My friend Jesse was stirred by a little movie in 2004 called Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It was everything a budding filmmaker could want in a movie: its story line was original, its structure was unconventional, and its director, a little-known French filmmaker named Michel Gondry, de-emphasized special effects in favor of do-it-yourself filmmaking (as much as possible). My same friend walked into Gondry’s 2006 The Science of Sleep with popcorn and soda in hand, as excited to see a film as children are to see Santa Claus. What he got was the yuletide equivalent of socks under the tree. Sure, they were those multicolored socks that Nepalese sherpas wear, but they were socks nonetheless.
I think he’ll be more pleased with Gondry’s latest effort, Be Kind Rewind. With the top-heavy movie cycle, in which box office receipts plummet after the opening weekend, Be Kind is probably already old news. There are a few reasons you should press the rewind button and go see it. The biggest reason: it’s ingenious.
Gondry takes a standard movie cliché, connecting the dots: (Step 1) A neighborhood institution is going to get torn down, thus (Step 2) the people need to save said institution with their brainpower so that (Step 3) corporate culture will be defeated by the uniqueness of the neighborhood. In this case the institution is a video store (read: not a DVD rental location, but a video store) and the people with the brainpower are a numbnuts (Jack Black) who accidentally erased all the tapes and a slow-witted caretaker of the store (Mos Def). When a slightly kooky customer (Mia Farrow) demands a now non-existent copy of Ghostbusters, the pair decide that the only option is, well, to make their own condensed version, with Mos Def as Bill Murray and Jack Black as “everyone else”. To their bewilderment, the flick becomes a hit and they soon attract a cult following, inundated with requests for re-made versions of everything from Driving Miss Daisy to The Lion King.
While they’ve just hit upon a method to save the store, they need to make more films in order to get enough money. To do that, they need more help from the community. And here is what I admire about this film: What’s started out as two guys making an atrocious rehashing of Ghostbusters swells to a neighborhood-wide exercise in self-expression. Suddenly, the local kids and town crazies that have been renting the most films are also starring in them. It’s a big middle finger to the idea of artistic ownership. As soon as they’re released, Paramount or Universal or Warner Bros. don’t own these films–the audience does. So, which is better: Robocop the way it was edited or the way we remember it (a half man/half machine kicking ass in Detroit with a funny accent)? Carrie with Sissy Spacek or with that bitchy girl from high school who you want to dump tomato sauce on at the climax? Boogie Nights with…well, that one’s easy.
We love films because we can identify with certain characters, situations or themes; we can place ourselves in them, if only metaphorically. The giddy fun that comes from Be Kind Rewind is watching people literally place themselves there. How odd that a populist lesson about film’s inability to be divorced from its audience should come from one of the leading cinematic thinkers of this decade.
6 Comments
March 17, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I love what Gondry is saying here: watching movies is a participatory, communal act. The power that movies can hold is derived not only from the plot, but also from our memories of who we saw it with, what was happening, how we felt during the good parts… all of that is just as important.
But what surprised me about the film is how conventional and restrained much of it was, compared to Eternal Sunshine and Science of Sleep. For a film about the joy of film making, Gondry chooses to play it pretty straight. I found myself liking the movie the most when I got glimpses of the visual whimsy that Gondry is capable of–this man spends more time on his montages than other directors might spend on key plotpoints.
I came away wishing that the entire movie had been like his montages, or showed the quirky sense of humor of the “camouflage suits” for the power station break-in. If I ever need to, I know exactly how I’d Swede Be Kind Rewind.
March 17, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Watching movies, especially the real good ones, is indeed “a participatory, communal act”. What intrigued me about Be Kind Rewind is that it not only suggests that, but also puts it into practice: Gondry borrows the acting talents of people who seem to not know how to act at all! Namely, the man in glasses that wanted to rent Rush Hour 2; Wilson, the co-star of the sweded movies that Jack Black refuses to kiss; the two sisters that work at the dry cleaners. The whole movie seems to be a community project! (Despite Mos Def having 3 credited assistants – wow!)
I enjoyed this movie because I felt Gondry was nodding and winking at past film movements, and clearly making a commentary about our current culture, but without being a snob or too self-righteous . I even enjoyed the multiple loose ends (Why is the manager of West Coast Rentals living in the back office of his store? Did Mike and Alma really fall in love that quickly? Is there a story to that relationship that we didn’t see?) – they were the rebellious jump-cuts of this movie.
Be Kind, Rewind is one of the most bittersweet titles I have encountered: a command to do yourself a favor and rewind yourself to older, sweeter times, even though you physically are not required to rewind anything, anymore, anywhere.
March 17, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Tal,
You’re right–almost no one rewinds anymore. VHS is a dead format. In fact, when I first heard the set-up for the film, I just assumed that it would be set in the 80s or 90s. It wasn’t until looking at a preview for the film that I realized it was meant to be present-day New Jersey (perhaps the same difference).
So, why the decision on Gondry’s part to set the film squarely in the DVD era? I would have thought that part of it is the chance to underscore socioeconomic differences, but this is barely touched. I think the real reason is closer to your assessment: the DVD has enhanced viewing, but the films haven’t gotten any better. To Gondry, it’s just digital bells and whistles.
Hence the streamers instead of plasma streams for “Ghostbusters” and the jungle gym in place of a construction site for “Rush Hour 2″. It’s a back-to-basics message. All you need is VHS and some party favors and you too can enjoy making and watching movies.
March 18, 2008 at 1:11 am
Jeff, for some reason you’re not a fan, but Gondry sums up his whole aesthetic in Science of Sleep when Stephane says “I am collecting beautiful objects… They are made from wood and felt. With apparent stitches. Their delicate and unfinished appearance is friendly.”
These are Gondry’s movies. Their intentional handmade qualities make them precious, real, like something you or I might do if we had all the time and imagination in the world. And that is what makes moments like when Black and Def freeze against the chicken wire fence so astonishing. How’d he do that?? We never get that engaged with the de rigueur big budget CGI anymore.
Why do the citizens of Pasaic get so into the Sweded movies? Because the boys have Sweded all the CGI out and brought the stories back down to earth, recapturing the magic of the movies. Gondry has taken up the torch from the original magician of film, Georges Melies, and thank God.
March 19, 2008 at 6:36 am
Just for the record, I have not see “The Science of Sleep”. Hence, the use of a surrogate, “Jesse”, for my piece. Still, Gondry’s record with me is 3 for 4. I stretch my thumbs upward for “Eternal Sunshine”, “Block Party” and “Be Kind”. Thumbs way down for…”Human Nature”. Somehow, the production from what now seems like a killer duo of Kaufman and Gondry, well, sucked.
Jon, you had once talked about “minor Kaufmans”, films that showed the writer’s talent but weren’t developed into masterpieces of the “Being John Malkovich” variety. “Human Nature” easily fits into the “minor Kaufman” realm.
August 8, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Surrogate here. I think the big piece missing from the conversation is that Gondry as a writer.
Science of Sleep suffered from a lack of a cohesive story. You just weren’t sure what the f=ck was going on.
Be Kind Rewind was overcompensation. I kept asking for more ingenuity and way less of a contrived plot that I just didn’t care about.
There’s no doubt that Gondry is ingenious visually, it will be interesting to see if he decides to try and tell more of his own stories or work from someone else’s script.