Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry (born 8 May 1963) is a French filmmaker noted for his inventive visual style and distinctive manipulation of mise en scène. Along with Charlie Kaufman, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as one of the writers of the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which he also directed.

His other films include the music documentary Dave Chappelle's Block Party (2005), the surrealistic science fantasy comedy The Science of Sleep (2006), the comedy Be Kind Rewind (2008), the superhero comedy The Green Hornet (2011), the drama The We and the I (2012), and the romantic science fantasy tragedy Mood Indigo (2013).

He has directed numerous music videos, including Björk's "Human Behaviour" in 1993 and "Bachelorette" in 1997, both of which earned him nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Music Video. Gondry is also a record producer, most notably producing several tracks for American rapper and illustrator MC Paul Barman on his album Thought Balloon Mushroom Cloud (2009).

Early life
Gondry was born in Versailles. He is the grandson of inventor Constant Martin.

Career
Gondry's vision and career began with his emphasis on emotion. Much of his inspiration, he says, came from the film Le voyage en ballon. He stated: "When I watch this movie, I dream I'm flying and then I do stories where people are flying. I think it's directly influencing."

His career as a filmmaker began with creating music videos for the French rock band Oui Oui, in which he also served as a drummer. The style of his videos for Oui Oui caught the attention of music artist Björk, who asked him to direct the video for her song "Human Behaviour". The collaboration proved long-lasting, with Gondry directing a total of eight music videos for Björk.

Other artists who have collaborated with Gondry on more than one occasion include Daft Punk, the White Stripes, the Chemical Brothers, the Vines, Steriogram, Radiohead, and Beck. Gondry's video for Lucas Secon's "Lucas with the Lid Off" was nominated in the Best Music Video (short form) category at the 37th Grammy Awards, (one of two Gondry music videos nominated that year along with Sinéad O'Connor's "Fire on Babylon").

Gondry has also created numerous television commercials. He pioneered the "bullet time" technique later adapted in The Matrix in the 1996 "Smarienberg" commercial for Smirnoff vodka, as well as directing a trio of inventive holiday-themed advertisements for clothing retailer Gap.

Gondry, along with directors Spike Jonze and David Fincher, is representative of the influx of music video directors into feature film. Gondry made his feature film debut in 2001 with Human Nature, garnering mixed reviews. His second film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (also his second collaboration with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman), was released in 2004 and received very favorable reviews, becoming one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year.

Eternal Sunshine utilizes many of the image manipulation techniques that Gondry had experimented with in his music videos. Gondry won an Academy Award alongside Kaufman and Pierre Bismuth for the screenplay of Eternal Sunshine. The style of Gondry's music videos often relies on videography and camera tricks which play with frames of reference.

Gondry also directed the musical documentary Dave Chappelle's Block Party (2006) which followed comedian Dave Chappelle as he attempted to hold a large, free concert in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. His following film, The Science of Sleep, hit theaters in September 2006. This film stars Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, and marked a return to the fantastical, surreal techniques he employed in Eternal Sunshine.

According to the Guinness World Records 2004, Gondry's Levi's 501 Jeans "Drugstore" spot holds the record for "Most awards won by a TV commercial". The commercial was never aired in North America because of the suggestive content involving purchasing latex condoms.

He was asked by French comic duet Éric and Ramzy to direct Seuls Two, but declined; by his suggestion, Éric and Ramzy subsequently asked Mr Oizo to direct another movie, Steak.

In September 2006, Gondry made his debut as an installation artist at Deitch Projects in New York City's SoHo gallery district. The show, called "The Science of Sleep: An Exhibition of Sculpture and Pathological Creepy Little Gifts" featured props from his film, The Science of Sleep, as well as film clips and a selection of gifts that the artist had given to women he was interested in, many of them former or current collaborators, Karen Baird, Kishu Chand, Dorothy Barrick and Lauri Faggioni.

A leitmotif of the film is a 'Disastrology' calendar; Gondry commissioned the painter Baptiste Ibar to draw harrowing images of natural and human disasters.

Gondry was an Artist in Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005 and 2006. Later directing the music video for the Paul McCartney song "Dance Tonight", in which Gondry makes a cameo appearance.

Gondry directed "Unnatural Love", the fifth episode in season two of HBO's Flight of the Conchords. Interior Design, one third of the 2008 anthology film Tokyo!, was next for Gondry. Interior Design was based on the comic book "Cecil and Jordan in New York" by Gabrielle Bell but was adapted from New York City to Tokyo for the film.

In 2009, The Thorn in the Heart, another feature documentary, was released, it is about Michel's aunt Suzette and her son Jean-Yves. In 2011, Gondry directed The Green Hornet, a superhero film by Sony starring Seth Rogen, Jay Chou and Christoph Waltz; Rogen co-wrote the script. In 2011, he was the head of the jury for the short film competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

His film The We and the I was selected to be screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

On 3 January 2013, Gondry released his latest animated short Haircut Mouse on his official Vimeo channel. In February 2013, Gondry released a hand-drawn animated documentary on famed linguist Noam Chomsky, Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?.

In April 2013, his Mood Indigo was released, based upon Boris Vian's 1947 novel L'Écume des Jours.

In 2014, he was selected as a member of the jury for the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. Also in 2014, Gondry produced the video for Metronomy's single "Love Letters", taken from the album of the same name.

In 2015 his feature film Microbe & Gasoline was released, a smaller scale endeavour after the troubled production of Mood Indigo. The latter also served as inspiration for 2023's The Book of Solutions.

Personal life
His brother Olivier "Twist" Gondry is also a television commercial and music video director creating videos for bands such as The Stills, Hot Hot Heat, Daft Punk and The Vines.

He has a son.

Other releases

 * The Work of Director Michel Gondry (2003)
 * Michel Gondry 2: More Videos (Before and After DVD 1) (2009)

Music videos
• "Dô, l'enfant d'eau" – Jean-Luc Lahaye (1988)

• "Bolide" – Oui Oui (1988)

• "Un Joyeux Noël" – Oui Oui (1988)

• "Junior Et Sa Voix D'Or" – Oui Oui (1988)

• "Queen for a Day" – The Life of Riley (1989) (unreleased)

• "Tu rimes avec mon coeur" – Original MC (1989)

• "Les Cailloux" – Oui Oui (1989)

• "Il y a ceux" – l'Affaire Louis Trio (1989)

• "Ma Maison" – Oui Oui (1990)

• "Dad, laisse-moi conduire la Cad" – Peter & the Electro Kitsch Band (1991)

• "La normalité" – Les Objets (1991)

• "Sarah" – Les Objets (1991)

• "Two Worlds Collide" – Inspiral Carpets (1992)

• "Close but No Cigar" – Thomas Dolby (1992)

• "Paradoxal Système" – Laurent Voulzy (1992)

• "La Ville" – Oui Oui (1992)

• "How the West Was Won" – Energy Orchard (1992)

• "Les Voyages Immobiles" – Etienne Daho (1992)

• "Blow Me Down" – Mark Curry (1992)

• "Comme un ange (qui pleure)" – Les Wampas (1992)

• "This Is it (Your Soul)" – Hothouse Flowers (1993)

• "It's Too Real (Big Scary Animal)" – Belinda Carlisle (1993)

• "Human Behaviour" – Björk (1993)

• "Believe" – Lenny Kravitz (1993)

• "She Kissed Me" – Terence Trent D'Arby (1993)

• "Voila, Voila, Qu'ça r'Commence" – Rachid Taha (1993)

• "La main parisienne" – Malcolm McLaren, featuring Amina Annabi (1993) (unreleased)

• "Je Danse Le Mia" – IAM (1993)

• "Snowbound" – Donald Fagen (1993)

• "La Tour de Pise" – Jean François Coen (1993)

• "Hou! Mamma Mia" – Les Négresses Vertes (1993)

• "Come on sur mon scoot" – Peter & the Electro Kitsch Band (1993)

• "Les Jupes" – Robert (1992)

• "Fire on Babylon" – Sinéad O'Connor (1994)

• "Lucas with the Lid Off" – Lucas (1994)

• "Little Star" – Stina Nordenstam (1994)

• "Like a Rolling Stone" – The Rolling Stones (1995)

• "Isobel" – Björk (1995)

• "Protection" – Massive Attack (1995)

• "High Head Blues" – Black Crowes (1995)

• "Army of Me" – Björk (1995)

• "Sugar Water" – Cibo Matto (1996)

• "Hyper-Ballad" – Björk (1996)

• "Bachelorette" – Björk (1997)

• "Deadweight" – Beck (1997)

• "Jóga" – Björk (1997)

• "Everlong" – Foo Fighters (1997)

• "A Change Would Do You Good" – Sheryl Crow (1997)

• "Around the World" – Daft Punk (1997)

• "Feel It" – Neneh Cherry (1997)

• "Gimme Shelter" – The Rolling Stones (1998)

• "Another One Bites the Dust" – Wyclef Jean (1998)

• "Music Sounds Better with You" – Stardust (1998)

• "Let Forever Be" – The Chemical Brothers (1999)

• "Knives Out" – Radiohead (2001)

• "Mad World" – Michael Andrews and Gary Jules (2001)

• "Come into My World" – Kylie Minogue (2002)

• "A l'envers à l'endroit" – Noir Désir (2002)

• "No One Knows" – Queens of the Stone Age (2002) (co-directed with Dean Karr)

• "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" – The White Stripes (2002)

• "Fell in Love with a Girl" – The White Stripes (2002)

• "Star Guitar" – The Chemical Brothers (2002)

• "The Hardest Button to Button" – The White Stripes (2003)

• "Behind" – Lacquer (2003)

• "Light & Day" (movie version) – The Polyphonic Spree (2004)

• "Winning Days" – The Vines (2004)

• "Mad World" (Donnie Darko soundtrack version) – Gary Jules (2004)

• "Ride" – The Vines (2004)

• "Walkie Talkie Man" – Steriogram (2004)

• "I Wonder" – The Willowz (2004)

• "A Ribbon" – Devendra Banhart  (2004)

• "Heard 'Em Say" (U.S. Version) – Kanye West (2005)

• "The Denial Twist" – The White Stripes (2005)

• "Cellphone's Dead" – Beck (2006)

• "Anysound" – The Vines (2006)

• "King of the Game" – Cody ChesnuTT (2006)

• "Dance Tonight" – Paul McCartney (2007)

• "Limitless Undying Love" – Sergio Hiram (2007)

• "In Love with a Tornado" – Jihae (2007)

• "Declare Independence" – Björk (2007)

• "Soleil du Soir" – Dick Annegarn (2008)

• "Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor" & "Carol Brown" (unofficial videos) – Flight of the Conchords (2009)

• "Open Your Heart" – Mia Doi Todd (2010)

• "Crystalline" – Björk (2011)

• "How Are You Doing?" – The Living Sisters (2011)

• "Love Letters" – Metronomy (2014)

• "Go" – The Chemical Brothers (2015)

• "City Lights" – The White Stripes (2016)

• "Got to Keep On" – The Chemical Brothers (2019)

• "Grand petit con" – -M- (2019)

• "Model Village" – IDLES (2020)

• "Chain Reactionary" – Adanowsky, Beck (2023)

Advertisements
• Adidas Aftershave – Released From Work

• Air France – Le Nuage

• Air France – Le Passage

• Altice – Feel the Connection

• AMD K6-2 – Flatzone

• AT&T Business – Gelato

• Bacardi – We Are the Night

• BMW – Pure Drive

• Chobani – Fruit Symphony

• Coca-Cola – Snowboarder

• Nespresso – The Boutique

• Diet Coke – Tingle, Bounce

• Électricité de France – Selects

• Earthlink – Privacy

• FedEx – Dreams

• Fiat – Lancia Y10

• Fox Sports Network – Walking the Dog

• Fox Sports Network – Catching the Bus

• Fox Sports Network – Fish Tossing

• Fox Sports Network – Father Daughter

• GAP – That's Holiday

• Gatorade Propel Fitness Water – Drip

• Gillette – Training Tracks

• Guerlain – L'homme idéal

• Heineken – Debut

• HP – Michel Gondry

• HP – Get Real

• John Lewis – Moz the Monster

• Levi's – Bellybutton

• Levi's – Drugstore

• Levi's – Mermaids

• Levi's – Swap

• Motorola – Razr2

• NatWest – Zoom

• Nike – Basketball campaign (five ads)

• Nike – I Can Play

• Nike – Leo

• Nike – The Long, Long Run

• Pandora – Sounds Like You

• Polaroid – Resignation / Living Moments

• Smirnoff – Smarienberg

• Volvo – I Said Volvo