The Kick-Off with Michel Gondry

This is a blog about movies. It has reviews, discussions of the filmmaking process, a look at directors, anything related to movies. I kick-off my first post with words on Michel Gondry's talk from last night in Chicago.


GONDRY SPEAKS

I braved the chilly drizzly weather to see Michel Gondry speak at the Apple Store in Chicago last night. It inspired me to create a blog about movies. I won't talk about the faux pas of Chicago Time Out's film critic Ben Kenigsberg who moderated the event. But if you're really curious, ask me and I can tell you all about it later. Below is a recap of Gondry.

Michel Gondry talked about the process and idea behind his upcoming movie Be Kind Rewind. He edited the film in Final Cut Pro, which is why he spoke at the Apple Store.
Gondry wrote the screenplay and directed the film. The movie is about a man who accidentally becomes magnitized and erases all the videos in his friends rental store. To save the business they remake the movies. They call this process Sweding. They tell customers the film remake comes from Sweden and therefore is more expensive and takes a longer time to arrive.
Gondry showed clips of a Sweded Rush Hour 2, Ghostbusters and Driving Miss Daisy.
Even with all his cardboard and childhood craft ideas, it still looks like a visual masterpiece. The story and script seem promising, but I'll have to wait to see the movie to really be the judge of that. His writing debut with Science of Sleep was fair, but kind of fell flat for me in the end.

Gondry said directing and writing is more embarrassing for him than simply directing. He's the only one responsible for the bulk of the work. But he enjoys it for the challenge. That seems to be the approach he takes to most things.
He talked about his earlier days as a drummer in a band. And it wasn't really until Bjork saw the music video he had made for his own band that his future in film started to take off. She called him to make a video for Human Behaviour off her Debut album.
He said when he comes up with ideas for music videos, he usually goes for his most absurd idea just to see if he can actually pull it off. Now that he's officially a film director, he still makes music videos because he enjoys doing them.

He talked about projects he's working on. One takes place in Japan. He worked with a crew of Japanese people, which he says took him out of his comfort zone, but he found it to be a great experience. He said he's not a guy who needs to bring his posse with him everywhere he goes. The film is in post-production and is slated as Tokyo.
He also mentioned an animation he's working on with his 16-year-old son. He described their relationship as a dictatorship. His son is the dictator, and he is the rebellor. His son tries to get him to smoke pot, and he tries to convince his son that it isn't a good idea. His son is violent in his art, he is gentle. The movie is about some kind of dictatorship, and Gondry said this is the perfect movie to work on with his son. They're working with comic book writer Daniel Clowes and using the voice of Steve Buscemi as the main character. Keep an eye out for that in 2009.

Finally, Gondry ended with his own Sweded trailer of Be Kind Rewind. I'm sure it will end up on the internet at some point, but for now I can't find it anywhere. I'll do my best to describe it to you. Picture the trailer for the movie but imagine it shot with a Hi-8 camcorder. Replace all the characters with Michel Gondry or manikins dressed up in costume and wigs. Anything anyone says is said in a French accent, (i.e. Waaaht hahbeened do our ooood?). And of course it wouldn't be Gondry made without more cardboard and kid craft ideas. If you can find it, it will be one of the best trailer spoofs you'll ever see.

Check out the movie website: www.bekindmovie.com