In The Hypnotic World Of Two Remarkable Film Directors
In this feature, originally highlighted by guest editor Andrew Shoben in The Greyworld Issue: ‘The Space in Between,’ No 13 Spring/Summer 2009, we explore two great film directors. In the vast world of the film industry, only a minority of filmmakers manage to walk the thin line between imagination and reality in the same way as Michel Gondry and Terry Gilliam. Known for their visually imaginative styles, these two directors have redefined what films can be by combining artistic expertise with dreamlike narratives. Here are some ideas as to why Michel Gondry and Terry Gilliam are important directors. Looking at it through the eyes of three people from the film industry, Lauri Faggioni, Andrew Delaney and Mick Audsley. Find out more in The Hypnotic World Of Two Remarkable Film Directors here.
Influence
Sometimes, the people who work within an industry have an insider’s take on their specialist subject matter. They may see things in a more 3D perspective than those on the outside. Hence, we asked three insiders for their perspective.
Cinema Jobs
Lauri Faggioni is a set designer known for The Science of Sleep (2006), Steriogram: Walkie Talkie Man (2004) and Downloading Nancy (2008); Andrew Delaney is a film-maker who directed dozens of music videos for artists such as George Michael, Spice Girls, Maroon 5 and the film Love Is Blind. And Mick Audsley, an editor, known for 12 Monkeys (1995), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) or Murder on the Orient Express (2017). They reveal how films like The Science of Sleep and 12 Monkeys come to life from idea to film, and why their influence continues to outline modern filmmaking.
Terry Gilliam and Michel Gondry
‘Two film directors in particular have always fascinated me. Their work seems to live in the delicious space between waking and sleeping. Terry Gilliam is incredible; he pushes his ideas to their maximum, and Michel Gondry seems to subvert technology to stun the viewer. Here we explore their work from three different angles-from an Editor, Set Designer and Director.‘
Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry is a renowned French director, screenwriter, and producer known for his imaginative storytelling and signature handcrafted visual style. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). Beyond the big screen, he has directed iconic music videos for global artists like Björk, The White Stripes, and Daft Punk, alongside highly awarded commercials.
Michel Gondry
The Science Of Sleep 2006
Lauri Faggioni: In my youth, I preferred living in my head. I made up stories and had invisible friends like most kids do. However, once my mother taught me how to sew and knit, I started physically making the animals and creatures from my imagination. I physically created my friends.
The Science of Sleep (2006) by Michel Gondry
I never imagined that this would later lead to my creating artwork for a living or allow me to work in film. It never entered my mind. I always imagined I would become a writer. Writing stories represented freedom to me because no one could really say it was wrong. Maybe they wouldn’t like it, but they couldn’t deny a story’s existence because it was in my head and it was mine.
There was a point in my early 20s when I got sick. I was in the hospital for a while and lay up in bed at home a lot. That’s when I started making the creatures again. I got tired of words, or I couldn’t find them. Plus, I was lonely and bored, and I didn’t want to think. I just wanted to use my hands again. I had a drawing on my fridge that my brother made when he was a child, of a little man with pointy feet and knubbie arms and a crooked smile. I remember looking at him and thinking how much I wished he’d come alive and talk to me. And that was it…. I went and found some fabric and thread and made him.
I’ve Been 12 Forever
I first met Michel Gondry when he came to my shop, Lake. He wanted to animate the creatures I made for his Director File DVD. He is the one who introduced me to animation and film. The first thing he animated was a bluebird I made for his film, I’ve Been 12 Forever. When I saw the bird come alive, it blew my mind. So that was the beginning of it. Then he asked me to be the Set Designer/Art Director for a music video called Walkie Talkie Man for the band Steriogram. He wanted the whole video to be knitted, the walls, the instruments, the recording booth. It took me and five others three months to make. It was the most fun I had making a paycheck. I closed my shop in 2003 because I was unable to continue making the objects for my shop and work in film. It was too much, so I just focused on the film work.
My relationship to the creatures is very personal, and when I started making them for other people, I found it hard. I missed some of them desperately after they were gone, and I remember feeling angry with myself for selling them. The $60 or whatever it was, that kept my lights on and food in my house, didn’t seem worth it after all, and I wanted them back. I used to have dreams about them. Their heads popped out of the tops of shopping bags that passed by me on the street, and I’d spend the rest of the dream searching for them. It was very unpleasant. Then, when I opened my store to sell them, it got a little better. I made them with the intention of them belonging to someone else, even if I didn’t know who that was at the time. I would make them and love them, but tried not to let myself get attached. For the most part, that worked, but there are some that still haunt me to this day, ones I wish I hadn’t sold. (Whoever has the plate and the spoon, if you’re reading this, I miss them. Maybe you can leave them to me in your will….)
I continued to work for Michel for a few years as a set designer and choreographer. The thing I admire about working with Michel is that he hires regular people to work for him. He doesn’t seem interested in people with a long resumé in film. He likes bringing fresh people into the process, mostly people who haven’t worked in the field before. He says it’s how he gets the best team of people around him. I appreciate that approach.
It’s very difficult for me to comment on The Science of Sleep. I rarely discuss it. The character Stephane is based on Michel, and Stephanie is based on me. While filming, he wouldn’t let me read the script. I just made the animals and the objects he requested, so it was actually very difficult for me to watch the film. I never had a relationship with him outside of our work and our friendship. I loved him very much and considered him a dear friend for whom I would have done anything. He was one of the few people I knew who shared the same creative sentiment I had. We could talk about our inner worlds and understand what the other was saying very easily, which is hard to find. I would say 75% of the film is true. I wasn’t his neighbour, he was my boss. So it was a very different dynamic in real life. But the dialogue between the characters is exactly what we said to each other. So much so, I wondered if he had a tape recorder hidden in his pocket after I saw the film. We stopped working together after that.
I started directing my own stuff after The Science Of Sleep, but I have continued to work as a Set Designer as well. I feel very lucky to be able to do both. I mostly work on projects not set in reality. I specialise in in-camera effects and very rarely work in CGI. I think the sets have a huge impact on the story that is told. They convey a tone through colour and light and tell you about the characters’ personalities at a single glance; maybe things you wouldn’t notice in a conscious way while watching the film, but which influence your impression.
Everything I’ve done in my creative world touches. It all belongs together, even if the families of thought or media are different. Whether I use word or fabric or film, there is a space in me, in us all, that is so different, yet it is the same. There is a truth to our fight to reveal our inner invisible worlds, if only for the sake of saying, this is what I see, this is what I saw. We are all striving to show what no one can see in our own heads. There is great honour in that, I believe. I feel honoured to be among those who are given the chance to say how they feel and be heard. I think it is important that we all remember that we are all given that right. I’m really no different from anyone else trying to weave a good yarn or trying to touch some pale fire in the heart. I think everyone does this in their own way, every day. Even when we’ve given up hope, and we are surrounded by the darkness, we fight for it. We all believe in that dim voice. That is what I’d call the spaces in between us.
Lauri Faggioni
The Power Of Turning Silly Blankets Into Big Mountains
Andrew Delaney: I was on a plane on my way to LA when I first saw Be Kind Rewind by Michel Gondry, and it was one of those rare moments when I knew I was doing the right thing with my life. I realised I have the best job in the world because, being a Director, I was reminded of the joy and sheer pleasure of filmmaking.
Michel Gondry, a Director who grew up through similar ranks to me, began doing pop videos and commercials before moving into film. When he was young, Gondry wanted to be either a painter or an inventor. In the 80s, he went to art school in Paris, where he developed his graphic skills and created a pop-rock band called Oui-Oui.
Gondry was the drummer of the band and also directed their video clips, which were shown on MTV. It was this that led to him directing videos for the likes of Björk and Massive Attack, as well as going on to direct commercials for some of the biggest brands in the world.
I believe he also worked with special effects as a Flame Operator (a Flame is a computer that manipulates and composites live action). From this, he understands the craft of filmmaking, being immersed in the digital world, he went into an organic way of making film. You can become very immersed in the digital world because you’ve got the whole sweet shop to play in, although you can get nauseous from eating too many sweets
For me, what makes him so great is that his work is all “in camera”; therefore, any shot that seems impossible, that most directors would reach for the digital tool kit and do in post production, he will find a way to stage it and simply use the camera to record it. This has a child-like wonder to it that is breathtakingly imaginative, but at the same time so clever. Gondry may dream and play, but for me, he is also the Thomas Edison of film. He is a great idea man and an inventor of techniques. There also seems to be a nod from him to the original filmmakers, especially some of the early French filmmakers like Louis and Auguste Lumière.
He brings a clunking, scratchy, human element to the craft and skill. When you are a kid, you can take a blanket and make it into a mountain. He convinces you that that blanket is a mountain without doing this with special effects. There is a wonderful intersection of reality and myth. He seems to invent and cobble together things; you get a sense of “right here, right now”; he just picks up a camera and “makes a film”. That’s what I loved so much about Be Kind Rewind, it has that sense that anyone can just make a film. He makes difficult techniques look so simple, turning the reality of filmmaking into a joyous game that all can play. As we all know, this is not the case!
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) by Michel Gondry
He once said, “Every great idea is on the verge of being stupid.” He gets the balance right. I went to the première of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and told him I was pissed off because the film was so good. Even after all this time working in a job I love, it’s still great to be reminded of the magic.
Andrew Delaney
Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam is best known for his wildly imaginative and visually rich storytelling. A key member of the legendary comedy group Monty Python, Gilliam developed a signature style blending surreal humour, dark fantasy, and sharp satire. He directed cult classics such as Brazil, Time Bandits, and 12 Monkeys.
Terry Gilliam
The Fascinating Imaginarium of Terry Gilliam
Mick Audsley: I’ve always admired Terry Gilliam, his world is crazy, funny, lovely, delightful and completely original, a world that is uniquely his. The thing you have to remember with Terry is that he’s an artist himself and can do most of the jobs of the people who are assembled to work on a film for him, just as well, if not better, than they can. He’s a rare commodity and just bursting with creativity; he’s a true dreamer. Terry can draw out an entire film in his mind; he can literally draw it, he can act it out for you, and he can show you the paintings that have influenced him and his choices in visual language.
Terry’s strength is that he is a great artist. His graphic sense, his visual sense, is acutely sophisticated, elegant, direct and accomplished. He’s a funny guy, very warm and affectionate, and he gets a kick out of having others be a part of his films. He’s very generous, extremely generous at what he’s initiated, because he can do all those jobs so well, he gets an enormous pleasure out of delegating something. He does it without telling someone how exactly to do their job; instead, letting them run with it, and he gets excited about what you can produce and if you’re on the same track and encouraging the people around him.
When I get sent a script, I have to determine whether I would be able to live with the story for about a year of my life, and it’s essentially the Director who approaches me to cut their piece. They’ll ask me to have a read, and I immediately get an image in my head of what the film I want to see would look like. Projects are so precarious from their inception to the route of actually shooting, but if it all comes together and we start shooting, then we start to pin it together, day-by-day. They will trust me to do a draft of the whole film, and we will meet with my selections and input, and constantly give each other feedback on a daily basis on how it’s going. They may come and look at the film and say can you do this? Can you do that? But they are essentially employing me to interpret the material they send me, and I’m responsible for commenting on how the story’s working, how the performances are working, all these issues. The Director’s busy enough just getting the damn thing shot, so there’s a degree of trust, if you like, to create a sketch of the movie, We are responsible for creating a library of footage to encompass perhaps, my taste, and the Director’s taste, to see if I’m on the right track and to see if there’s enough space for me to bridge the gap
We first worked together on 12 Monkeys, for which I was the editor. The film was beautifully shot and realised, and it was just a joy to put together. The story was complex and presented unique challenges because of all the time issues in the story and information being layered out over the course of the film. We always had this analogy that it was like bathwater going down a drain, faster and faster, until it just made sense in your head. From an editorial point of view, this was terrifically interesting to deal with. The writers of the film were friends of mine, and I had met Terry prior to making the film; he had been a hero of mine as an art student, so I look back at the experience of making it quite fondly. We were all very close making that film; it was a very happy ride.
12 Monkeys (1995) by Terry Gilliam
There was one night while we were working on 12 Monkeys very late in the cutting room, which can seem like a manifestation of one’s own mind after working for hours on end. I’ll never forget this. We got locked in the building, security had left, and we were the only ones left. It was about one or two in the morning, and we were working very hard for some reason, and we had to open a window downstairs and jump out onto the street, after scaling a railing with a giant drop below. Once we got out, Terry said, “We could get done for breaking and exiting”, a line that wouldn’t be out of place in one of his films.
The editing process is like a conductor who has been given an orchestra, with the material given being all of the instruments, and the piece of music in the script. So the Editor, initially in collaboration with the Director, who is the composer in this case, will lead the audience through that experience of rhythms and speeds of a composer’s score.
At the point when the music is on, we can emphasise things. The Editor’s job is to orchestrate or conduct the audience’s pursuit of the story succinctly, so they have an experience from point A to point B that makes coherent sense and works dramatically; that’s what an Editor does. Of course, we don’t have a final say in the editorial content, but we have a very big say, and if the Director is a friend, we can take them behind the desk and beat them up, you know, you can bribe them, or something, threaten to kill their children. No, seriously, you would use your influence to say this should be in, this should be out, you have to be diplomatic to be an Editor, but you also have to be strong enough to fight your corner, in a way which is positive and is not destructive to the Director’s endeavour and well-being, it’s a collaboration.
I think the process of putting a film together is complicated; you sort of feel that you own it. As an Editor, you ingest it in a raw form and re-present it and get very possessive of it, but it isn’t yours; you are just the Editor. You have to literally take on board, often hundreds of hours of material, configure it and shape actors’ performances, to bend it towards what you believe is the film that the Director wants and what we all, as a community, believe is the right way to go. You have to take on board a huge amount of criticism, from people who are involved and not involved, and listen to people who are more distanced and objective than you are, and you have to strike a balance between your experience of making it and anticipate what it will be like for the audience viewing it for the first time. I feel I know when a film is finished – you can edit a film for centuries; you can go on fiddling with it forever, whether it gets any better, that’s debatable. At least for myself, I can sense when a film is made and when it starts to get unmade.
Mick Audsle
In the end, these two film directors are way more than just film directors. What binds their perspectives is not technique or budget, but a shared devotion to transforming the invisible into something real. With each artist, find an ephemeral spark, a burgeoning vision that is alive somewhere between thought and reality. Film, at its best, becomes the meeting point of these inner worlds, where imagination is given shape and offered to others to interpret and carry forward.
Lauri Faggioni laurifaggioni.com Director, Big TV Andrew Delany imdb.com Editor Mick Audsley imdb.com Terry Gilliam Film Director terrygilliamweb.com, Michel Gondry Film Director partizan.com
If you enjoyed reading In The Hypnotic World Of Two Remarkable Film Directors, then why not read Fall in Love with Different and Unique Japanese Cinema
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