Apr 15 2009 'Green Hornet' Fight Scenes: Variable Speed Madness
Could Michel Gondry's The Green Hornet action sequences be met with the same level of imitation/parody as The Matrix? The whimsical director spoke with MTV about what he plans for the film's fight scenes, and it sounds nuts:
Gondry explains: “I change the speed of the camera at different spots in the image at different times. So, it seems like they’re in the same world but at different times, and then they’re back together.”Although it’s a little tricky to comprehend with the written word, Gondry basically plans to reinvent the fight scene by having Green Hornet moving slowly, Kato moving super-fast, the villains at normal speed — and then mixing it all up repeatedly. “So, one will go fast and the other will go slow, and then they’ll meet,” he explained. “It’s [as if] they’re in different dimensions, but when they touch each other they come into the same dimension.”
I can't wait until Japanese television gets some guys to play ping pong like this.
Apr 14 2009 Michel Gondry Peddling New, Desirable Wares
Michel Gondry has a new DVD of music videos and crap he's done! Available only on his website, the collection promises three-hours of videos and behind-the-scenes documentation all unique to this release. If it's anything like his Director's Series release, this disc should be ideal for zoning out, watching for creative inspiration, playing in the background while talking with friends, and/or experiencing surreal entertainment in attention-deficit-sized 2-5 minute segments. A lot of the music videos can probably be found online with enough clicking on internet, but sometimes you just want to sit down and listen to a full album, not play DJ, you know? Metaphorically.
And while you're at the site, for an extra $20, you can also get a personalized portrait sketch from Gondry. I got one for buying his comic at MoCCA last year, and now I can say a genius director sees me as a weasel-faced monster. Recommended.
Feb 24 2009 Michel Gondry Making 'Green Hornet' Out of Cardboard and Clouds
When it was announced Seth Rogen's portly face would be behind the mask of Green Hornet, it was definitely an odd, unexpected choice, but one tempered by the inclusion of Stephen Chow as both director and Kato. Maybe, with the aid of his comedy-action direction skills, Rogen as Green Hornet could be the new HEATH LEDGER IS THE ONLY JOKER EVER. It probably wouldn't be that hard, considering that the general perception of Green Hornet is somewhere in the range of "some dude in a suit and a green mask, I think" to "who?"
But then Chow dropped out from directing, and it looked like the film might not even get made. EXCEPT now Michel Gondry stepped out of his dream chamber and said he'll do it. So not only will this not be your grandpa's Green Hornet, this is shaping up the Green Hornet you never could have feasibly put together in your mind given infinite time.
Feb 24 2009 'Tokyo!' Clips: Milky-Eyed Sewer Men, Domesticity, Plant Overgrowth
Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon-ho are some pretty talented directors, so I'm going to assume these clips from their collaboration, Tokyo!, aren't as purposefully bizarre and forgettably mundane as they seem. I'll probably be saying it's all genius once I see things on context. I'm mostly just questioning the logic of not including scenes of a girl turning into a chair when one of the sections includes scenes of a girl turning into a chair. If a meal could use some salt, and you've got salt, throw some salt in it, you know?
Continue Reading " 'Tokyo!' Clips: Milky-Eyed Sewer Men, Domesticity, Plant Overgrowth "
Feb 4 2009 'Tokyo!' Trailer Deserves Its Exclamation Point
For Tokyo!, directors Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon-ho teamed up, each creating a segment on the subject of the famed Japanese city. Gondry, of course, regards Tokyo as the kind of city that would make you transform into a chair for some reason:
Continue Reading " 'Tokyo!' Trailer Deserves Its Exclamation Point "
Feb 21 2008 Michel Gondry's 'Be Kind, Amanda Bynes'
Michel Gondry is often praised for his unique vision and quirky ideas, but is it possible his newest film, Be Kind Rewind, stole the notion of video store employees remaking films from Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show. Probably not, but this video of the 8-year-old show does show some astounding similarities to Gondry's comedy.
The director will hopefully move past these claims of plagiarism with his next original film, in which a slimy green substance descends on anyone who expresses verbal uncertainty.
Thanks, Richard.
Continue Reading " Michel Gondry's 'Be Kind, Amanda Bynes' "
Jan 29 2008 'Be Kind Rewinded' Sweded Trailer
OK, so if you've watched the original trailer to Be Kind Rewind, you know the movie tells the story of Jack black accidentally erasing a rental store's VHS tapes, forcing himself and Mos Def to recreate the films from scratch with a camcorder--a process they call sweding. Now, director Michel Gondry, always one to be postmodern, has sweded the trailer itself, recreating the scenes already being recreated in his film. The new trailer is so thickly-caked with layers of strangeness, irony, and shoddy cardboard props that it's probably nearing an approximation of what living in Gondry's brain is actually like, and it's just as creative and thickly-accented as you'd think.
Jan 7 2008 Gondry's New Film To Be As Fancifully Child-Like As Expected
At what point did Michel Gondry get carte blanche to make whatever he wants, so long as it's child-like, dream-like, or made of cardboard? It's like he's got a brain trust of 6-year-olds and schizophrenics working on everything he does, and they've got a new idea that will probably end up being yet another "fanciful must-see!" Says Gondry:
I’m writing a story about kids who invent a water that makes you hear music when you drink it. It’s going to be a scientific story, but completely unrealistic. At one point, they see the end of time in the movie. So, we’ll have to shoot it somewhere that looks like the end of time.
Water that makes you hear music, plus the end of time somehow? What's next, Michel? A cat's pawprints grant wishes to Father Time? A primitive crayon drawing of someone's family, but with too many fingers and no distinguishing traits (working title: "Whatever This Kid Draws, I'm Filming It")? How about Craft-Obsessed Perpetual Juvenile: The Movie?
But seriously, I'll probably be raving about this once the trailer comes out, and I hate myself for it.
All Hail 'Ice Kings' [MTV]
Dec 3 2007 'Be Kind Rewind' Poster Rides Video Tape Into My VCR Heart
I really like how the homemade theme of the movie is translated to the poster, right down to the frustration of the marker running out near the end. And also that Danny Glover appears to be Mos Def's subtitle.
Be Kind Rewind Poster [IMPA]
Oct 11 2007 Gondry Teaming with Bastard Dictator of a Son
What would it be like to be Michel Gondry's son? Fun at first, I imagine, but eventually even a child probably gets sick of child-like wonderment. Yeah, it's cool your dad has worked with The White Stripes, but picking you up from school in a cardboard suit, waving at your friends with his over-sized foam hands, soon counteracts that. I can't imagine what that must be like.
Actually, I can, as Gondry's plans for an upcoming animated feature may have accidentally given away their dynamic:
I am working on an animated film with my son. It’s going to be quite amazing. We’re translating our relationship into a futuristic story with a dictator and a rebel. He’s the dictator in the story [and] it will be based on [his] art.
So translating your relationship to film means your child has to be a dictator, and you're a rebel? You're so caught up in your own fancies that your son has to resort to tyranny just to stop you from finding more ways to complete Rubik's Cubes? That's f***ed up, man.
Sep 26 2007 Michel Gondry Nears Self-Parody with Commercial
Though the making of will tell you otherwise, I'm forced to believe this new Motorola RAZR ad is not the work of Michel Gondry but someone cleverly parodying him. With that understood, it's awesome how this hilarious spoof so accurately captures all of the quirky stop-motion, exaggerated paper items, and child-like dreaminess that embodies every Michel Gondry video ever. Man, and good thing it's not really Gondry, because he'd be looking like a real one-trick pony to create such a mundanely typical short.
Also hilarious are these AT&T ads, in which another clever prankster made commercials that you'd swear were the overtly-stylized, complexly-designed work of Wes Anderson.
Jun 27 2007 Be Kind, Rewind Drives Miss Daisy
Shirt from the closet of Steven Seagal.
Another shot has turned up from Michel Gondry's Be Kind, Rewind, in which Jack Black and Mos Def are forced to re-create movies after accidentally erasing the entire rental store. Can you guess which film they're re-enacting here, ignoring the title where I blatantly give it away?
That's right, it's Driving Miss Daisy, my favorite pro-slavery movie. Extra points go out to the makeup department for adding the signature Morgan Freeman freckles to Mos Def.
Jun 1 2007 Michel Gondry: First Image from 'Be Kind, Rewind'
I wouldn't usually post a single image from a movie that's not coming out for almost a year (April 2008, to be exact), but since this one's from Michel Gondry, who directed one of my all-time favorites, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I'll give it a pass. Plus, it's got a delightfully strange synopsis:
When Jerry becomes accidentally magnetized while trying to sabotage the power plant he believes is melting his brain, the magnetic field he gives off ends up erasing all of the tapes in the video store where his best friend Mike works. Now Mike may lose his job, and the only way the friends can think to save it is to keep the one regular customer they have - a little old lady with a tenuous grasp on reality - from recognizing what has happened. The way they do this? By recreating and refilming every movie that she decides to rent of course! From Driving Miss Daisy to Ghostbusters to Rush Hour, these two friends become the biggest stars in their neighbourhood by starring in the biggest movies in the world.
I'll admit, I always credited Eternal Sunshine's awesomeness more to Charlie Kaufman than Michel Gondry, but Jack Black needs a hit so I'm staying optimistic. And it co-stars Danny Glover, so there's no way it can fail. The man's like King Midas!
Oh, and if when the trailer comes out Mos Def's voice is in any way similar to the retarded cartoon croak he used in Sixteen Blocks, I'll be staying home.
