Love Letter to a Legend: Watch “Michel Gondry, Do It Yourself”
“Michel Gondry, Do It Yourself” is a love letter of a documentary by Gondry’s biggest fan, director François Nemeta. Someone who was so inspired after seeing an Oui Oui video on television growing up, that he later attended a Oui Oui show and asked if he could film a music video for them… The problem with that is the drummer of the band was Michel Gondry, who also served as the director of all of Oui Oui’s videos. François Nemeta and Michel Gondry formed a bond from that point onwards, with Nemeta working as Gondry’s assistant. This leads to a personal connection in this documentary and a level of trust viewers wouldn’t receive from an outside director.
The benefit of having Nemeta as the director (and narrator) is the great behind the scenes footage he filmed during the production of Gondry’s legendary videos, in particular Daft Punk’s “Around the World,” where you can see firsthand the amount of hard work that had to be done, on a low budget, to make one of the defining music videos of my lifetime. There are also some new interviews with artists that Gondry worked with, including Jack White, Beck, and Kylie Minogue (your life won’t be complete until you see Kylie rave about The Chemical Brothers’ “Star Guitar” video or “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”), as well as insight from Gondry’s family, many of whom he works with on his artistic endeavours. I would also hate to neglect to mention the new interview with Jon Brion, who is seen playing his legendary “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” score, which is a joy, as Brion rarely gives public appearances and interviews.
The most compelling section of the documentary handles the friendly rivalry between Gondry and Spike Jonze — the Magic Johnson and Larry Bird of ’90s music video-turned-movie directors. The two of them are interviewed in the same room and are constantly needling each other, with Jonze in classic jackass-prankster form. As someone who grew up revering Jonze and Gondry (the Director’s Label series of DVDs collecting their works were seminal objects of fascination for me), it almost made me wish the entire documentary was solely centered on Jonze vs. Gondry. This is especially true when viewers see Gondry is still annoyed about how the one Bjork video Jonze made with her (“It’s Oh So Quiet”) was the most successful video Bjork ever made, in contrast to the eight videos Gondry made with her (though Spike was also the one who introduced Gondry to screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, leading to the Oscar-winning “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” so I think Jonze paid it forward and then some).
“Michel Gondry, Do It Yourself” is a slight but charming look at one of the most important filmmakers of my lifetime. In the final portion, when we get into Gondry’s influence (like how in 2019 a college in France was named after him, as well as the launch of The Amateur Film Factory), viewers see how he is now passing along his knowledge to birth the next generation of Do It Yourself filmmakers.
The Alberta premiere of “Michel Gondry, Do It Yourself” at CUFF.docs takes place on Thursday, November 21, 2024. Tickets are available for purchase at www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org.