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At its heart, Maya, Give Me a Title conjures an intercontinental dialogue spun from scissors, tape and childhood wonder. A six-year exchange unfolds as Maya, seated before the camera, offers off-the-cuff titles that Michel Gondry transforms into hour-long stop-motion vignettes. These paper-cut adventures—bookended by live-action interludes—trace a playful surrealism grounded in tactile craft.

Gondry wears both director’s cap and animator’s gloves, while Maya steers the narrative with innocent audacity. Pierre Niney’s voiceover turns each title into a character, lending buoyant personality to scenarios that range from hammock-thieving squirrels to ecological ketchup catastrophes. Jean-Michel Bernard’s score hums with retro-tinged warmth, and Frédéric Junqua’s carefully chosen tracks evoke ’50s-era suspense and joy.

The film’s hybrid format marries childlike spontaneity with seasoned artistry, animating simple cutouts at twelve frames per second yet preserving every fingerprint and pencil stroke. A palette of rich secondary hues enhances the handcrafted universe,...

About three-quarters of the way through Michel Gondry’s brief, brimming, inspired and liberating new movie, the narrator pauses a tale involving hammock-stealing squirrels to ask, “Where can this story be going?” By this point in the deliriously straight-faced lunacy of Maya, Give Me a Title, the answer is clear: It can be going anywhere. And that’s a good thing.

Maya is Gondry’s daughter and his creative partner in a long-distance project that they shared for six years, beginning when she was 4, and now distilled into this effervescent hourlong feature. Communicating with Maya by phone and computer across many miles, the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director devised an inventive way to stay close: His little girl would be the concept person, called upon to concoct a title for a movie adventure in which she’d star, and Papa would, over the next two to six weeks,...

Robert Townson, the veteran producer who helped build Varèse Sarabande into L.A.’s leading soundtrack label, is leaving after more than 30 years to launch a new venture producing live concerts of film music.

Concord Music, which purchased Varèse last year from Cutting Edge Group, has eliminated Townson’s vice-president position effective Jan. 31. “I have spent the past thirty-plus years helping build this incredible music company, and I am very proud of the legacy I leave behind,” Townson said in a statement to Variety.

“My career has included over 1,400 of the label’s frontline soundtracks and historic film-music restorations, new recordings and countless international live film music events. Robert Townson Concerts, previously Varèse Live, will not be affected by this and will continue its bright future course,” he added.

The announcement comes on the heels of the label’s 40th anniversary last year, which was marked with a best-of CD...

**Read all the posts in our ‘Love Theatrically’ series here**

#12 – “The Science Of Sleep” (2006)

Directed by Michel Gondry

Proving that sometimes our greatest love stories exist only in our dreams Michel Gondry’s “The Science of Sleep” caresses your consciousness with its irrepressibly inventive display of creativity, craftsmanship and visual flair.

When we first meet Stéphane (Gael Garcia Bernal) he’s busy presenting the latest edition of “Stéphane TV” from his eggbox-décored cardboard studio in which he shares with us the true recipe of our deepest dreams (random thoughts, memories, songs, friendships, relationships and “all those ships.”) whilst gleefully tossing them all into a huge cooking pot in front of him and stirring the resulting mixture. Yet it’s already clear to the audience that this particular studio exists only inside Stéphane’s head yet it’s a location we’ll inevitably return to several times throughout the film’s...

Today on Eurozone, I'm going to bend the rules a little. I'm not going to talk about an European movie, but you get to hear about French composer Jean-Michel Bernard, a frequent collaborator of Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). They worked together on The Science of Sleep and completed the picture Be Kind Rewind in 2008. This most unusual picture premiered in the 2008 Sundance film festival and since then found wider distribution as well. The picture stars Mos Def, Jack Black and Danny Glover as the residents of Passaic, New Jersey.

Elroy Fletcher (Glover) runs a video store which fights an uphill battle against a larger chain and DVDs as well. When Elroy leaves his store to Mike (Mos Def), hilarity ensues as all the tapes are erased in a freak accident. In order to save the shop's reputation Mike and his friend Jerry (Black) shoot new pictures...