Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry
Michel Gondryis a French independent film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is noted for his inventive visual style and distinctive manipulation of mise en scène. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as one of the writers of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is often ranked one of the greatest films of the 2000s...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth8 May 1963
CityVersailles, France
CountryUnited States of America
Perhaps my favourite story is 'Le Passe-Muraille' by Marcel Ayme. It's about a guy who wakes up with a weird faculty that means he can walk through walls. He's a very shy clerk, and he uses it to get revenge, or vent his frustration.
I'm not against the technology at all, I just don't like to use it if it's just to mimic what you can do with traditional methods.
It's very hard to say I'm surrealist. It's like saying I'm poetic. It's not something you want necessarily to be aware of.
My father had a Super 8 camera when I was a kid and sometimes he would use it. I did some animation with it. I did a lot of flipbooks.
Pop music is created by repression - and then the system takes it and makes even more money with it!
You need philosophy. It sounds a little pompous but I think when you direct a film, the only way to find a response to the questions you keep asking yourself is to have a philosophy.
I had a lot of encouragement and tolerance from my parents, but I also have many friends who didn't get that from their parents and in a way they have more strength from spending years where nobody believed in them.
I like the days when all the filmmakers had was a film roll, a camera and a gangster. The Mack Sennett comedies were all like that. They'd create little teams to go out and shoot films.
At school I was very shy. I wasn't funny really.
I don't like vampire movies or zombie movies. I went to see 'I Am Legend' with an ex-girlfriend the other day, and I immediately realised it was a zombie movie! You know what I mean? There are certain rules, and those rules are things that you've seen many times.
I was sort of lazy at school, but I realize I still have something to bring to the subject which is comforting. I feel I am not as stupid as I thought I was.
I'm attracted to working with comedians because they don't have that stars' idea of what a hero should be. The downside is they're always addressing the camera too much.
I've dreamed a lot, but i'm not a very good sleeper.
Misinterpretation leads me to inspiration and creativity because I think my brain is trying to figure out some information that I'm confused about.