The dream life of
filmmaker Michel
Gondry
By Robert K. Elder
Tribune staff reporter
Even during an interview, filmmaker
Michel Gondry is directing.
"I totally twisted his little world," says
Gondry, 40, referring to a Tribune
photographer who has just left the
room.
During the time allotted for his photo portrait, Gondry, 40, bartered with,
cajoled and charmed the photographer until, finally, the boyish French
filmmaker took over the session.
Using a piece of glass from a hotel end table, he composed a portrait
echoing his on-the-fly optical effects in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless
Mind," starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, opening Friday.
Twisting worlds has become a Gondry trademark of sorts, having
produced mind-bending commercials and groundbreaking music videos for
Bjork, Beck, Radiohead and a host of others. Gondry's commercial for
Levi's in 1994 ("Drugstore") won the Lion D'Or at Cannes and holds the
distinction in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most awarded
spot in history.
Known for music videos
A driven, childlike director who prides himself on innovation and
high-concept visuals, Gondry created a palindrome video with "Sugar
Water" (which can be played forward and backward) for Cibo Matto. He
also used Legos to animate rockers The White Stripes in "Fell in Love with
a Girl."
Gondry's playfulness with low-tech special effects and preoccupation with
the waking and dreaming worlds also find a home in "Eternal Sunshine."
On this, his second feature, Gondry re-teams with soft-spoken King of
Quirk Charlie Kaufman, the scribe behind "Being John Malkovich" and
"Adaptation." Their first outing together, 2001's "Human Nature" -- a dark
comedy of manners and murder starring Patricia Arquette, Tim Robbins
and Rhys Ifans -- received mixed reviews before disappearing from
theaters almost overnight.
"With `Human Nature,' everything was controlled and storyboards,"
Kaufman says. "[`Eternal Sunshine'] is a very different movie; it's a very
different style. These two movies are kind of polar opposites, in terms of
style. It feels almost casual in the way it was shot."
"Eternal Sunshine" comes from the more commercial side of Kaufman's
brain, but from one no less difficult to navigate. At its core, "Eternal
Sunshine" is a love story. When Joel Barish (Carrey) discovers his
ex-girlfriend Clementine has had him removed from her memory, he's
unwilling to carry the entire broken romance alone. Distraught, Joel
decides to undergo the procedure as well.
But as technicians (Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood) wipe away any trace of
Clem, Joel discovers, perhaps too late, that it's better to have loved and
lost than to have loved and incur brain damage trying to wipe away the
heartache.
Thematically, it's a story tailor-made for Gondry, who brought the idea to
Kaufman when "Being John Malkovich" was in postproduction. It took
three years to complete his version of "Eternal Sunshine," interrupted by
"Adaptation" and other projects, though the end product marries the
sensibilities of both men.
An M.C. Escher-like stylist, Gondry brings his obsession with memory and
dreams to "Eternal Sunshine." With his brother and son, Gondry once
calculated that human beings spend 25 years in bed.
"At some point, you don't even know what you've been dreaming and
what you've been experiencing. So it's a very intense activity," Gondry
says in a thick French accent.
He continues: "My life is really affected by my dreams, and my dreams are
really affected by my life. It's very important for me to explore this
relationship."
His commercial for Earthlink ("Privacy") revolved around a motif of Internet
users waking up around the world. His videos for The Chemical Brothers
("Let Forever Be"), Cibo Matto ("Sugar Water") and The Foo Fighters
("Everlong") also take place in various stages of slumber -- as does
"Eternal Sunshine."
Gondry's preoccupation with memory also shows up in "I've Been 12
Forever" -- a feature-length, autobiographical documentary on "The Work
of Director Michel Gondry," a double-sided DVD of videos, commercials and
ephemera from Gondry's career .
After his father bought an 8mm camera in 1970, the family shot hours of
footage of summer vacations between 1971 and 1975, some of which
shows up in "I've Been 12 Forever."
Watching those films recently, Gondry realized he remembers not the
vacations, but the last time he watched the reels.
"It's like a tunnel of memories, and at the end there's a very, very faint
light that was a real moment, and it's blinking. Maybe it's there; I'm not
even sure," Gondry says.
Actor Ruffalo says this exploration works itself not only into the fabric of
the storytelling, but also in its visual design.
Smoke and mirrors
"You get the sense that he's playing with, `What is waking reality? What
is reality?' And then, `How can it be manipulated visually?'" says Ruffalo.
"He's a magician; he's using smoke and mirrors -- literally. He uses all
these magic tricks to make us question what is reality. It is a theme he
plays with, `What is waking, and what is dreaming?' He's playful that way
in his life, he has a very complex mind. What's incredible is that you can
have a movie that has so much visual trickery in it and never revert to CGI
[computer generated imagery]."
A surprising number of special-effects shots were done on the set, with
mirrors, plastics and in-camera tinkering.
"I wanted to know where I wanted to go, but not how I was going to get
there," Gondry says. "I would have no idea what the shot would be
before I saw the location, or even before the actor would show up to
rehearse. I wanted to use the film more as a tape recorder than a film
camera."
He doesn't often say "action" or "cut," because "as soon as you yell `cut,'
people relax and become human again," Gondry says.
"The camera was rolling when you didn't know. . . . That's not part of the
rules. That's not the way it's done traditionally, but really effective,"
Ruffalo says. "He just has a lot of joy and irreverence toward the rules of
filmmaking."
Stopping the action, he says, sometimes throws off the rhythm. When the
camera cuts, makeup and wardrobe descend upon the actors.
"In 10 seconds, it's like the Formula One [pit crew], and artists lose
concentration. The [out of place] hair is not as important as what you're
losing by changing the hair," Gondry says. "It's a little bit film-consuming,
and I got told off a few times, but I think it's something you can spend.
It's a good expense."
Former drummer
As a former drummer (for the French pop band Oui Oui), Gondry feels a
kinship with musicians, which is reflected in his collaborative music videos.
Working with musicians and actors isn't so different, he found.
"Their tendency is to be a little bit like children. You have to develop a
psychology to deal with them," he says, with a hint of mischief.
"Because I started as a band member, when I did a video for my band, it
was not like, `OK, I am the director; now you do what I say.' We all
collaborated. I was just a guy who was lucky enough to buy a camera,"
Gondry says. "I learned to accept ideas, and not to be threatened by
them. I got lucky to deal with very original, creative artists."
With the publicity tour winding down, Gondry will go back to directing
music videos, including one for Gary Jules, and get some rest, before
starting his next film "The Science of Sleep," about a man who learns to
manipulate his dreams.
Kind of like Gondry. |
