Jamal Ahmed

Michel Gondry

Born in Paris, France
8 May 1963
Academy Award winning film maker, Commercial director & Screen writer

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 Bjork who asked him to direct the video for her song Human Behaviour.

According to the Guinness World Records 2004, Michel Gondry's Levis 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.

Feature films:
Human Nature (2001)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
The Science of Sleep (2006)
Be Kind Rewind (2008)
The Green Hornet (2011)
The We & the I (2012)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
starring Kate Winslet & Jim Carey

Commercials:

Levis
Gap
Smirnoff
Air France
Nike
Coca-Cola
Adidas

Music videos:
The White Stripes (Fall in Love With A Girl, 24 Jan 2006)
Massive Attack (Protection)
Bjork (Declare independence, Jan 2008)

Fell In Love With A Girl (Making)

''For me to give them a good video is to go in a place I've never been before''

The work of director Michel Gondry DVD

As a director, Gondry creates highly imaginative worlds that seem to exist somewhere between the conscious and the unconscious; again and again, states of waking and dreaming clash and collide and, finally, create a new sort of reality. All of this is a little chaotic, but Gondry understands the appeal of disorientation, of the audience’s not immediately understanding what it is seeing. He gets impatient when the events unfolding in a narrative are too organized, too emotionally tidy. But despite his taste for the whimsical and the fantastical — in “The Science of Sleep,” for instance, the sets are deliberately jumbled and the handmade props that populate Stephane’s dreams look like a summer-camp crafts project gone brilliantly extreme — the stories he tells are grounded in the timeless questions and yearnings of human relationships. - NY Times

Simplistic question: Where the hell do your ideas come from?

I have quite accurate memories of dreams. Also, I developed an ability to let my brain be permeable: if I see an image, it might remind me of something else. Or I'll get it confused with something else, because I don't see it properly, and it becomes something new. So I decide I can use it. Like one afternoon, I was at this occupation center for bright children. They played a game where you put a painting on a turntable and spin it around, and it produces lots of great shapes. The problem, I thought, is that you don't see the creating, because it's moving too fast. I thought, wouldn't it be funny if the camera shot at the same rate. Then you wouldn't see the spinning, but you would see the shape being created. It's how my brain works. Finding a solution to a problem is a very important process for me.

Full interview - http://www.nerve.com/content/the-nerve-interview-michel-gondry

Documentary about his own life and family, The Thorn in the Heart.
Gondry's family bares all the joys and pains of being a close-knit, creative family, particularly his visionary mother, Suzette. The trailer looks sentimental, sweet, and full of the whimsical visuals that are the hallmark of Gondry.

First ever comic book written and illustrated by Michel Gondry. The story packed with everything from death to friendship and guns to Mia Farrow.

Ideas

1 - I want to look more into Michel Gondry the musician before he became a successful director.
2 - Recreate events from his life in a comic style/format

3 - Jealousy