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
I'm just thinking of 2001, which I think is the most expensive independent film ever made - which is great, someday I hope I will do one. But I know the parameters when I got onto this project - I have to take care of everyone, make sure that they are all on board, and this process interests me.
The beauty of doing # film is that you construct whatever you do block by block and you can build something that will stay.
I'm part of the consumer culture... I'm just using the space I am given to express something that is out of the space so I'm part of the consumer system but I'm advocating stepping out. Which is a contradiction but I could be part of he consumer system and say, 'let's consume even more.'
I like collaboration, I like to incorporate other people's ideas [and] that's what happens when you do a big movie. Unless you're called Stanley Kubrick and you do an independent movie for like $200 million.
I want to explore new ideas and put myself in a place where I can finish a project that is more unusual or that doesn't seem doable.
I love 3D a lot, I have a great interest in 3D, so if I am given the tools to do a project with 3D, it's a dream for me.
In the '90s movies were so serious, and so stylistic and slick that I could not identify with them.
Since I was a kid, I've liked to see how things are done. Sometimes when you see how things are done, it's like watching a 'making of' within the story. You see the physical aspect, the construction of things.
Every movie I do is challenging for me. There is some element of imaginative that you wouldn't have in a typical movie.
When I saw The Matrix and other movies of this type, I wished I had been given the opportunity to express myself with all this technology and do something sort of big in scale, but the right material never really came my way.
You cannot do everything you want with the 3D camera, it's too big, and the digital quality of those cameras is a little bit limiting. With film, you have a lot more subtly, like with highlights and color. In terms of sharpness they (both formats) are very close; but in terms of nuance, of color and contrast, film is far superior.
I don't like movies that are too manipulative. A lot of movies thrive on really pushing your buttons and making you hate the villain.
The problem is when you get forced to use ideas that aren't good. When I can filter the ideas and use the best of them, I am happy to collaborate.
I'm always excited to work with actors.