Michel Gondry: Last News

Sporting a grey WGA-branded “strike” t-shirt, writer-director Charlie Kaufman led a packed-out masterclass this morning in the main hall of the Bosnian Cultural Center at the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Veteran indie producer Ted Hope opened Locarno’s industry symposium Thursday afternoon with a provocative keynote during which he declared: “The indie film system is fucked.”

Writer-director Charlie Kaufman is set to be honored with the Sarajevo Film Festival’s career achievement Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award during the festival’s upcoming 29th edition.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Screenwriter and director Charlie Kaufman will receive the honorary Heart of Sarajevo award at the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival, in recognition of his contribution to the art of filmmaking. The festival will also hold an open-air screening of 2002’s “Adaptation,” which was written by Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze.

The Chemical Brothers have released a new single ‘Live Again’, and shared details of their first book Paused In Cosmic Reflection.Announced earlier today (June 28), the single is described as the “perfect Chemical Brothers track”, and harnesses the same signature elements the group captured in fan favourites including ‘Hey Boy Hey Girl’ and ‘Galvanise’.“‘Live Again’ begins simply with a descending, filtered riff and a pair of contrasting vocal lines – one razor spliced to pieces and reconstructed, the other an angel’s sigh,” reads the press description of the single. “And then it all kicks off.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic When we meet Ben Grady (Grant Rosenmeyer), he can barely lift himself out of the living room chair. By the end of this lo-fi indie drama, he’s soaring among the clouds like some kind of schlubby superhero — or one of those kids from “Chronicle” — having mastered what “The Secret Art of Human Flight” calls … well, you heard the title. Maybe not “mastered” exactly, but Ben’s finally getting the hang of it, and that’s exhilarating, since flying couldn’t be farther from the state we found him in earlier, wallowing in melancholy after the unexpected death of his wife Sarah (Reina Hardesty). As presented by director H.P. Mendoza, Ben and Sarah were practically the cutest couple you could imagine. They published children’s books together and made video diaries for their followers on TikTok, which Ben insisted they turn into a kind of insurance policy so that each spouse would have something to watch after the other one passed away. Sarah played along, to a point, though neither party was prepared for her to die all of a sudden at age 31. Now Ben is left with his grief, a hard drive full of videos and not much idea how to move on in his life … until he decides that teaching himself to fly will be his path to healing.

Prior to the release of his latest film, “The Book of Solutions,” it had been eight years since we’ve seen a feature from Michel Gondry. However, it appears the filmmaker isn’t going to wait that long before his next film.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic 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.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The colorful world of Michel Gondry, the Oscar-winning writer-director of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” is the subject of an upcoming feature documentary represented worldwide by Reservoir Docs. Directed by François Nemeta, “Michel Gondry: Do it Yourself” is an 80-minute documentary shedding light on Gondry’s “inventive and unusual creative process,” from his first video clips to the shooting of his latest movie “The Book of Solutions” which recently opened at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight. “Michel Gondry: Do it Yourself” is produced by Olivier de Bannes at O2B Films, and Robin Acard at The Red Ceiling, and is co-produced by ARTE France.

At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, filmmaker Michel Gondry debuted his first feature film since 2015’s “Microbe & Gasoline,” titled “The Book of Solutions.” So far, the film has earned rave reviews (including our own) and looks to be one of Gondry’s most vital films in quite some time.

Michel Gondry’s new film “The Book of Solutions,” playing in Directors’ Fortnight at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, centers on the torturous life of being a creative filmmaker and begins at the heart of the matter: Marcc(Pierre Niney) is in a meeting with the producers of his new film, and they are unhappy with what he has delivered them. They’re ending the shoot, putting a new editor in charge to salvage what is already there, and his producing partner of many years finally turns his back on him.

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.

Stateside, audiences may know Amat Escalante best for directing episodes of “Narcos: Mexico” for Netflix. But Escalante deserves more recognition than that, having excellent independent dramas like 2013’s “Heli” and 2016’s “The Untamed.” And Escalante returns to the Croisette for the first time since “Heli” premiered in competition for the Palme d’Or with his new film, “Lost In The Night.” READ MORE: Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2023 Lineup Includes New Films From Hong Sang-soo, Michel Gondry & More As a late addition to the Cannes line-up, “Lost In The Night” won’t have its world premiere in competition for the fest’s top prize, instead premiering in the Cannes Premiere section.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Quentin Tarantino has been named honorary guest at the upcoming edition of Directors’ Fortnight, the selection running alongside the Cannes Film Festival. The tribute will take place on May 25, on the closing of Directors Fortnight. “As an exceptional and generous cinephile, Tarantino is at home at the Fortnight. He will be our guest this year to present a secret screening and discuss his counter-history of cinema,” said Directors’ Fortnight in a statement. Tarantino was recently in Paris to promote his first non-fiction book, “Cinema Speculation,” which tells his coming-of-age as a director through a look at iconic American films from the 1970s era.

Last week, the initial lineup for the Cannes Film Festival was released. There were some heavy hitters involved in that announcement, as per usual when it comes to one of the biggest showcases of cinema in the world.

Last week, the initial lineup for the Cannes Film Festival was released. There were some heavy hitters involved in that announcement, as per usual when it comes to one of the biggest showcases of cinema in the world.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent New films from Hong Sang-soo and Michel Gondry will world premiere at Directors Fortnight, a selection running parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. This edition marks the first under the leadership of Julien Rejl as artistic director. Succeeding to Paolo Moretti, Rejl was named by the governing body of Directors’ Fortnight, the SRF (Société des réalisateurs de films), as part of a rebranding. Unlike previous artistic directors for this selection, Rejl doesn’t come from the festival circuit. He was previously in charge of distribution, international co-productions and international sales at Capricci, an arthouse film banner based in Paris.

Cannes Directors’ Fortnight has announced the selection for its 55th edition, running May 17 to 26.

There are lots of ways to pitch If You Were the Last. How about “Michel Gondry remakes When Harry Met Sally — in space!” Who wouldn’t want to see that? But for all the ingenious hot takes one can dream up for Kristian Mercado’s ambitious feature-length debut, there’s no escaping the fact that it’s less than the sum of its parts. To be brutal, although it does, for an hour at least, cast a spell, raise interesting metaphysical questions, and center on an odd couple who, for once, actually don’t seem like they’ll get together and then totally convince us when they do — it doesn’t really pass muster as a movie at all.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Seth Rogen got brutally honest about film critics during a discussion about mental health and self-doubt on the “Diary of a CEO” podcast. The comedian told host Steven Bartlett that negative reviews from critics “hurt everyone very much.” “I think if most critics knew how much it hurts the people that made the things that they are writing about, they would second guess the way they write these things,” Rogen said. “It’s devastating. I know people who have never recovered from it honestly – a year, decades of being hurt by [film reviews]. It’s very personal…It is devastating when you are being institutionally told that your personal expression was bad, and that’s something that people carry with them, literally, their entire lives and I get why. It fucking sucks.”

Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman will be this year’s recipient of the WGA West’s Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement. The lifetime achievement award, which goes to members who have “advanced the literature of motion pictures and made outstanding contributions to the profession of the screenwriter,” will be presented March 5 during the 75th annual Writers Guild Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.