Michel Gondry's new film was created to keep his daughter close

Australia Broadcast Center

21 hours ago

After French pop group Oui Oui disbanded in 1992, things took off for then-drummer Michel Gondry.
What: a cute, cut-and-paste animation made by a beloved French filmmaker for his daughter.
Directed by: Michel Gondry.
Starring: his daughter, Maya Gondry.
When: Playing at the Melbourne International Film Festival.
Likely to make you feel: like whipping out the glue gun.
The kooky music videos he directed for the band were spotted by Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk, just as she was launching her solo career, post-The Sugarcubes. Their bright minds sparked together, with his trippy, dark fairy tale clip for her debut single Human Behaviour the start of a rewarding partnership.
In high demand, Gondry went on to direct clips for the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Sinéad O'Connor, The White Stripes, Daft Punk, Massive Attack and Radiohead. He also realised the many Kylie Minogues of her 2001, Parisian-set music video, Come into my World.
That same year marked the arrival of Gondry's big-screen directorial debut feature, Human Nature, a surreal love triangle spun from a screenplay by Being John Malkovich writer Charlie Kaufman. They'd collaborate again on their Oscar-winning break-up movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey.
But of all these starry team-ups, perhaps his greatest pairing is with his daughter, Maya.
Maya, Give Me a Title (Maya, Donne-moi un Titre), Gondry's adorable, paper cut-out stop-animated movie, is the result of his long-distance relationship with his daughter.
To keep their connection strong across the ocean, he'd task his young daughter with dreaming up a film title. Then he'd use his lo-fi collage techniques to conjure it up, casting Maya in the starring role each time. It was created across five years, beginning when Maya was just three-years-old. Screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival this August, the family-friendly, hour-long film that collates a few of their faves, is a visual feast for the soul, harnessing a sweetly creative brand of chaos.
Throughout the film, Maya saves the world from a tomato sauce disaster, becomes a mermaid, survives an earthquake, and is rescued from a snowball by an adorable cat.
"Little by little, as Maya grew up, the film became more complicated," Gondry says of the prompts he received from her.
"It was a fun challenge to accomplish, because her titles were sometimes crazy. So it was very stimulating, creating stories from these elements."
We meet at Club UniFrance, the French film industry's hub in Berlin, during that city's celebrated film festival, commonly known as Berlinale. I ask him how his childhood compares to his relationship with Maya.
"We were three brothers, very close in age, and while Maya does have an older brother, Paul, he's 32, so they aren't as close as we were," Gondry says. "Our parents were a bit hippy, and we were very encouraged to be creative, and to have quirks which were sometimes bizarre."
Maya, on the other hand, has a much more structured upbringing. "Children now have a million activities, like she plays an instrument, does karate and choir," he says. "We never had that much going on, which I think was maybe better."
It certainly encouraged the imagination of a young Gondry and his brothers — Oliver also grew up to be a music video director — who made their own fun, drawing all the time.
While they loved watching cartoons together, Gondry never shared his brother's love of superhero comics.
"I always hated them," he says. "I really saw them as a description of fascism. One guy that's going to save the world, and so on."
Instead, he was intrigued by the more unusual animated movies coming out of Eastern European countries. He also adores Albert Lamorisse's celebrated short, The Red Balloon (Le Ballon Rouge).
"It's just magic, because you fly across France from north to south, and I watch it maybe once a year, which makes me happy," Gondry says.
Gondry's disdain for superheroes has only grown in the intervening years, as their rapidly proliferating franchises took over cinemas. Cheekily, I note he directed The Green Hornet, co-written with and starring Seth Rogen.
"It's not the same," he sighs, and we quickly move on.
There's a sense that Gondry has never lost the playfulness many of us are fooled into leaving behind as we grow up, finding joy in the simplest things.
"I don't make much difference between children and adults, and I see them as a complete person," he says.
"It's not a Bergman movie. It's a fun little adventure," Gondry says of his make-do-and-mend approach to crafting Maya, Give Me a Title.
"It's also a lot of work to create all the backgrounds, but very enjoyable, like painting with a good friend. It's very satisfying to find the right blue to make the sky, using tracing paper to make clouds."
Maya, Give Me a Title's fantastic sound design pops alongside composer Jean-Michel Bernard's peppy score.
"When you're working in such a simple animation style, it's the sound that makes it feel more real," Gondry says. "The fun part is that we'd find a great sound, then use it for something completely different that it has nothing to do with."
Keeping his animation simple allows the audience to fill in the best possible special effects: the ones we conjure up in our minds, just like he and his brothers.
"The less technical the medium, the more freedom you have in the storytelling," Gondry says. "So that's where paper cutouts are great. I stop in the middle between realism and the abstract, and the audience completes the journey using their imagination."
Does he hope that Maya, who also appears in live-action interludes, will follow in his footsteps?
"I would be happy whatever she does," Gondry says. "If she's happy, that's the main thing."
Maya, Give Me a Title screens at MIFF