ReFocus: The International Directors Series

ReFocus: The Films of Michel Gondry

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£100.00

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About this book

Examines the work of the French film and music video director, Michel Gondry
  • Explores a range of complex works by Michel Gondry, examining significant themes throughout his filmography including surrealism, adaptation, memory, dreams, play and African-American identity
  • Compares Gondry to other filmmakers including Wes Anderson and Jean Vigo, allowing for an understanding of how Gondry’s films might compare with both his global contemporaries and his predecessors in French and international cinema
  • Demonstrates how Gondry’s work in narrative film, documentary and music video represents significant innovation in narrative, visual aesthetic and genre

The acclaimed French auteur behind the mind-bending modern classic Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, Michel Gondry has directed a number of innovative, ground-breaking films and documentaries, episodes of the acclaimed television show Kidding and some of the most influential music videos in the history of the medium. In this collection, a range of international scholars offers a comprehensive study of this significant and influential figure, covering his French and English-language films and videos, and framing Gondry as a transnational auteur whose work provides insight into both French/European and American cinematic and cultural identity. With detailed case studies of films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), The Science of Sleep (2006), Microbe & Gasoline (2015) and Mood Indigo (2013), this collection will appeal to readers interested in the various media in which Gondry has worked, and in contemporary post-modern French and American cinema in general.

Reviews

This remarkable collection of articles focusses on one of the most prominent and internationally renowned French directors seen through the lens of academics and researchers. A must-read for filmgoers as well as researchers who want to discover or rediscover Michel Gondry’s inventive and very distinctive visual style as well as the mesmerizing universe he creates.
Table of contents

List of Figures Notes on Contributors Acknowledgments

Introduction: Michel Gondry as Trans-cultural Auteur - Marcelline Block and Jennifer Kirby

Part I Dreams, Play and Whimsy

1. "We Can Change the Whole Narrative": Crafting Play and Nostalgia in Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep and Mood Indigo - Danica van de Velde

2. In Dreams and in Love There are no Impossibilities: Michel Gondry’s Cinema and the Aesthetics of the Oneiric - Bruno Surace

3. I Am Collecting Beautiful Objects: Michel Gondry’s Taxidermy of Emotions - Jenny Pyke

4. The Cost of Whimsy in Mood Indigo and The Grand Budapest Hotel - Mica Hilson

Part II French Cinema and Identity

5. L’amour fou revisited: The surrealist poetics of Michel Gondry - Sian Mitchell

6. On the Road to Adulthood: Microbe & Gasoline and The French Road Movie - Marcelline Block and Jennifer Kirby

Part III Narrative and Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind

7. Rethinking Romantic Comedy through the Art Film: Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Raffaele Ariano

8. Apocalypse Ever After: Lifted Veils and Transcendent Time in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Sheheryar B. Sheikh

Part IV Gondry In/On America

9. The Reel and Surreal of Race in America: Michel Gondry and the African-American Identity Crisis of Dave Chappelle - Monique Taylor

10. Memory à la Americana: From Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to Be Kind Rewind - Yu-Yun Hsieh

11. Playing with Superheroes: Genre, Aesthetics and Deconstruction in The Green Hornet - Jennifer Kirby

Part V Multi-Media: Music Video, Documentary, Television

12. "It Would not be Just Be Visual, it Could Have Words and a Story": Performance and Narrative in the Music Video Oeuvre of Michel Gondry - Daniel Klug

13. Death and Pickles: Thinking Through Gondry’s Neighborhood - Lisa DeTora

Index

About the contributors

Marcelline Block

Marcelline Block is Adjunct Professor at LIM College, New York

Jennifer Kirby

Dr Jennifer Kirby is a Senior Tutor at Massey University

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