Michel Gondry Documents The Thorn in the Heart!

By Marlow Stern

An artist of protean talent, Michel Gondry began his career making music videos for his French rock band Oui Oui, where he was the drummer. The stylization of these videos caught the attention of Icelandic singer Björk, who asked him to direct the video for her first solo single “Human Behaviour.” The avant garde video, a surrealist take on the children’s tale “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” would garner six nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards and announce a new talent. The Gondry/Björk collaboration would last a total of seven music videos, with Gondry going on to direct videos for Daft Punk, The White Stripes, Radiohead, Beck and more.

Gondry has also created several award-winning television commercials. He invented the famous “bullet time” technique made famous by “The Matrix” in a 1998 commercial for Smirnoff vodka, and his Levi’s 501 Jeans “Drugstore” spot holds the Guinness World Record for “Most awards won by a TV commercial.”

Gondry, along with fellow music video helmers Spike Jonze and David Fincher, soon segued into film, making his feature directorial debut with 2001’s “Human Nature,” garnering mixed reviews. His second film, 2004’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” would better utilize many of Gondry’s image manipulation techniques that garnered him acclaim in the music video world, and received critical praise, including an Academy Award win alongside Charlie Kaufman and Pierre Bismuth for the film’s screenplay. Gondry also directed two films in 2006: the musical documentary “Dave Chappelle’s Block Party,” which followed comedian Dave Chappelle’s attempt to host a free mega-concert in Brooklyn, and “The Science of Sleep,” starring Gael García Bernal as a young man whose imagination conflicts with reality. In 2008, he directed his first Hollywood film, “Be Kind Rewind,” about a pair of sad sack video store employees who are forced to make DIY home videos to salvage their business.

If you’re still not convinced of Gondry’s ability, feel free to check out this video of Msr. Gondry solving a Rubik’s Cube with his feet. Satisfied?

His latest film marks a return to the documentary milieu he explored “Block Party,” but this time it’s personal. In The Thorn in the Heart (L’épine dans le coeur), Michel Gondry chronicles the life of the Gondry family matriarch, his aunt Suzette Gondry, and her strained relationship with her son, Jean-Yves.

MMM sat down for a long conversation over lunch with Michel Gondry – with a special cameo appearance by his artist-son Paul – chatting about his most personal film to date, filmmaking techniques, his upcoming superhero film “The Green Hornet,” starring Seth Rogen, Cameron Diaz and Christoph Waltz, and much more.

MANHATTAN MOVIE MAGAZINE: What made you think your aunt would make such a good documentary subject?

MICHEL GONDRY: It was my son, actually. He told me that when she visited here in 2004 while I was shooting “Eternal Sunshine,” she was taking care of my son and started to tell her stories, and he said, “Dad, you have to make a movie about Suzette.” So, I obeyed my son.

MMM: How did you gather so much archival material?

GONDRY: We are a very visual family. Those microfilms look like sperm invading an egg! [Laughs] My father introduced my cousin to Super 8 technology and he was into it. He had this digital editing system and he’d make them himself. So, we have tons of footage from the ‘70s in my family. We’re big in Super 8. And I was taking a lot of photos and printing them myself, but none you see in this documentary.

MMM: Why did you decide to shape the documentary the way you did?

GONDRY: Initially, I wanted to visit all the schools that Suzette had taught in because it’s driven by the department, so she would always be sent around the 8 schools in the place where she lived. Some had been destroyed and some had been taken over by habitation. I thought I would follow her teaching years chronologically, and it took me two years, but she didn’t want to talk about her problems with her son. She knew I was interested so we asked him to cook for the crew, and then we started to interview him as her pupil, then the mother/son relationship started. I remember my DP said, “Oh, you wanted some drama? There you are!” That became the axis of the documentary.

MMM: How does your filmmaking approach change when you’re doing a documentary as opposed to one of your feature films?

GONDRY: You don’t have a screenplay of course and I think it’s very important to go when you don’t know your answers. I think you have to be able to come back with the opposite answer from what you expect. To me, the interest is to be recording what you discover and why you’re finding it, which allows the audience to be part of it. So basically, I prepare for not being prepared. But then I have to be really courageous to ask the questions. When I watch “Dave Chappelle’s Block Party,” I have all these questions that I think I should have asked, and the next time I’ll be asking those questions.

MMM: Were there some answers that were too painful or embarrassing to be included in the film?

GONDRY: No… There was a story about some jewelry that my grandmother had given to her that apparently she didn’t share. I confronted her in an interview but it wasn’t interesting. During the process, there were a lot of dark stories like in any family. Doing the documentary, I clarified all that and I feel better with my relationship with my aunty. Some people don’t like her in the family because she’s quite hard sometimes, and I think she’s much softer now. I wanted to show that. That’s why I made her cry – not really purposely. I know that’s terrible, but I think she’s a kind person.

MMM: Has Suzette seen the documentary?

GONDRY: Of course. She was very sad in the beginning, especially when she saw the title, because she thought I was just focusing on the negative part. I had to write her a letter saying it was my way to show who she really was. We showed it to my village and it was very nice. People really appreciated that we talked about things honestly. In France, it’s a country where people are very harsh and enclosed and don’t communicate very much. My cousin, even though it was tough on him, he enjoyed it because of the attention. My son, on the other hand, doesn’t jump to see my work. He’s 19 right now and he wants to be his own person. [Laughs] He lives on his own in Brooklyn.

[Michel leaves the interview to go grab his son, Paul Gondry. Paul enters the room in a trilby hat, three-piece suit with vest and paint-stained leather shoes.]

MMM: Are you working on films as well?

PAUL GONDRY: Me? I’m working on a film. I don’t know if I’m going to work in films. I’m living in Brooklyn right now, taking care of [Michel’s] house.

GONDRY: He’s not taking care on his own. He’s taking care of my house with all his friends! [Laughs]

MMM: You were quite young on film and look much older now. Do you remember anything from the making of the film?

PAUL: I remember me, like, fucking around.

GONDRY: What!?!

PAUL: Goofing around.

GONDRY: Yes. I prefer that!

PAUL: I was satanic at the time, so I was having crazy rituals at the house like drinking blood, crazy stuff. The house was really gothic which was hilarious. Suzette was trying to take care of me in New York, and I have some really funny memories about that.

GONDRY: It was easy for me because I didn’t know the answers to religious questions so since he believed in Satan, I didn’t have to get involved with that! [Laughs]

[Paul leaves the interview.]

MMM: Is Suzette your aunt by marriage?

GONDRY: Yeah, by marriage. No blood.

MMM: It’s funny because you two look so much alike.

GONDRY: Yeah, I know! I look more like her than her son looks like her! It’s funny. Maybe she’s the mother… I spend more time with her than my mom now, and she probably enjoys my company more than her son. You don’t choose your parents and you don’t choose your children in a way.

MMM: Were there moments where you ever wanted to stop filming? Because at one point, she starts to cry and you even say, “Oh no, I’m being mean.”

GONDRY: That’s where my function of director takes over. I always keep in mind the ethic, which is, “At the end of the day, the individual is more important than the film.” But if the film is not good, then it’s not good for her. I’m willing to go into those places. When I travel in a small plane I get very scared but if I’m traveling with a camera, I don’t get scared. I remember when I was shooting a video for Bjork and I was hanging out of the side of a helicopter and I would be terrified as soon as the camera was running out of film. But while the camera was rolling, I wouldn’t feel a thing. The camera allows me to be different then how I would be without it. But I try to be decent and supporting.

MMM: What do you think audiences will take away from this study of Suzette’s life?

GONDRY: Some people may think, “Why would you do a documentary about anyone like that?” And I think it’s poor thinking. One guy who gave me a bad review said, “Eighty-five percent of people’s lives are boring and that’s why we invented entertainment.” That was very flattering for me to hear because I believe exactly the opposite. I think that in eighty-five percent of movies we see, we see people who are already in the spotlight. We never film people who aren’t in something publicly. I’m not the only one to do a documentary of people in their family, it’s been done, but I think filming people for who they are, regardless of their achievement, it’s interesting. What I hope is that people don’t feel so bad about their own family after seeing the film.

MMM: But did you learn anything new?

GONDRY: I clarified a lot of doubts I had on Suzette, and I understood what was going on. I understood why it was hard for her to stand her son, because he’s a pain the neck! As great as he is, you have to deal with him. He came to visit me for two weeks in Los Angeles and I was happy when he left. Some people, you like them but you’re happy when you say goodbye too because you can breathe. Some people are so needy that they won’t let you think! I was trying to shoot the film and he was asking me questions every ten seconds. I found this guy while I was shooting who was very talkative and spoke French, so I got them talking together, and the guy ended up visiting France and seeing [my cousin]. Suzette and I are getting along because I don’t mind her telling me a story and she doesn’t mind not talking for hours. When my father passed away, I was staying with her at this house and we took a three-hour walk and we didn’t say one word. It was very comforting.

MMM: One of the most interesting elements of Suzette’s life is her time spent teaching both male and female Algerian children at a time when they were outcasts of sorts in French society. What drove her to do that?

GONDRY: It’s very interesting. Her perspective on nature is very specific. She’s part of a very mature environment. In her village, women would not sit at the table at dinner. They would stand in the kitchen while men would be eating about 50, 100 years ago. That was in the blood, the culture. She really worked very hard for people yet she’s a suffragette in her own way. So, there is this tolerance to teach to people who are not necessarily welcome. And she treats me like a king when I visit her. Everybody has to work but me and sometimes I feel embarrassed, because whenever anyone argues with me, she always takes my side!

MMM: We’re used to “Michel Gondry: Innovative Filmmaker,” and there are a few scenes in this film that are Gondry-esque, but, for the most part, it’s pretty straightforward. So was it difficult to restrain yourself from a technological standpoint in this film?

GONDRY: With the invisible costumes in the school, I wanted the children to enjoy the special effects in the project. Before the documentary was finished, we did a DVD and sent it to the kids, so it was to participate in the magic. With the animation, Suzette wanted me to do some because we shot “The Science of Sleep” in her house, and she had a great time. So I did it a little bit for her.

MMM: What are you doing next?

GONDRY: I’m finishing editing “The Green Hornet,” and I am working on a project with my son – an animated feature film – based on my son’s story and my contribution. My son is an amazing artist and wants to be his own person so I don’t want to say it’s about me too much!

MMM: You’ve said “Back to the Future” is one of your favorite films. Will the tone of “Green Hornet” be close to that? A comedic tone?

GONDRY: A little bit, maybe. More action. A lot of fights. It’s comedic. It’s a cross between “Pineapple Express,” “Back to the Future” and me, but it’s a bit more violent.

MMM: Are you planning on directing any music videos in the near future?

GONDRY: I’m directing a video for Mia Doi Todd. She’s a  singer. We broke up recently after dating for a while, but she’s a great, talented artist.

THE THORN IN THE HEART opens in select theaters on April 2nd.