Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center 2014

[Chris Knipp]

MICHEL GONDRY: MOOD INDIGO/L’ÉCUME DES JOURS (2013)


ROMAIN DURIS, AUDREY TAUTOU, AND OMAR SY IN MOOD INDIGO

Overproduced surrealism

Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou, who were a cute screen couple as far back as 2002's L'Auberge Espagnole, are back again in this very oddball romance born out of marriage-made-in-heaven of novelist Boris Vian and filmmaker Michel Gondry. If you like stories in overproduced sub-Jeunet mode where every scene is replete with Rube Goldberg surrealist gadgetry, this is your movie. Otherwise, you are likely to get turned off during the first overwrought ten minutes, before the opening titles even have rolled. If surreal sequences of rows of moving typewriters and a piano that makes cocktails based on what tune's played on it float your boat, you'll find Gondry (technically anyway) in top form here, and since Vian is a writer much loved in France, this remarkable realization of his vision is particularly welcome with his local fans. Gondry's staging is rich and accomplished. It's just that it tends to overwhelm the narrative content in scene after scene.

Duris is a rich bachelor named Colin served by the big, beefy, toothy Intouchables costar Omar Sy, his accountant, major domo, and, by the way, his (at first) verbally over-polite manservant. Inspired by his best friend Chick's new American girlfriend, Colin finds Chloé (Tautou) and woos her. They marry. She becomes ill, and Colin, at first rich, goes broke because of the need to provide Chloë with an endless supply of flowers to keep her alive. I'm guessing that the novel may make a bit more use of best-friend Chick (Gad Elmaleh) than the film manages to.

Mood Indego/L'Écume des jours, 95 mins, opened in France 24 April 2013. It was nominated for three 2014 Césars -- Étienne Charry (Best Original Music), Florence Fontaine (Best Costume) and Stéphane Rozenbaum (Best Production Design). The French critical reception was mediocre: Allociné press rating: 3.0. Given Gondry's remarkable performance here and the love of Boris Vian, there were and will be admirers. But Le Monde's critic Thomas Sotinel spoke for many when he wrote, "The film exhausts all its energy in constructing a world that doesn't leave much room for its inhabitants." Or, as Variety's Boyd von Hoeij puts it, "the film frequently privileges art direction over emotion." Screened for this review as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema (FSLC-Unifrance), 2014. Showings in the series:
Sunday, March 9, 7:00pm - WRT; Monday, March 10, 8:00pm – IFC; Monday, March 10, 9:30pm - BAM
In Person: Michel Gondry.

This film opens 18 July 2014 in New York at Landmark Sunshine, and in Los Angeles.