2018 that serve as a less fleshed-out (and more rankings-focused) version of this newsletter’s ‘syllabus’ series. honestly couldn’t tell you what some of this stuff means….if you have any issues please take them up with mike circa 2015-2018
[originally published on rym 10/13/16]
i like to pretend that the movie face/off was written in response to english-as-second-language director john woo hearing the oppositional term for the first time and interpreting it much too literally. similarly, i pretend lost in translation was written for the sole purpose of pushing its titular idiom to transcend boundaries of language, giving meaning to the phrase to a worldwide audience over the course of two hours.
because these are two things that are ridiculous and almost definitely not true, michel gondry maintains a monopoly on the infantile-deconstruction-of-language-as-source-of-infinite-originality method of filmmaking. exploiting his permanently tangled french and american roots as intentional artistry, michel perfectly executes surrealist storytelling as an excuse for being lost in translation—or perhaps his mistranslation of being lost as as an excuse for surrealism. inhabiting the middle ground between consciousness and sleep, michel narrates the linguistic phenomena of being reborn into a new language with an inhuman unpretention exclusive to infancy.
as a case study of the director’s arrested development, crippling nostalgia, and unparalleled creativity, each film undeniably appeals due to its repetition of these familiar traits frequently foreshadowed in his previous life as music video director, maintaining a steady audience through animated conversations with verbose linguists and seth rogen-penned screenplays alike.
‘you guys, listen. you guys! life without civilization is brutal...nasty and short. if you’re gonna come around here...and spread pizza all over the walls with gats...you’re gonna miss out on some good movies.’
- jerry, be kind rewind
‘i don’t know if what i’m feeling is a bit of nostalgia or wanting to go to the bathroom.’
- stephane, the science of sleep
supplements
‘like a rolling stone’ (1995) rolling stones music video
the letter (1998) short film
one day... (2001) short film
‘knives out’ (2001) radiohead music video
‘come into my world’ (2002) kylie minogue music video
‘fell in love with a girl’ (2002) white stripes music video
i’ve been twelve forever (2003) book of notes, sketches, etc. [pretty sure this was the insert for michel’s directors series dvd]
interior design (2008) michel’s short film from the anthology tokyo!
‘top 10 michel gondry movies that are not eternal sunshine of the spotless mind’ (2016) a more legitimate version of this list
gondry’s films, ranked
11. the green hornet (2011)
michel the adult: working in hollywood
michel the child: working with seth rogen
10. the thorn in the heart (2009)
michel the adult: prodding through family history to better understand relatives on an emotional level
michel the child: superficial interest often eclipsed by an attention span on par with that of his music video days
9. dave chappelle’s block party (2005)
michel the adult: filming a concert documentary
michel the child: apparently hasn’t been shown a concert documentary yet at his tender age of forty
8. microbe & gasoline (2015)
michel the adult: reflects upon the growing pains of alienated adolescents
michel the child: indulges in poop jokes wherever possible
7. is the man who is tall happy? (2013)
michel the adult: understanding impenetrable concepts of a renowned linguist
michel the child: scribbling feelings of frustration with his inability to properly convey any of his ideas to an adult figure
6. mood indigo (2013)
michel the adult: pretension of direct reference to surrealism’s conception (automatic writing)
michel the child: immediate diffusion of pretension by literally everything else in this homage to jeunet, gilliam, and other writers of curiously mature children’s movies
5. be kind rewind (2008)
michel the adult: heavily advocating historical and cultural significance, diy artistry, and independent retailership
michel the child: doing so with grade school level guerrilla filmmaking techniques despite his moderate budget
4. the we and the i (2012)
michel the adult: exploring the different performative masks humans inherently trade out based on their audience (i.e. collage of highly specific individuals) and how quickly they’re swapped
michel the child: doing so with teenagers
3. human nature (2001)
michel the adult: questioning the significance of table manners
michel the child: questioning the significance of table manners
2. the science of sleep (2006)
michel the adult: fluently translating every desperate dream, disappointing reality, and crippling insecurity to the language of film
michel-via-stephane the child: suffering an infantile meltdown mere minutes before film’s end
1. eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (2004)
michel the adult: inciting copious empathy from a protagonist suffering the hell that is lucid nostalgia while simultaneously suffering a grim present
michel the child: portraying childhood so lucidly we inexplicably yearn for the days when we were baby joel