Shailene Woodley and Jack Whitehall have joined the cast of the animated feature “Girl in the Clouds,” directed by Philippe Riche (“Rabbids Invasion”).
The film, penned by Riche and Luc Bossi, is inspired by the novel “The Little Girl Who Swallowed a Cloud as Big as The Eiffel Tower” by best-selling author Romain Puértolas. Production will start in May 2024 for a Summer 2026 release.
“Girl in the Clouds” tells the story of Providence, who is entrusted with a magic quill that makes everything she writes come true. Faced with this incredible power, she has to choose between living her dreams and saving the world.
Brio Films, whose credits include Michel Gondry’s “Mood Indigo” and “The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir,” Scope Pictures (“Annette”), Panama Prods. is producing. It’s co-produced by Cocoon Films, Sagax and Bien Sûr Prods. Partners include Canal + Group; Sc Films Intl. is handling worldwide sales, while Angela Demo is casting.
The film, penned by Riche and Luc Bossi, is inspired by the novel “The Little Girl Who Swallowed a Cloud as Big as The Eiffel Tower” by best-selling author Romain Puértolas. Production will start in May 2024 for a Summer 2026 release.
“Girl in the Clouds” tells the story of Providence, who is entrusted with a magic quill that makes everything she writes come true. Faced with this incredible power, she has to choose between living her dreams and saving the world.
Brio Films, whose credits include Michel Gondry’s “Mood Indigo” and “The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir,” Scope Pictures (“Annette”), Panama Prods. is producing. It’s co-produced by Cocoon Films, Sagax and Bien Sûr Prods. Partners include Canal + Group; Sc Films Intl. is handling worldwide sales, while Angela Demo is casting.
- 2/17/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
If you’ve ever wondered when it was that Michel Gondry, the gifted French director of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” became the world’s most annoying filmmaker, you might say the answer is, “He always was.” Yet no one, including me, quite thinks of him that way. That’s because the few works of his that have come to prominence possess a special combination of facility and charm. I adore “Eternal Sunshine,” a virtuoso movie that bends your brain and breaks your heart at the same time. You might simply choose to characterize it as the masterpiece of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, but the truth is that Gondry directed it — the leaps in time, the emotionally convulsive performances of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet — with a masterful sense of play and gravitational control.
I’ve always heard that the script Kaufman originally turned in was twice as complicated, and...
I’ve always heard that the script Kaufman originally turned in was twice as complicated, and...
- 6/4/2023
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
One of the most delightful experiences at this year’s Cannes Film Festival was Michel Gondry’s dramatic comedy The Book of Solutions, from the Directors Fortnight sidebar. The director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind Rewind stayed away from the big screen for eight long years after the painful failure of the sloppy melodrama Mood Indigo (2013) followed with his next low budget comedy Microbe & Gasoline (2015). His only project from the past few years was an incredibly witty, heartfelt TV series called "Kidding" with Jim Carrey as Mr. Pickles, a quirky riff on Mr. Rogers. Gondry's new feature film, Le Livre des Solutions, depicts the ultimate turmoil of the moviemaking process – accumulating all of his passion, frustration & fears in a lighthearted, ironic way underlined by the usual melancholic for which he is known. // Continue Reading ›...
- 6/2/2023
- by Tamara Khodova
- firstshowing.net
It’s been a long time since the last Michel Gondry movie (and perhaps even longer since the last time you actually saw one), but at least the “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” director’s semi-autobiographical new comedy offers a fun — if also fraught and occasionally worrying — explanation for why it took him eight years to follow up “Microbe & Gasoline.”
In “The Book of Solutions,” Pierre Niney plays Marc, an obvious Gondry stand-in who’s deep in post-production on a $5 million film that looks an awful lot like Gondry’s own “Mood Indigo.” And much like Gondry did with that surreal 2013 romance, which was maligned for its messy overabundance of rich ideas, Marc is struggling to find a coherent shape for his would-be opus.
“Anyone, Everyone” already sounds worryingly open-ended and ambitious based on its title alone, and it doesn’t exactly instill confidence in Marc’s financiers...
In “The Book of Solutions,” Pierre Niney plays Marc, an obvious Gondry stand-in who’s deep in post-production on a $5 million film that looks an awful lot like Gondry’s own “Mood Indigo.” And much like Gondry did with that surreal 2013 romance, which was maligned for its messy overabundance of rich ideas, Marc is struggling to find a coherent shape for his would-be opus.
“Anyone, Everyone” already sounds worryingly open-ended and ambitious based on its title alone, and it doesn’t exactly instill confidence in Marc’s financiers...
- 5/26/2023
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The filmmaker at the center of Michel Gondry’s new feature is in a love-hate relationship with his latest project. To protect the work in progress from the studio executives who have just fired him, he absconds to the country with the four-hour cut, his faithful editor and assistant in tow. And then he can’t bear to look at the footage, and gets busy with one tangential undertaking after another. The depiction of procrastination as an essential part of the creative process is one of the delights of The Book of Solutions (Le Livre des solutions), but on the way to its mildly satisfying final punchline, this uneven comedy loses its thread.
Drawing loosely upon Gondry’s postproduction escape from producers when he was making Mood Indigo, his first movie since the 2015 charmer Microbe & Gasoline is a portrait of the director as a gifted man-child. Central character Marc Becker is inspired,...
Drawing loosely upon Gondry’s postproduction escape from producers when he was making Mood Indigo, his first movie since the 2015 charmer Microbe & Gasoline is a portrait of the director as a gifted man-child. Central character Marc Becker is inspired,...
- 5/21/2023
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
He’s an Oscar winner for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and beloved worldwide for his uniquely lo-fi, handmade aesthetic — a highly imaginative and visual DNA that has been liberally scattered across several decades of work, from music videos (think Daft Punk’s seminal Around the World) to commercials (such as the multi-award-winning Levi’s Drugstore), short films (including One Day, in which he’s chased out of toilet cubicle by David Cross dressed as a giant turd), documentaries (the Noam Chomsky starrer Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?) and features (the delightful Be Kind, Rewind).
Although Michel Gondry is rarely not pouring his creativity into something (he recently turned to TV with the Jim Carrey-starring Kidding), the so-called Crown Prince of Whimsy’s feature output has been considerably less prolific of late, with his last coming in 2015 (the abundantly whimsical Microbe and Gasoline). Thankfully, this is...
Although Michel Gondry is rarely not pouring his creativity into something (he recently turned to TV with the Jim Carrey-starring Kidding), the so-called Crown Prince of Whimsy’s feature output has been considerably less prolific of late, with his last coming in 2015 (the abundantly whimsical Microbe and Gasoline). Thankfully, this is...
- 5/19/2023
- by Alex Ritman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ten years ago, Michel Gondy was directing “Mood Indigo,” his freewheeling and fanciful adaptation of the 1947 French novel “L’Écume des Jours” starring Audrey Tatou. And then he got lost.
“My brain was working in a different way,” he said over Zoom in a recent interview. “Each idea I had, no matter how important or small it was, became about life and death. Every little thing became super important. I felt like I was reaching ultimate creativity.”
He now looks back on the whole experience as a result of his delusional state. The movie ran long and over budget, angering Gondry’s investors. He escaped to the French countryside with his post-production team to finish the project on his own terms. The movie ran over two hours and got mixed reviews; a shorter version was released in the U.S. by Drafthouse Films several months later.
That saga provides the...
“My brain was working in a different way,” he said over Zoom in a recent interview. “Each idea I had, no matter how important or small it was, became about life and death. Every little thing became super important. I felt like I was reaching ultimate creativity.”
He now looks back on the whole experience as a result of his delusional state. The movie ran long and over budget, angering Gondry’s investors. He escaped to the French countryside with his post-production team to finish the project on his own terms. The movie ran over two hours and got mixed reviews; a shorter version was released in the U.S. by Drafthouse Films several months later.
That saga provides the...
- 5/18/2023
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
France’s new Oscar committee has pre-selected five films to represent the country in the international feature film race.
The five films are Alice Diop’s “Saint-Omer,” which just won Venice’s Silver Lion and Lion of the Future; Eric Gravel’s drama “Full Time” starring “Call My Agent!” star Laure Calamy; Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret’s “The Worst Ones,” about the moral dilemma of shooting of a film with young non-professionals in a working-class town; Alice Winocour’s “Revoir Paris” starring Virginie Efira as a survivor of the Paris attacks in 2015; and Mia Hansen-Love’s “One Fine Morning” starring Lea Seydoux as a single mother who embarks on a romance with an emotionally unavailable man.
This year’s committee includes international sales agents Hengameh Panahi, Grégoire Melin, producers Philippe Rousselet (“Coda”), Didar Domehri (“Girls of the Sun”), and directors Jacques Audiard (“A Prophet”) and Michel Gondry (“L’ecûme des jours...
The five films are Alice Diop’s “Saint-Omer,” which just won Venice’s Silver Lion and Lion of the Future; Eric Gravel’s drama “Full Time” starring “Call My Agent!” star Laure Calamy; Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret’s “The Worst Ones,” about the moral dilemma of shooting of a film with young non-professionals in a working-class town; Alice Winocour’s “Revoir Paris” starring Virginie Efira as a survivor of the Paris attacks in 2015; and Mia Hansen-Love’s “One Fine Morning” starring Lea Seydoux as a single mother who embarks on a romance with an emotionally unavailable man.
This year’s committee includes international sales agents Hengameh Panahi, Grégoire Melin, producers Philippe Rousselet (“Coda”), Didar Domehri (“Girls of the Sun”), and directors Jacques Audiard (“A Prophet”) and Michel Gondry (“L’ecûme des jours...
- 9/15/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
It's been an awfully long time since Academy Award-winning writer/director Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind") made a full-length film. The last ones were "Green Hornet" in 2011, "Mood Indigo" in 2013, "Microbe & Gasoline" in 2015, and a lot of shorts and music videos since then, as well as the TV series "Kidding." Our long, dry spell is at an end though, according to Deadline. Gondry is reportedly working on a new film called "The Book of Solutions" ("Le Livre Des Solutions"), and he will be taking it to Cannes to sell with French company Kinology.
Pierre Niney ("Frantz") will star in...
The post The Book Of Solutions: Michel Gondry is Finally Making Another Movie appeared first on /Film.
Pierre Niney ("Frantz") will star in...
The post The Book Of Solutions: Michel Gondry is Finally Making Another Movie appeared first on /Film.
- 5/16/2022
- by Jenna Busch
- Slash Film
Memento International has boarded “Falcon Lake,” the feature debut of Quebec-born artist and actor Charlotte Le Bon which will world premiere at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
Penned by Le Bon, François Choquet and Karim Boucherka, “Falcon Lake” is adapted from Bastien Vivès’s graphic novel “A Sister.” The story follows Bastien, a 13-year old boy who moves with his family from Paris to a lakeside chalet in Quebec where he bonds in an unexpected way with Chloé, 16.
Joseph Engel and Sara Montpetit (“Maria Chapdelaine”) star in the film alongside Monia Chokri (“A Brother’s Love”), Arthur Igual, Karine Gonthier-Hyndman, Thomas Laperrière, Anthony Therrien, Pierre-Luc Lafontaine and Jeff Roop.
“When we are teenagers, our love life becomes the center of everything and it is easy to find ourselves in a turmoil of euphoria, fear and pain,” said Le Bon who has starred in films by Michel Gondry (“Mood Indigo”), Jalil Lespert (“Yves Saint...
Penned by Le Bon, François Choquet and Karim Boucherka, “Falcon Lake” is adapted from Bastien Vivès’s graphic novel “A Sister.” The story follows Bastien, a 13-year old boy who moves with his family from Paris to a lakeside chalet in Quebec where he bonds in an unexpected way with Chloé, 16.
Joseph Engel and Sara Montpetit (“Maria Chapdelaine”) star in the film alongside Monia Chokri (“A Brother’s Love”), Arthur Igual, Karine Gonthier-Hyndman, Thomas Laperrière, Anthony Therrien, Pierre-Luc Lafontaine and Jeff Roop.
“When we are teenagers, our love life becomes the center of everything and it is easy to find ourselves in a turmoil of euphoria, fear and pain,” said Le Bon who has starred in films by Michel Gondry (“Mood Indigo”), Jalil Lespert (“Yves Saint...
- 4/21/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Arrow Films have acquired U.S., Canada, U.K. and Ireland rights to Berlinale title “Incredible But True,” by French writer-director Quentin Dupieux (“Mandibles”).
The quirky comedy, which had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February, sees a husband and wife move into a suburban house of their dreams only to discover that a mysterious secret is hidden in the basement, which may change their lives forever.
The film stars Alain Chabat, Léa Drucker, Benoît Magimel and Anaïs Demoustier.
Reviewing the film at Berlin, Variety critic Jessica Kiang described the film as “a fun little trinket that unmistakably comes from Dupieux’s far-out perspective” and “charmingly eccentric.”
The film is an Atelier de Production production in co-production with Versus Production and Arte France Cinema and produced by Mathieu Verhaeghe and Thomas Verhaeghe.
Arrow Films, a U.K.-based premiere label for cult, art, horror and world cinema,...
The quirky comedy, which had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February, sees a husband and wife move into a suburban house of their dreams only to discover that a mysterious secret is hidden in the basement, which may change their lives forever.
The film stars Alain Chabat, Léa Drucker, Benoît Magimel and Anaïs Demoustier.
Reviewing the film at Berlin, Variety critic Jessica Kiang described the film as “a fun little trinket that unmistakably comes from Dupieux’s far-out perspective” and “charmingly eccentric.”
The film is an Atelier de Production production in co-production with Versus Production and Arte France Cinema and produced by Mathieu Verhaeghe and Thomas Verhaeghe.
Arrow Films, a U.K.-based premiere label for cult, art, horror and world cinema,...
- 4/5/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
“Eiffel,” “Around the World in 80 Days” and “The Last Duel” were among the winners at the Digital Creation Genie Awards announced at an awards ceremony held Wednesday in the Centre des Arts in Enghien-les-Bains, Paris. The awards were held as part of the 8th edition of Pids Enghien, which runs Jan. 26-29.
Best visual effects for a feature film was awarded to VFX supervisor Olivier Cauwet and VFX producer Justine Paynat-Sautivet of Pierre Buffin’s Paris-based visual effects powerhouse Buf for their work on “Eiffel,” directed by Martin Bourboulon.
Starring Romain Duris (“Mood Indigo”) and Emma Mackey (“Sex Education”), the visually spectacular historic epic about Gustave Eiffel is co-produced and repped by Pathé, which distributed it in France, garnering more than 1 million admissions. Blue Fox Entertainment has nabbed U.S. rights. Buf has also recently provided VFX work on “The Matrix Resurrections,” and the TV series “Foundation” and “The Nevers.
Best visual effects for a feature film was awarded to VFX supervisor Olivier Cauwet and VFX producer Justine Paynat-Sautivet of Pierre Buffin’s Paris-based visual effects powerhouse Buf for their work on “Eiffel,” directed by Martin Bourboulon.
Starring Romain Duris (“Mood Indigo”) and Emma Mackey (“Sex Education”), the visually spectacular historic epic about Gustave Eiffel is co-produced and repped by Pathé, which distributed it in France, garnering more than 1 million admissions. Blue Fox Entertainment has nabbed U.S. rights. Buf has also recently provided VFX work on “The Matrix Resurrections,” and the TV series “Foundation” and “The Nevers.
- 1/27/2022
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
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.
Continue reading Michel Gondry Directs The Newest Chemical Brothers Music Video Featuring Some Trippy Dancing at The Playlist.
- 2/12/2019
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
We talk to one-of-a-kind filmmaker Michel Gondry about his new film Mood Indigo, Eternal Sunshine, Philip K Dick adaptation Ubik and more...
Interview
Over the period of 20-or-so years, Michel Gondry has steadily built up a voluminous and relentlessly individual body of work, ranging from commercials and experimental short films to full-length features. Although Eternal Sunshine Of A Spotless Mind is arguably Gondry’s best-known and most acclaimed work, he's also made such films as Be Kind, Rewind, The Science Of Sleep, his quirky collaboration with Noam Chomsky, Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy?, and The Green Hornet, while flawed, has much to enjoy in it.
Mood Indigo is Gondry’s latest feature, and once again, it’s hand-crafted, warm and decidedly dreamlike. Based on the novel L'Écume des jours by Boris Vian, it’s about a young man named Colin (Romain Duris) who falls in love with a...
Interview
Over the period of 20-or-so years, Michel Gondry has steadily built up a voluminous and relentlessly individual body of work, ranging from commercials and experimental short films to full-length features. Although Eternal Sunshine Of A Spotless Mind is arguably Gondry’s best-known and most acclaimed work, he's also made such films as Be Kind, Rewind, The Science Of Sleep, his quirky collaboration with Noam Chomsky, Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy?, and The Green Hornet, while flawed, has much to enjoy in it.
Mood Indigo is Gondry’s latest feature, and once again, it’s hand-crafted, warm and decidedly dreamlike. Based on the novel L'Écume des jours by Boris Vian, it’s about a young man named Colin (Romain Duris) who falls in love with a...
- 7/25/2014
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Plot: When a lonely - yet extremely wealthy - inventor discovers the love of his life they exchange wedding vows in hopes to share their life together. However, when she is diagnosed with a rare illness he discovers he must give up everything he has to try and save her. Review: Michel Gondry has a style all his own. It is one that is childlike, yet deeply romantic and eccentric. His latest feature Mood Indigo . based on the novel "L'écume des jours" by Boris Vian . is a whimsical...
- 7/18/2014
- by JimmyO
- JoBlo.com
Speaking from a very personal standpoint, this writer must admit that Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s 2001 ode to Paris and everything beautiful in life, “Amelie,” was the film that completely changed his view of what cinema could be. Therefore, it is an absolute favorite. The reason why that film is so outstanding is due in part to an unforgettable performance by one of most important and versatile French actresses working today, Audrey Tautou. In that film, her earnest desire to manufacture happiness out of beautiful memories and second chances rings with heartwarming innocence.
After playing an array of incredibly diverse women in less magical films, Tautou returns to the fantasy world in full form with Michel Gondry’s visually astonishing “Mood Indigo,” based on the novel L'écume des jours. As Chloe, she plays opposite another French star Romain Duris ("Populaire","Russian Dolls"), in a love story that thrives on gorgeous surreal imagery and the actors’ willingness to be immersed in the endless roads of imagination. Uniting Gondry’s unparalleled keen eye for creating dream-like realms and Audrey Tautou’s special talent to shine with luminous honesty in every scene, “Mood Indigo” is bound to mesmerize American audiences.
The delightful French actress spoke to us from Paris about Michel Gondry’s singular methods, the challenges of working in such a peculiar film, and the power of love stories.
Carlos Aguilar: How did you get involved in this project? Where you originally a fan of the novel or of Michel Gondry's films?
Audrey Tautou: I read the novel when I was a teenager. I knew the story and I love it since then. I was very happy, and very joyous, about the way Michel Gondry would make this dream come true. When I say dream I’m talking about this very surreal story.
Aguilar: How difficult is it for you to play a character like this in a fantasy in comparison to roles more grounded on reality?
Audrey Tautou: Everything revolving around my character such as the set design, the accessories, and everything that we shot was very helpful. The only thing that was very new for me was to shoot with a director who is unpredictable. You don’t know where the camera is going. It is very difficult to act without preparing myself, and I think that’s what he wanted. He wanted us to forget the camera, and not to act composed. Sometimes what happened on the set was unplanned. For example, we were shooting a scene and suddenly about 20 children came into the street close to the set, and he [Michel Gondry] asked them to be in the scene and we had to play with them.
Everything that was happening around the set was a source of inspiration for Michel. He wanted everything and everybody to be always moving. His energy was great and very new for me. I would say that for the first time I had no idea what I had done with Chloe in my interpretation. I had no idea if I had done a great scene or if it was bad because I couldn’t look at myself.
Aguilar: Was there any green screen work involved? Does this make it more challenging than having everything physically present?
Audrey Tautou: There was no green screen involved. That was also what was so special while shooting, because today nobody shoots like this anymore. Every object or special effect was done in reality by a team of animators who were filming them second by second on set. It was great because we had everything in front of our eyes and in our hands. Everything was physically there!
When we did the wedding in the aquarium, we were really underwater in an aquarium. When we took trip and had little shopping session flying on the “cloud,” we were really inside this little cloud up in the air, it was a little scary [Laughs].
Aguilar: How was working with Romain Duris, who travels into this strange world with you?
Audrey Tautou: I love working with Romain, I’ve known him for a few years now because we have done two movies together before. He is a great actor, very talented. It is a great pleasure to work with him because you can feel that he really listens to you and he reacts to a lot of sensitivities. It is always great to work with talented actors.
Aguilar: Besides all the whimsical elements, "Mood Indigo" is essentially a love story, a very unique love story. What do you think makes it so special?
Audrey Tautou: It’s a unique and special love story because Colin and Chloe share a very pure love, an absolute love. Their love makes you think nothing wrong can happen to them. What happens to them is really unfair, but it is also very touching and very romantic. For me this love story is on pair with “Romeo & Juliet”, it is a very different movie, but it is still a love story. There is something very moving and powerful about something dark coming and corrupting a very pure heart.
Aguilar: When you read the screenplay was it clear that color would be such as important part of the director’s vision?
Audrey Tautou: He had told me he had this idea for the color to turn into black & white. It was a nice metaphor that he had, which you couldn’t have when you read the book. It is exactly the same idea, and it is in exactly the same spirit as what you have in the story, but with all the decorations and the set design becoming dirty and darker, full of this vegetation in the room.
This comes from that idea about the colors. Then to extent this metaphor to the realm of cinema, the images are used to explore it further. It goes even deeper into the metaphor about how this love is dying, Chloe is dying, everything is dying and even the color of the film is starting to die to become black and white, and sad. I think that’s a great approach.
Aguilar: Paris is depicted in a magical way in many films, among there are some that you've acted in such as Jeunet's "Amelie" and, of course, "Mood Indigo." What is so magical about a city like Paris?
Audrey Tautou: What makes the city magical is the talent of the directors and the way they can elicit a lot of poetry from this city. Of course, Paris has a great aura of its own, but it is also the way they film it that adds poetry, I’d say. This allows Paris to be even prettier, more poetic, and more romantic. There are so many movies that are shot in Paris, but I really think it is about Jean Pierre Jeunet and Michel Gondry's universes, styles and sensitivity.
Aguilar: What would you say is the biggest lesson you learned from working with Michel Gondry?
Audrey Tautou: For me the biggest lesson was not to try to control anything and jus to let myself float on the ocean of his ideas. Not to try to resist, just follow him no questions asked.
Aguilar: This is such a beautifully unique film, but what do you think people will love about "Mood Indigo"?
Audrey Tautou: I think it is romantic, and lovely, and it is something you have never seen before. There are some many ideas, fantasy, and poetry. It’s not a movie you can say “Oh I saw this movie and it is the same thing I’ve seen already a hundred times.” I think there is something very unique, special, and it is a real work of art by Michel. It is unconventional, and it brings fantasy into our world and I think that’s nice. I don’t think we have enough of that.
Aguilar: Does Audrey Tautou prefer reality or fantasy?
Audrey Tautou: Ooh la la [Laughs], I think I prefer the second one. I’ve done a few movies that are in this type of “family.” They take you away from the daily routine. I like fantasy, and I like great heroines.
"Mood Indigo" opens Friday July 18th in La (Nuart Theater) and NY (Landmark Sunshine Cinema)...
After playing an array of incredibly diverse women in less magical films, Tautou returns to the fantasy world in full form with Michel Gondry’s visually astonishing “Mood Indigo,” based on the novel L'écume des jours. As Chloe, she plays opposite another French star Romain Duris ("Populaire","Russian Dolls"), in a love story that thrives on gorgeous surreal imagery and the actors’ willingness to be immersed in the endless roads of imagination. Uniting Gondry’s unparalleled keen eye for creating dream-like realms and Audrey Tautou’s special talent to shine with luminous honesty in every scene, “Mood Indigo” is bound to mesmerize American audiences.
The delightful French actress spoke to us from Paris about Michel Gondry’s singular methods, the challenges of working in such a peculiar film, and the power of love stories.
Carlos Aguilar: How did you get involved in this project? Where you originally a fan of the novel or of Michel Gondry's films?
Audrey Tautou: I read the novel when I was a teenager. I knew the story and I love it since then. I was very happy, and very joyous, about the way Michel Gondry would make this dream come true. When I say dream I’m talking about this very surreal story.
Aguilar: How difficult is it for you to play a character like this in a fantasy in comparison to roles more grounded on reality?
Audrey Tautou: Everything revolving around my character such as the set design, the accessories, and everything that we shot was very helpful. The only thing that was very new for me was to shoot with a director who is unpredictable. You don’t know where the camera is going. It is very difficult to act without preparing myself, and I think that’s what he wanted. He wanted us to forget the camera, and not to act composed. Sometimes what happened on the set was unplanned. For example, we were shooting a scene and suddenly about 20 children came into the street close to the set, and he [Michel Gondry] asked them to be in the scene and we had to play with them.
Everything that was happening around the set was a source of inspiration for Michel. He wanted everything and everybody to be always moving. His energy was great and very new for me. I would say that for the first time I had no idea what I had done with Chloe in my interpretation. I had no idea if I had done a great scene or if it was bad because I couldn’t look at myself.
Aguilar: Was there any green screen work involved? Does this make it more challenging than having everything physically present?
Audrey Tautou: There was no green screen involved. That was also what was so special while shooting, because today nobody shoots like this anymore. Every object or special effect was done in reality by a team of animators who were filming them second by second on set. It was great because we had everything in front of our eyes and in our hands. Everything was physically there!
When we did the wedding in the aquarium, we were really underwater in an aquarium. When we took trip and had little shopping session flying on the “cloud,” we were really inside this little cloud up in the air, it was a little scary [Laughs].
Aguilar: How was working with Romain Duris, who travels into this strange world with you?
Audrey Tautou: I love working with Romain, I’ve known him for a few years now because we have done two movies together before. He is a great actor, very talented. It is a great pleasure to work with him because you can feel that he really listens to you and he reacts to a lot of sensitivities. It is always great to work with talented actors.
Aguilar: Besides all the whimsical elements, "Mood Indigo" is essentially a love story, a very unique love story. What do you think makes it so special?
Audrey Tautou: It’s a unique and special love story because Colin and Chloe share a very pure love, an absolute love. Their love makes you think nothing wrong can happen to them. What happens to them is really unfair, but it is also very touching and very romantic. For me this love story is on pair with “Romeo & Juliet”, it is a very different movie, but it is still a love story. There is something very moving and powerful about something dark coming and corrupting a very pure heart.
Aguilar: When you read the screenplay was it clear that color would be such as important part of the director’s vision?
Audrey Tautou: He had told me he had this idea for the color to turn into black & white. It was a nice metaphor that he had, which you couldn’t have when you read the book. It is exactly the same idea, and it is in exactly the same spirit as what you have in the story, but with all the decorations and the set design becoming dirty and darker, full of this vegetation in the room.
This comes from that idea about the colors. Then to extent this metaphor to the realm of cinema, the images are used to explore it further. It goes even deeper into the metaphor about how this love is dying, Chloe is dying, everything is dying and even the color of the film is starting to die to become black and white, and sad. I think that’s a great approach.
Aguilar: Paris is depicted in a magical way in many films, among there are some that you've acted in such as Jeunet's "Amelie" and, of course, "Mood Indigo." What is so magical about a city like Paris?
Audrey Tautou: What makes the city magical is the talent of the directors and the way they can elicit a lot of poetry from this city. Of course, Paris has a great aura of its own, but it is also the way they film it that adds poetry, I’d say. This allows Paris to be even prettier, more poetic, and more romantic. There are so many movies that are shot in Paris, but I really think it is about Jean Pierre Jeunet and Michel Gondry's universes, styles and sensitivity.
Aguilar: What would you say is the biggest lesson you learned from working with Michel Gondry?
Audrey Tautou: For me the biggest lesson was not to try to control anything and jus to let myself float on the ocean of his ideas. Not to try to resist, just follow him no questions asked.
Aguilar: This is such a beautifully unique film, but what do you think people will love about "Mood Indigo"?
Audrey Tautou: I think it is romantic, and lovely, and it is something you have never seen before. There are some many ideas, fantasy, and poetry. It’s not a movie you can say “Oh I saw this movie and it is the same thing I’ve seen already a hundred times.” I think there is something very unique, special, and it is a real work of art by Michel. It is unconventional, and it brings fantasy into our world and I think that’s nice. I don’t think we have enough of that.
Aguilar: Does Audrey Tautou prefer reality or fantasy?
Audrey Tautou: Ooh la la [Laughs], I think I prefer the second one. I’ve done a few movies that are in this type of “family.” They take you away from the daily routine. I like fantasy, and I like great heroines.
"Mood Indigo" opens Friday July 18th in La (Nuart Theater) and NY (Landmark Sunshine Cinema)...
- 7/17/2014
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
With a new, approved-by-the-director edit hitting New York and Los Angeles on July 18th, courtesy of Drafthouse Films, have a look at this clip from Michel Gondry’s “Mood Indigo.” Audrey Tautou and Romain Duris headline the French-language romance as two whimsical types whose love life is interrupted when she discovers a water lily has begun growing in her lungs. The peek is short but sweet -- “a bit quick,” as its female lead would say -- and briefly hints at some of the old energy its imaginative director has arguably been missing in recent efforts. Judging by this, another provided clip, and its three César nominations, there’s reason to hope the “Eternal Sunshine” director is on a good track again. Reviews so far are divisive, but promising. Watch the clip below (via Vulture):...
- 7/10/2014
- by Nick Newman
- Thompson on Hollywood
Karlovy Vary – The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival kicked off Friday with a gala screening of L’Ecume des jours (Mood Indigo). Co-star Audrey Tautou had to pull out of the red carpet event, but Oscar-winning director Michel Gondry raised the star wattage as Central Europe’s biggest film festival got underway, just before John Travolta arrives in the Bohemian spa town to introduce Mark Steven Johnson’s Killing Season. Killing Season is perfect for Karlovy Vary as the picture sees Travolta and co-star Robert De Niro play veterans of the Bosnian war looking to settle scores after they
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- 6/28/2013
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo, starring Audrey Tatou, is to open the 48th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
The French screenwriter and director behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep, will present his latest film at the gala opening ceremony on June 28.
The adaptation of Boris Vian’s novel, about a woman who suffers from an unusual illness caused by a flower growing in her lungs, was produced by StudioCanal in association with Brio Films. It opened in France at the end of April.
Jiri Bartoska, Kviff president, said: “Michel Gondry is one of the most original filmmakers on the international scene.
“Like his contemporaries – Spike Jonze or David Fincher – he steers clear of the straightforward, mainstream route; he aims to present his audiences with a fresh view of the world.
“Gondry’s works have regularly featured on the Karlovy Vary programme, thus it is a great honour for the Festival to be able...
The French screenwriter and director behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep, will present his latest film at the gala opening ceremony on June 28.
The adaptation of Boris Vian’s novel, about a woman who suffers from an unusual illness caused by a flower growing in her lungs, was produced by StudioCanal in association with Brio Films. It opened in France at the end of April.
Jiri Bartoska, Kviff president, said: “Michel Gondry is one of the most original filmmakers on the international scene.
“Like his contemporaries – Spike Jonze or David Fincher – he steers clear of the straightforward, mainstream route; he aims to present his audiences with a fresh view of the world.
“Gondry’s works have regularly featured on the Karlovy Vary programme, thus it is a great honour for the Festival to be able...
- 6/4/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
When we caught up with French actress Léa Seydoux at the Berlin Film Festival, we asked about her about Michel Gondry's upcoming "The Foam Of Days" (also recently called "Mood Indigo") which she had been linked to at the beginning of the year. "The thing is, that I don't really know yet [about that]...I have another project..." she teased, without saying much more. But indeed, it appears that scheduling has forced her out of the film.
Earlier this week, Allocine announced that "The Foam Of Days" would begin lensing on April 16th with fifteen weeks of production scheduled. But yesterday, came a couple interesting updates. Firstly, newcomer Charlotte Le Bon has replaced Lea Seydoux in the film. The actress only has a couple of film roles to her name, most notably that of Ophelia in the Euro franchise pic "Astérix et Obélix: On Her Majesty's Secret Service." There is more casting yet to come,...
Earlier this week, Allocine announced that "The Foam Of Days" would begin lensing on April 16th with fifteen weeks of production scheduled. But yesterday, came a couple interesting updates. Firstly, newcomer Charlotte Le Bon has replaced Lea Seydoux in the film. The actress only has a couple of film roles to her name, most notably that of Ophelia in the Euro franchise pic "Astérix et Obélix: On Her Majesty's Secret Service." There is more casting yet to come,...
- 3/10/2012
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Romain Duris, best known on these shores for The Beat My Heart Skipped and Heartbreaker, will join Audrey Tautou in Michel Gondry's next French language film L'Ecume Des Jours. Gondry and Tautou have been attached to the project for a few months now, but with Duris' arrival on the scene it has morphed into a triple threat of Gallic A-list talent. Expected to go ahead of cameras early next year, L'Ecume Des Jours is based on the 1947 novel by Boris Vian (that title is translated as Froth On The Daydream, with sounds like a perfect match for...
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- 8/28/2011
- by Matt Maytum
- TotalFilm
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