In the
ten years since winning an Academy Award for co-writing the screenplay for his
surrealistic cult favorite “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,”
French filmmaker Michel Gondry has amassed one of the more eclectic
filmographies around—a collection of projects ranging from small-scale
documentaries such as “Dave Chappelle’s Block Party” and the animated
Noam Chomsky film “Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?” to big-budget behemoths
like “The Green Hornet” (generally considered to be a disaster but
far more engaging and entertaining that its reputation might suggest) to such
cheerful oddities as “The Science of Sleep,” “Be Kind,
Rewind” and “The You and the I.”
With his
latest film, the quirky romance “Mood Indigo,” Gondry has given
viewers one of his wildest and most fantastical cinematic visions to date.
The film is based on “Froth on the Daydream,” a novel by the late Boris Vian
that, while largely unknown in America, has become one of France most popular
books since its 1947 publication. At first, it seems like a cheerful chronicle
of the swift romance that develops between Colin (Romain Duris), a rich young
man who spends his days developing inventions like the pianocktail (a piano/wet
bar hybrid that mixes and dispense drinks that are put together based on the
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