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Michel Gondry returns to the Cannes Film Festival for the first time since 2012’s “The We And The I” with “The Book Of Solutions,” his first film in seven years. And in the days before his new movie’s premiere in the Director’s Fortnight section on May 21, Gondry talked with THR and IndieWire about why he took so long between 2015’s “Microbe & Gasoline” and his latest feature.

Continue reading ‘The Book Of Solutions’: Michel Gondry Explains The Real-Life Creative Frustrations That Inspired His First Film In Seven Years at The Playlist.

Filmmaker Michel Gondry‘s is deceptively unpinnable. While he’s often pegged as whimsical surrealist—“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “The Science of Sleep,” “Mood Indigo“— there’s a whole other side to his work that’s social and realist with omnipresent themes of community. Documentaries like “The Thorn in the Heart,” “Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?” and the narrative “The We and the I” all reflect that idea.

Continue reading Michel Gondry Directs The Newest Chemical Brothers Music Video Featuring Some Trippy Dancing at The Playlist.

The following remembrance was written by Deborah Davis, Mark Urman’s wife.

From Anatole Litvak’s “Anastasia,” the first movie he saw as a child at a picture palace in the Bronx, to Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” (his choice for this year’s Best Picture), Mark Urman was a man with a boundless passion for cinema. In the course of his nearly 50 years in film, Mark felt blessed to work with some of the greatest luminaries in the business, from Joseph Losey, David Lean, and Bernardo Bertolucci to Roman Polanski, Sydney Lumet, and Julian Schnabel.

He also delighted in encouraging talents as they emerged, including Ryan Gosling, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Lynette Howell, Jamie Patricof, Christian Bale, Liv Tyler, Marc Forster, Natasha Richardson, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Kevin Smith, Cary Fukunaga, Lee Daniels, and Bill Condon.

Mark was born in the Bronx on November 24, 1952, the...

In 2008, the satirical website The Onion published a story entitled “Michel Gondry Entertained For Days By New Cardboard Box,” poking a bit of fun at the French filmmaker’s ability to find whimsy and imagination in the most unexpected of places. That Gondry’s movies revel in the fantastic and often eschew anything resembling the cynical is hardly news, but that he’s continued to invest himself in the creation of those kind of films (save for that brief foray into superhero fare with “The Green Hornet”) is certainly worth pointing out on a regular basis.

Read More: ‘Microbe and Gasoline’: Michel Gondry’s Latest Film Gets Whimsical And Inspiring New Trailer

His latest, “Microbe and Gasoline,” is another example of exactly that. Finally getting a release in the U.S. nearly a year after it opened in France (and ten months since it first played in the States,...

In his most satisfying film since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gondry crafts an optimistic adolescent adventure from the mess of real life

It’s hard to know what we’ll end up calling this phase of Michel Gondry’s career, but it’s certainly been unpredictable. He’s made four non-Hollywood movies since 2011’s big budget disappointment The Green Hornet, the unlikely superhero entry starring Seth Rogen. There was a guerrilla-style experiment with non-actors on a New York City bus (The We and the I), an undiluted hit of love-drenched visual whimsy (Mood Indigo) and a hand-drawn animated rap session between himself and Noam Chomsky (Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?). While each were innovative, these were peculiar and particular films. With the French-language Microbe and Gasoline, Gondry has made his most satisfying movie since his 2004 masterpiece Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Consider it an anti-Superbad.

Microbe et Gasoil

Director: Michel Gondry // Writer: Michel Gondry

Though his last feature, 2013’s zany and effervescent Mood Indigo, had a tortured flight to the box office, the steadily busy Michel Gondry also released a documentary, Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?. Now, he’s reteaming with his Indigo star Audrey Tautou to headline a cast of newcomers with a roadtrip film that recounts the wild adventures of two teenagers who are somewhat marginalised: the tiny “Microbe” and the inventive “Gasoil”. As the summer holidays get ever nearer, the two friends have no intention of spending the two months with their families. So with the help of a lawnmower engine and various planks of wood, they decide to build their own “car” and set off on an adventurous road trip around France.

Cast: Audrey Tautou and a cast of first-time children actors.

Producers: StudioCanal, Partizan Films’ Georges Bermann (Dog Pound)

U.

★☆☆☆☆After having his expressive wings clipped in exchange for genre formula with The Green Hornet (2011) and relinquishing his creative control to a group of Bronx school kids in his collaborative teen comedy The We and the I (2012), Michel Gondry returns to the land of the fantastical with comic drama Mood Indigo (2013). Pitting together two of contemporary French cinema’s most prominent actors – Audrey Tautou and Romain Duris, Gondry attempts to fashion a visual representation of the golden period that immediately follows falling in love, yet in abandoning rhyme or reason in his construction of such a vivid world Gondry has made something almost entirely incomprehensible.

Michel Gondry is back. And he's going no holds barred. After slumming it as studio hired-gun and inner-city auteur (in 2011's The Green Hornet and 2012's The We and the I, respectively), the French director is back in small-batch surrealist mode with Mood Indigo (L'ecume des jours). The cult of Gondry can breathe a sigh of relief: with all its artisanal whimsy and handcrafted pizazz, this isn't just the movie you've been waiting for -- it's three of them. Now, if only Gondry had managed to make them add up to anything meaningful or affecting. I could offer some token plot summary here, but believe me when I say that it really, really doesn't matter. Adapting the 1947 Boris Vian novel L'ecume des jours, a...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

A new clip for Michel Gondry's fantasy romance "Mood Indigo" has been released. Opening in select cinemas Friday July 18, the film was inspired by Boris Vian's cult novel and tells the story of a budding romance between Colin (Romain Duris) and Chloe (Audrey Tautou), which is tested when an unusual illness plagues Chloe; a flower begins to grow in her lungs. It is Gondry's seventh feature film after the likes of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "The Science of Sleep," "Been Kind Rewind" and "The We and the I," and certainly seems to play to his love of the surreal and whimsical. The scene is sweet snippet, and displays all the charm of Gondry's work. Colin approaches Chloe for the first time and asks "Have you ever been played by Duke Ellington?" It's a perfect moment, except nothing hits the mark. Check it out below:...

Our International Sales Agent (Isa) of the Day coverage is back again for this year's Cannes Film Festival. We will feature successful, upcoming, innovative and trailblazing agents from around the world, and cover the latest trends in sales and distribution. Beyond the numbers and deals, this segment will also share inspirational and unique stories of how these individuals have evolved and paved their way in the industry, and what they envision for the new waves in global cinema.

108 Media is a new sales company out of Toronto. Founder Abhi Rastogi sees it as "a force that opposes the standards of the film industry, redefining boundaries of what is possible and achievable." 108 Media recently acquired the worldwide sales rights for The Insect King by Priscilla Cameron and will begin selling the picture at the Cannes Film Festival. 108 is also excited to bring titles like He Never Died, which stars Henry Rollins as a punk rocker cannibal and Camera Trap, a wildlife thriller about a film crew that pursues local sightings of a rare wildcat in Nepal.

Abhi Rastogi shares some of his history, sales and more about 108's Cannes lineup:

How did you start 108 Media?

I started the company two years ago. We looked at how sales and distribution was done for the last seven or eight years, and we looked at bringing something different to the independent marketplace. And so we've tried to stick to a certain model where you can expect not so regular things.

We are doing theatrical releases in North America. We've released seven films theatrically in the last one and a half years--some of the most high profile films being Midnight's Children, based on Salman Rushdie's book, The We And The I, based on Michel Gondry. We also act as a foreign sales company, so we're very excited to introduce new projects and new voices to the international market.

What's your background?

Prior to this, I was a managing director of a company called Cinesavvy. We produced films like Frankie & Alice, starring Halle Berry; I was an executive producer on the film. Lionsgate released it last month. Prior to that, I was a distribution manager at Cinemavault, which is a Toronto based sales company.

What will 108 bring to Cannes?

We're bringing first footage from the film He Never Died, which stars Henry Rollins as a punk rocker and a cannibal who never died. This was a film that I was introduced to in September. And as a sales agent, you also get involved with packaging a lot; we were able to package the film right after Tiff in record time. We shot the film in November, so we're bringing it to Cannes.

Then we're brining this amazing, stunning chiller that was made in Nepal called Camera Trap, produced by the very high profile Steve Christian of Pinewood Pictures from the UK. It was shot all on location in Nepal last year. It's about a crew that goes to look for a snow leopard and finds something else. What's amazing is that the filmmakers have done a lot of nature related visuals. The film is stunning, visually captivating, and very realistic.

How are sales?

The sales are doing very well, because we're realistic about what the market can bare. We want to bring exciting projects, but at the same time, we are very careful of what we are requesting from our buyers and what's needed on their parts to support these films. It's more about collaboration for us. We tend to do a lot of business with the same buyers.

Some territories are more challenging than others, but that's the nature of our business. Spain is challenging--there are fewer buyers that are chasing after much higher profile content. That's because there are just not enough outlets for independent films to be released there. France has been a bit more challenging because of the home video markets collapsing there.

At the same time, we're doing very well in Asia through our Tokyo office. We tend to sell well across the board, including Germany, the UK and Italy.

More about 108 Media:

Cannes Lineup:

Camera Trap

Honour

Replace

He Never Died

Case of Kyoto, Case of Schuichi

The Time Being

Fugly

Fanie Fourie’s Lobola

Shame The Devil

The Rescuers

Tough Bond

Overview

108 is an agitator – a force that opposes the standards of the film industry, redefining boundaries of what is possible and achievable.

The media industry is not what it used to be, it is untraditional and media is consumed differently, in an ever changing and increasingly diversified forms of delivery and interaction. 108 Media is as unpredictable, leading edge and flexible as today's media demands – we’re targeted, we’re quick to execute, and we give the audience what they want, where they want it, and when they want it!

The Why is the easy part, because it is required of a media company to do so or be left behind like print media. The How is the interesting part. 108 Media measures social, blog and web traffic and consumer patterns to fully understand its consumers' dynamics, location and tendencies, thereby building effective and timely strategies to maximize media exposure and consumption efficiency. Further, 108 Media controls the pipelines of delivery, creating a truly vertically integrated next-generation media company fully capable to producing, marketing, and distributing media to all major Digital VOD, Broadband VOD and Paid Cable platforms.

We cut the old mantras of advertising and media delivery and enable a truly cross-promotional and cross platform digital experience.

While the films may not always work, the inventiveness and willingness to try new things, make us return again and again to the movies of Michel Gondry. And Gondry is particularly hard to pin down of late, delivering the lo-fi "The We And The I," the animated Noam Chomsky documentary "Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy?" and the wild fantasy "Mood Indigo." And for his next, it looks like Gondry again is striking into different territory. Noting he has a few projects going, Gondry told Cine Chronicle at the end of March, "I wrote the script for the next film about two teenagers on the run. The filming could start this summer." He then told La Provence this week that casting was underway. At any rate, it looks like Gondry is getting the wheels in motion on whatever he's doing next. Will it be another low budget lark, another...

Cinematographer Alex Disenhof spoke to Indiewire about shooting "Fishing Without Nets," a U.S. Dramatic entry that premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was directed by Cutter Hodierne. "Fishing Without Nets" chronicles the life of a Somali husband and father forced into piracy in order to provide for his family. Disenhof previously worked on "The We and the I," "Funeral Kings" and "Emoticon." Which camera and lens did you use? We used the Red Epic and Red Scarlett cameras with Zeiss Super Speeds and Angenieux Optimo Dp 16-42mm, and 30-80mm zooms. What was the most difficult shot in your movie, and how did you pull it off? We had many difficult shots, as we often did ten minute long handheld takes looking 360 degrees. Possibly the most difficult of all was shooting handheld on a rickety wooden boat deep out at sea. I had to follow several 'pirates'...

Paladin Pictures has acquired "A Short History of Decay", the directorial debut by author  journalist, and war correspondent Michael Maren ("The Road to Hell"). The film debuted last fall at the Hamptons International Film Festival. The film follows Nathan Fisher (Bryan Greenberg of "Prime" and "One Tree Hill"), a thirtysomething Brooklyn hipster whose ambitious girlfriend (Emmanuelle Chriqui) leaves him after his writing career stalls. Nathan soon gets a call from his brother in Florida that their father (Harris Yulin) has been hospitalized. Nathan arrives home to find his father recovering, if grouchy, and his mother (Linda Lavin) in a hazy state. While there, he meets his mother's manicurist (Kathleen Rose Perkins), the polar opposite of his girlfriend, but perhaps what he needs to recover. The acquisition was announced by the Paladin's president, Mark Urman. The company  previously released Michel Gondry's "The We and the I" and acquired last year's Sundance.

It.s been far too many years since audiences have gotten to see director Michel Gondry.s imagination make it to the screen in unfettered form, as last year.s The We and the I was centered in reality and The Green Hornet before that was not the kind of fantasy film Gondry fans want to see. Luckily, his next film Mood Indigo looks like his most visually ambitious effort yet, and U.S. audiences will soon be able to see it now that Drafthouse Films has acquired the rights. To celebrate the occasion, they also released a new still from the film, seen above, which unfortunately doesn.t involve miniature musicians or swaths of flowers. Mood Indigo is based on the 1947 novel L.Écume des Jours from French author Boris Vian. It centers on the blossoming romance that forms between Colin (Romain Duris) and Chloé (Audrey Tautou), resulting in...

Michel Gondry is no stranger to experimentation. In the past five years, he has made a big studio adaptation of "The Green Hornet," a documentary about his aunt called "The Thorn in the Heart," the real time story of some Queens high schoolers on the bus "The We and the I," and the fantasy drama "Mood Indigo." Even so, his latest completed project is unique: Solely consisting of a conversation between the filmmaker and noted linguist Noam Chomsky, "Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?" relies on Gondry's hand drawn animations and voiceover to explore Chomsky's rich theories of language. The movie, which closes the Doc NYC festival this week, will be released by IFC Films on Friday. Gondry spoke to Indiewire about his experience with the project and how it compares to both his recent work as well as his earlier music videos. In the movie, you state a...

As the Toronto Film Festival acquisitions market gets cracking, I find it helpful to see how some of last year’s titles fared at the box office. It’s an instructive way to keep things in perspective. Titles below reflect theatrical grosses, but remember, multi-platform business is not reflected and in some cases has turned films into profitable winners. Related: Toronto 2013: Will Deals Take Back Seat? Toronto Film Festival 2012 Acquisitions at the Domestic B.O. Title (distributor) Domestic B.O. (in millions except where noted) The Place Beyond the Pines (Focus Features) $21.4 Spring Breakers (A24) $14.1 Much Ado About Nothing (Roadside Attractions) $4.27 Frances Ha (IFC) $4.05 Emperor (Roadside Attractions) $3.35 Stories We Tell (Roadside Attractions) $1.59 Girl Most Likely (Roadside Attractions) $1.38 The Lords of Salem (Anchor Bay) $1.17 What Maisie Knew (Millennium Ent.) $1.07 Still Mine (Samuel Goldwyn) $587K The Reluctant Fundamentalist (IFC) $529K Arthur Newman (Cinedigm) $208K No Place on Earth (Magnolia) $200K John Dies at the End...

Virgil Films & Entertainment has announced the home video (DVD/Blu-ray) releases of 3 S&A-covered titles: Michel Gondry's The We And The I, British/Egyptian drama My Brother The Devil, and Egyptian revolution documentary, 1/2 Revolution. Michel Gondry's Bronx tale The We and The I made its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, last year (2012). The film stars Michael Brodie, Teresa Lynn, Laidychen Carrasco, Raymond Delgado, Jonathan Ortiz, Jonathan Worrell and Alex Barrios, and is described as follows: The We and the I is the heartfelt and comical story of the final bus ride home for a group of young high school students and...

Michel Gondry is back. And he's going no holds barred.After slumming it as studio hired-gun and inner-city auteur (in 2011's The Green Hornet and 2012's The We and the I, respectively), the French director is back in small-batch surrealist mode with Mood Indigo (L'ecume des jours). The cult of Gondry can breathe a sigh of relief: with all its artisanal whimsy and handcrafted pizazz, this isn't just the movie you've been waiting for - it's three of them. Now, if only Gondry had managed to make them add up to anything meaningful or affecting. I could offer some token plot summary here, but believe me when I say that it really, really doesn't matter. Adapting the 1947 Boris Vian novel L'ecume des jours, a linguistically playful romance that's about as universally...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Mark Urman of Paladin, 108 Media's U.S. Distribution arm has acquired Sean Ellis’ Sundance Audience Award Winner Metro Manila for No. America. Urman and 108 CEO Abhi Rastog negotiated the deal with Abigail Walsh, Head of Sales at Independent, who are handling international sales on the film, and Jessica Lacy, on behalf of ICM partners, who represent Ellis.

The North American deal on Metro Manila follows a number of other major sales, including France (Haut et Court), Spain (Festival Films), Scandinavia (NonStop), Japan (New Selects), Middle East (Front Row), Latin America (HBO), Hungary (Vertigo), Greece (Seven Group), Ex Yugoslavia (Cinemania), Singapore (indies Entertainment), and the Philippines (Captive).

Urman characterizes Metro Manila as "a smashing thriller--as smart and stylish as it is suspenseful—that I found impossible to shake-off. We look forward to working with Sean on its release and, even more so, to sharing it with audiences.” Rastogi adds, “this is undoubtedly one of the most exciting films to have emerged on the festival circuit this year, and we are confident that moviegoers and media alike will be blown away by it.”

Ellis produced, directed, photographed, and co-wrote the screenplay of Metro Manila, with Frank E. Flowers, based on his original story. Mathilde Charpentier also produced, and Ellis, Celine Lopez, and Enrique Y. Gonzalez served as executive producers.

Metro Manila centers around Oscar Ramirez, a poor rice farmer from the Northern Philippine mountains, who moves his family to the capital mega-city of Metro Manila in search of a better life. The sweltering capital’s bustling intensity soon overwhelms the Ramirezes, and they fall prey to the manipulations of hardened locals. Left penniless, Oscar gets a lucky break when he is offered steady work at an armored truck company and is taken under the wing of its friendly senior officer, Ong. Grateful for the job, Oscar doesn’t realize how dangerous it is; after all, Manila is a city where machine gun-wielding security guards are seen in every shop, from banks and jewelry stores to Starbucks, and where armed robbery has become a daily occurrence. Driving a cash-laden armored truck makes Oscar a moving target, but robbery isn’t the only danger he faces: when it becomes apparent that Ong was lying in wait for someone just like Oscar for some time, and that his motives for hiring him were far from altruistic, Oscar finds himself ensnared in a web of intrigue far more perilous than anything he faces on the mean streets of Manila

About 108 Media and Paladin:

108 Media is a Toronto-based international sales and distribution company that announced its partnership with Paladin at last year’s Toronto Film Festival. Together Rastogi and Urman have acquired such titles as Michel Gondry’s “The We And The I” and the Deepa Mehta/Salman Rushdie collaboration, “Midnight’s Children,” both currently in release. Also on-screen now are the award-winning British drama, “My Brother The Devil” and the Canadian comedy “And Now A Word From Our Sponsor,” starring Bruce Greenwood and Parker Posey, which was released last week both in select theaters and on cable VOD.

108 Media is not only an international sales agent but works with U.S. Distribution Guru Mark Urman. They recently opened Michel Gondry's The We And The I, the Sundance-prize-winning drama My Brother the Devil, and Deepa Mehta's Midnight’s Children in the U.S.

Now 108 Media has picked up international sales for Jug Face which won the Slamdance Grand Prize for Best Screenplay by Chad Crawford Kinkle in January 2013. When producer Andrew van den Houten stated his confidence that "no stone outside the U.S. market will be left unturned", I wondered (and still am wondering) whether the same is not going to be true within the U.S. Market.

The film was produced by Andrew van den Houten and Robert Tonino for Modernciné, with Lucky McKee, Arrien Schiltkamp, and Loren Semmens serving as Executive Producers. The deal was negotiated by Rastogi and van den Houten. Gravitas Ventures has domestic VOD distribution and the film will be distributed in theaters by Modernciné.

“Working with a company that only takes select films to the international market each year allows for each film to have a unique campaign in finding the right home,” said van den Houten. “Modernciné has always enjoyed being represented by the passion and enthusiasm that people like Mr. Rastogi and his team exude. We look forward to this new collaboration and are confident no stone outside the U.S. market will be left unturned.”

Expanding the slate of films in its international sales operation, 108 Media has acquired the terrifying feature Jug Face, it was announced by 108 CEO Abhi Rastogi. Based on the Slamdance Grand Prize Winning screenplay by Chad Crawford Kinkle, international sales will commence at the Cannes Market this month.

Written and directed by Kinkle, Jug Face thrilled audiences and critics at its Slamdance premiere in January with its dark story of a demonic power worshipped by an isolated rural community. The monster offers health and protection in exchange for human sacrifices, identified when their faces materialize on ceramic jugs fabricated by an entranced potter. Bloody chaos ensues when the newest victim is hidden from the monster. The ensemble cast features Sean Young (Blade Runner), Larry Fessenden (The Last Winter), Lauren Ashley Carter (The Woman, Premium Rush), Daniel Manche (The Girl Next Door), and Sean Bridgers (The Woman, Sweet Home Alabama).

“Chad Kinkle has created a masterfully creepy film with Jug Face,” said Rastogi. “I’m looking forward to introducing his talent and this film to the world and we’ve already started to receive strong interest from multiple buyers in territories spanning the globe.”...

After interestingly taking on the subject of teenage friendships in 2012.s The We and the I, Michel Gondry . he who made both Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Green Hornet, somehow . reverted back to his French origins for an adaptation of Boris Vian.s wildly imaginative 1947 novel L.Ecume des jours, which translates to Foam of the Daze or Froth on the Daydream depending on who translates it. And beyond just having a Gondry-esque title, it seems as if the director was put on this planet specifically to bring these illusory images to life. Somehow there are even more enchanting images here than there were in Mood Indigo.s first trailer we showed you a few months back, and this one even has subtitles, even though it.s hard to read words while stars Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou are flying around in a mini-cloud spaceship thing. You...

The We and the I, the latest feature film from Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind), is a glimpse at a bus ride home on the last day of school in the Bronx. Flirtations flicker, bullies torment, obnoxious guys are obnoxious and friends tease and giggle with each other.

There is not much of a constant adult presence in the movie (except for the bus driver, played by a real-life Mta driver), which leaves the teens to be themselves -- or at least however they want their peers to see them.

Gondry brought over his sketch of an idea for The We and the I to an afterschool program, The Point, after a screening of his movie Be Kind Rewind there. The kids he found through the program not only acted in the eventual film, but also collaborated on it. Indeed, most of the teenagers...

Speculation as to what will and won't play at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival is getting louder and I'll have more on that later today, but for now check out two recently revealed posters promoting a couple of the sidebars at the fest. First is the Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine) sidebar where last year Michel Gondry's The We and the I kicked things off and the lineup also saw Rodney Ascher's Room 237 along with Ben Wheatley's Sightseers and Pablo Larrain's Oscar-nominated No. As for the Critics Week (Semaine de la Critique) sidebar, last year's lineup didn't make a ton of noise, but that doesn't mean this year's won't impress and it always features one of the better posters of the fest. Just check out last year's. As I've been saying for about a month now, I will once again be returning to the festival, thanks in large part...

0:00-2:05 – Introduction; Ncaa brackets

2:05-3:50 – iTunes review; current whereabouts of Dylan

3:50-13:40 – “Olympus Has Fallen” review

13:40-16:10 – Jeff’s travel plans (baby on plane!)

16:10-21:35 – “The Croods” review

21:35-31:15 – “Spring Breakers” review

31:15-37:40 – “Stoker” review

37:40-38:40 – We’ll review “Admission” next week

38:40-41:35 – “The We and the I” review

41:35-43:05 – Qotw for next week: Who was your first movie crush?

43:05-44:50 – Introduction to Walter Salles interview

44:50-1:09:00 – Interview with Walter Salles, director of “On the Road” starring Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, and Kristen Stewart

1:09:00-1:10:50 – Wrap-up and goodbyes

Qotw: Who was your first movie crush?

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Title: The We and the I Director: Michel Gondry Starring: Michael Brodie, Teresa Lynn, Raymond Delgado, Jonathan Ortiz, Jonathan Worrell, Alex Barrios, Laidychen Carrasco, Jacobchen Carrasco, Meghan Murphy, Raymond Rios, Mia Lobo Filmmaker Michel Gondry has always been a visionary of visual style, dating back to his groundbreaking work in the music video format. Less noted is his soft spot for underclass underdogs and those existing on the margins of society, as found in his features like “Be Kind Rewind” and “The Science of Sleep.” That predilection gets a more direct exercising in what may be Gondry’s most narratively straightforward and direct movie yet, which charts a city bus ride home [ Read More ]

The post The We and the I Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

From director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), The We and The I is an indie drama that looks at the lives of a group of teenagers in the Bronx who ride the same bus route, and how their relationships change and evolve on the last day of school.  Among farewells to friends and excitement about the upcoming vacation, there are laughs, love and heartbreak. During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, filmmaker Michel Gondry talked about how the idea for this project was inspired by his own experiences, finding a school that was willing to work with the production, the process of finding the characters, and presenting who these teenagers were in a non-judgmental way.  He also talked about wanting to explore new ideas for film, what made him want to tell the story of Mood Indigo (L'écume Des Jours), about a woman who suffers from...

Break out your French to English dictionaries.

French director Michel Gondry started out his movie-making career as a director of music videos for artists like Bjork and Beck, eventually breaking through with the visually striking, 2004 drama Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The movie earned Gondry and co-screenwriter Charlie Kaufman an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. We also have Gondry to thank for the current trend of "Sweded" trailers — low-budget recreations using handmade props and effects — thanks to his 2008 comedy Be Kind Rewind. However, after Gondry's 2010 comic book adaptation The Green Hornet, Gondry has stuck with more independent productions like last year's The We And the I and now to his home country for his next effort, Mood Indigo (L 'Ecume des Jours overseas).

Next Showing:

Link | Posted 3/16/2013 by Ryan

Audrey Tautou | Michel Gondry | Romain Duris | Paul McCartney...

Our favorite eccentric Frenchman, Michel Gondry, is on a roll of late. He's debuted two stunningly gorgeous trailers for his new movie, Mood Indigo, which opens in France this month. The footage is already compelling enough to make us wish we knew French — and had read the 1947 book, L'écume des jours, on which the movie is based. (It's about an inventor of olfactory instruments whose wife develops a sickness that can only be cured by surrounding her with fresh flowers. So Gondry-esque!) In the meantime, he has the wonderful The We and the I, which follows a group of high-school students from the Bronx — bullies, nerds, outcasts — along the final Mta bus ride home at the end of the school year. Relationships are formed and ruptured, tall tales get illustrated in handmade fantasy sequences, and a feisty old lady who's stuck in the back of the...

Specialized distributors continue to try to break beyond the usual review-driven New York/Los Angeles limited openings to find less conventional ways to release films. Among this week’s openings, Mumblecore indie “Somebody Out There Likes Me," starring Second City's own Nick Offerman, premiered to significant success exclusively in Chicago in advance of its VOD debut as well as upcoming theater dates elsewhere. Peter Webber's poorly reviewed World War II drama “Emperor” played mostly mainstream theaters in multiple cities. And Michel Gondry's “The We and the I” had a better than expected New York single-theater release that holds promise for more attention. The one with the best reviews and strongest advance presence, Cristian Mungiu's Oscar nominee “Beyond the Hills,” enjoyed a modest start, highlighting the ongoing problem of getting even the most review-oriented audiences in the two top markets to show up. Opening “Emperor” (Roadside Attractions...

Like some Gallic version of Tim Burton, Michel Gondry's initial promise has given way to a series of films whose diminishing returns demonstrate that he's a talented visualist without the capacity for, or worse, any interest in, telling an actual story. Gondry's defenders will, of course, point to the excellent "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," but the passage of years has made it abundantly clear that the credit for that film belongs entirely to screenwriter Charlie Kaufman; Gondry may have gotten out of the way of that script, but that's hardly a reason to celebrate his skills or capabilities, such as they are, beyond that. The messy "Be Kind, Rewind," the cutesy-creepy "The Science of Sleep," the noisome and needless "Green Hornet"...Gondry's name above a title has gone from being a reason to seek a film to being a reason to shun it. "The We and the I,...

What's the time limit for mourning a bad film from one of today's most innovative filmmakers? Until their next feature? Forever? I want to discuss Michel Gondry's latest effort, The We and the I, a shockingly horrendous film that strips away every bit of this man's gifted imagination.  Shot almost entirely on a bus, the French New Wave-influenced The We and the I revolves around inner-city kids in New York on their ride home from school. On a bus. One by one, they get dropped off (as people do after getting on a bus), and talk, banter, and bicker about everything teenagers with hormones talk, banter, and bicker about. "Sounds like a great film!" said arthouse smarty pants everywhere. Then one learns Michel Gondry...

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School is officially out for the summer as a bunch of high schoolers crowd onto a city bus. With no adult authority figures willing to keep the kids in line, the bus is quickly segregated into two distinct groups: the bullies and the bullied. Out-numbered and unwilling to take a stand against a gang of hood-rat brats, the adults opt to exit the bus -- some more gracefully than others -- until the bus driver is left with a bunch of unruly teens. The bus devolves into an urban The Lord of the Flies on wheels as the kids jockey for power by using mental and physical torture against each other. The meanest and the crudest claw their way to the top of the pile, leaving a trail of emotionally devastated victims in their wake; but rather than dissolving into a state of total anarchy, kids exit the bus at...

We're barely three months into 2013, and director Michel Gondry is serving up plenty for his fans. His long brewing Noam Chomsky documentary, "Is The Tall Man Happy?" has started screening and later on this year, he'll deliver the whimsical "Mood Indigo." But before that, the writer/director will help usher in summer with "The We And The I," another interesting gear change for Gondry that finds him working with non-actors, in a unique story that follows a group of teenagers on a city bus on the last day of school. But the movie is also a distinct tale that hums with the energy of the Bronx, and this exclusive featurette offers a fascinating insight into how the project came together. From the initial seeds of an idea by Gondry, to working with community center The Point and the range of young people who came on to take roles in the film,...

While recent efforts like the documentary "The Thorn In The Heart," the superhero blockbuster "The Green Hornet," and indie "The We And The I" have all allowed Michel Gondry to take some detours, it's been a while since we've seen a movie that's, well, Gondry-esque. But it looks like the filmmaker is firmly back in his wheelhouse with "Mood Indigo," which debuted a gorgeous trailer about a month ago. And with its spring release overseas gearing up, some fresh promo material has arrived. New character posters have dropped for the movie, centering on leads Audrey Tautou, Omar Sy and Gad Elmaleh. Based on Boris Vian's 1947 novel, "L'Ecume des jours," the film tells the tale of Colin (played by Romain Duris), the wealthy inventor of an olfactory musical instrument. He marries Chloe (Tautou), but unfortunately she falls ill during their honeymoon thanks to a water lily that enters her lung,...

Running from February 14th to the 24th, the 2013 installment of the increasingly popular Glasgow Film Festival marks its ninth incarnation. Advertised as a festival “for the people”, Gff tends to stray from the red carpet approach and curation-heavy feel of its local(-ish) cousin, June’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, though it does have various themed strands and a few UK and European premieres. Mainly, it is a chance for Scottish audiences to get an advanced look at some incoming 2013 highlights, as well as acclaimed festival fare both with and without planned UK distribution.

Befitting of the Valentine’s Day launch, the festival’s opening gala screening is the UK premiere of French romantic comedy Populaire. Directed by Régis Roinsard, the late 1950s-set film stars Romain Duris, Déborah François and Bérénice Bejo. Closing the festival is the European premiere of Joss Whedon’s take on Much Ado About Nothing. Shot...

The 15th San Francisco Independent Film Festival (Sf IndieFest) features mind-blowing, enlightening, genre-bending independent films from around the world. Running February 8th thru 21 at the Brava Theatre, Roxie Theatre, Vortex Room, Sf IndieFest 2013 will open with the U.S. premiere of Michel Gondry's much anticipated The We and the I. Other must see screenings at Sf IndieFest 2013 include: All the Light in the Sky, Antiviral, Be Good, Berberian Sound Studio, The Ghastly Love of Johnny X, I Declare War, It's A Disaster, The International Sign for Choking, The Last Elvis, The Revisionaries, Sightseers, Simon Killer, Sun Don't Shine, Video Diary of a Lost Girl and Wrong.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center, which is responsible for the highly regarded New York Film Festival, also peppers the entire calendar year with exciting mini-festivals, including in February, their Film Comment Selects Festival built around oddball choices from the Society’s Film Comment magazine. This year’s lineup emphasizes its eclectic collection of varying tastes within the magazine, with editors and contributors selecting a wide array of movies, including new features by Takashi Miike, Michel Gondry, Ben Wheatley, and a retrospective comprised of two oddball Howard Zieff movies. The festival opens with the New York premiere of “Simon Killer,” the thriller from “Afterschool” writer/director Antonio Campos, about a psychopath (Brady Corbet) in Paris who becomes obsessed with a prostitute, and closes with the U.S. premiere of “The We and the I,” an experimentally free-wheeling new Michel Gondry movie that was shot...

Although Michel Gondry's The We and the I still has yet to get an official release date in North America, his next movie is already heading to theatres in France this spring. Entitled Mood Indigo, it is based on the book L'Ecume des Jours (Froth on the Daydream) by Boris Vian and it stars Romain Duris (The Beat That My Heart Skipped) as a wealthy inventor who creates an olfactory-musical instrument called the pianocktail. His wife (Audrey Tatou) becomes ill with a water lily in the lungs, a condition that can only be treated by surrounding her with flowers. Yep, that sounds like a Michel Gondry movie alright. The weird thing is the book has already apparently been adapted for the screen twice before, once by French director Charles Belmont and more recently by Japanese filmmaker Go Riju. A French trailer for Gondry's version has arrived online this week...

Michel Gondry has quite a varied filmography (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Green Hornet, The We and the I), but arguably his best works are the odd and whimsical films about love, how the human mind processes it and in turn, acts upon it. On that note, the first trailer for his new film, Moon Indigo (L'écume des jours in its original French title) has just been released.Based on the 1947 novel of the same name by Boris Vian, the films stars Romain Duris, Omar Sy, and the poster girl for young French romance Audrey Tautou. Colin (Duris) and Chloe (Tautou) are happy, in love, and marry quickly, but an illness puts a damper on young wedded bliss. Chloe contracts an sickness that...

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Catering to virtually every niche, Berlin offers some 70 film festivals each year. Since 2009, the first on the calendar has been the Unknown Pleasures Festival. Held during the first two weeks of January at the historic Babylon Cinema in former East Berlin, it is a work of love run entirely by three enthusiasts of Us independent cinema, providing a sorely needed platform for recent American arthouse films. This year’s edition opened on a disappointing note with the German premiere of Michel Gondry’s The We and the I. Typically saccharine and contrived, Gondry’s latest portrays a group of Bronx teens …...

Sundance Film Festival kicks off out in Park City today, bringing some of the year’s most anticipated independent films to the big screen. Following shortly after will be the Berlinale next month, and SXSW in March, which has just debuted a very promising initial line-up. And now the first big film festival on our shores, the Glasgow Film Festival, has announced its line-up, and it is absolutely exceptional.

Opening the events on Valentine’s Day next month will be Régis Roinsard’s Populaire, starring Romain Duris, Déborah François, and Bérénice Bejo, getting its UK premiere.

And closing the festival will be Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing, the great writer-director’s contemporary adaptation of the classic Shakespeare play. Similarly seeing its UK premiere, the film stars an ensemble that will please all Whedon fans, led by Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof, with fine support from Fran Kranz, Clark Gregg,...

108 Media and Paladin picked up all North American rights to Michel Gondry's Bronx tale The We and The I at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the film made its North American screening debut last year (2012). The film, which we've been tracking since its Director's Fortnight debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May, stars Michael Brodie, Teresa Lynn, Laidychen Carrasco, Raymond Delgado, Jonathan Ortiz, Jonathan Worrell and Alex Barrios, and is described as follows: The We and the I is the heartfelt and comical story of the final bus ride home for a group of young high school students and graduates. As kids depart the bus for the last time, we...

After 2011's critically scorned flop The Green Hornet, Michel Gondry needed a strong follow-up. Thankfully, the intimate teen drama The We and the I won critical praise upon its debut at 2012's Cannes Film Festival and all along the festival tour that followed. Though the film hasn't yet secured a U.S. release date, it is possible Stateside Gondry enthusiasts could see it as early as this year. But that's not all! The filmmaker recently wrapped on Mood Indigo, a fantastical drama that stars such French luminaries as Audrey Tautou (Amelie), Omar Sy (The Intouchables), Gad Elmaleh (Priceless), and Romain Duris (Hearbreaker). This movie is slated to open in France on April 24th, and a U.S. release will likely follow later this year. So with so much too look forward to from Gondry, fans can toast 2013 by checking out his recently released animated short, "Haircut Mouse." Posted on Vimeo...

Michel Gondry is one of the filmmakers we here at Sound On Sight have championed since we started our website back in 2008. The director already has two films set for release in 2013. His Amercian-indie, The We And The I is slated to hit theatres stateside, meanwhile his fantasy/drama Mood Indigo is supposedly set for release in France sometime in April. Fans of the filmmaker should be happy to know that the director has also unveiled a new three minute short film titled Haircut Mouse. The short is animated save for when Gondry briefly appears at the beginning dressed as a mouse. The director also plays drums on the background music with French singer-songwriter Loane on the keyboards. Enjoy!

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Michel Gondry fans are going to have a lot to be thankful for in 2013. Not only is his lo-fi indie, "The We And The I," slated to hit theaters stateside, but his fantastical "Mood Indigo" with Audrey Tautou and Romain Duris is also on the way. But before we get to either of those, Gondry has gone ahead and dropped a holiday treat for fans. Over on Vimeo, the director quietly unveiled the (obviously) quirky short, "Haircut Mouse." Mostly animated, except for a brief moment where we see Gondry, dressed as a mouse, fall asleep on a bunch of hay (obviously), the three-minute piece marries crude but cute art with a tale that only the Gallic filmmaker could conjure. And yes, that's Gondry himself on the drums with French singer/songwriter Loane manning the keyboards. Grab a coffee and watch below.

Michel Gondry's "The We and the I," which debuted at Cannes without making much noise (or receiving much praise), is still managing at 71% Fresh score on RottenTomatoes. When the film comes out in New York March 8 and Los Angeles March 22 courtesy of Paladin, it may find its audience. "The We and the I" was was shot mostly on a bus, using non-actors from an after school arts program in the Bronx; they play themselves within the confines of a playful script.   The Playlist called the film "a testing, patronizing let-down." The director, who is best known for "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," spoke with Indiewire at Cannes. Check out the trailer below:...

We're about 2 weeks late with this piece of news... It was announced that digital distribution company GoDigital signed a deal 108 Media that will see GoDigital distribute 8 films from 108 Media. 108 Media already has an agreement with Mark Urman’s Paladin Distribution to release each film theatrically in the USA; so all 8 will get traditional theatrical distribution, as well as VOD and digital. Included in the 8 are Michel Gondry's Bronx tale The We and The I (which we already told you about). However, we definitely haven't covered the Sundance Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival prize-winning British/Egyptian drama...

Exclusive: One of the last buzz titles at the Toronto Film Festival is about to find a distributor. I’m told that Mark Urman’s Paladin/108 Media is acquiring all U.S. rights to Midnight’s Children, the Deepa Mehta-directed adaptation of the 1981 Salman Rushdie novel. The film will get a platform theatrical release in April. Mehta helmed the Oscar-nominated Water and this film is based on one of Rushdie’s most famous Booker Prize-winning works. Rushdie wrote the script with Mehta and he attended the film’s gala premiere in Toronto. Midnight’s Children is a lavish period drama about India’s shift from British colonialism to independence. The story is about two infants born on midnight August 15, 1947, the moment India achieved independence. The infants are switched at birth — one rich being raised poor and the poor child is raised rich. The story contains some magical elements, but...

Paladin and 108 Media have snapped up the domestic rights to Michel Gondry's latest film "The We and the I," the two companies announced on Saturday. Directed and co-written by Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"), "The We and the I" follows a group of teens from the Bronx and explores their assorted lives and relationships in one day on the school bus. Gondry, a French native who got his start as a music video director, uses a cast of newcomers for the film, which takes place almost entirely on the...

The deals, mostly small ones, are flowing here as the Toronto Festival heats up on a rainy Saturday. * In their first major deal since forming a new distribution partnership last month, 108 Media and Paladin have acquired all North American rights to Michel Gondry‘s latest film, The We And The I. The film played Cannes and makes its North American debut at Toronto. An early March opening in New York and Toronto is planned, expanding after that. Set on the last day of the school year, the pic follows a group of Bronx high schoolers who board a city bus on their way home, with summer break ahead of them. The cast is mostly first timers. * Film Movement acquired Three Worlds, from French filmmaker Catherine Corsini. Three characters collide in the aftermath of a car crash. Al, a young man from a modest background, is ten days away from marrying...