Gondry's next film also has this cynical romanticism. It is about a dreamer who can't relate to the real world. He lives in sleep and in his creative imagination, and messes up his real-world relationships by sleepwalking and getting confused. But destructive as it is for him, the hero's dream world is never condemned. It's hailed as beautiful and endearing and a valuable part of him. The film, La Science des rêves (2006), was not as successful as its predecessor -- perhaps because of the negative ending, perhaps because of its slightly flighty and chaotic nature. I still found it charming and beautiful, because it reflects the way I see the world. The characters are both half-breeds, like myself. One is French-English, the other French-Mexican. This both confuses and enriches their experience. Now, of course, this is directly relevant to me, but it also reflects a general trend all over the world. Migration and immigration are ever on the increase, so many young people either travel or settle abroad, so many speak at least more than one language. Both of them are perplexed by the world, technology and modernity drive them into their self-created worlds made of cellophane and papiermaché. Gondry's use of cardboard and creativity partly explains the popularity of his films -- it is such an original thing to see on the silver screen... at least in combination with this sad view of modern life, which is so inaccessible and hostile to young creatives. And, ever indebted to the people who inspired him, he doesn't fail to acknowledge his debt to old Eastern European animations.

Now, I don't know why, but I had heard several negative responses to Gondry's latest film, Be Kind, Rewind (2008). It was released rather a long time ago -- near the beginning of this year -- but I saw it only yesterday. The film tells the story of two best buds, one of whom (Mike) works in the eponymous video rental shop, the other (Jerry) as a mechanic in what looks like a junk yard around the corner. Be Kind Rewind is owned by an elderly Mr Fletcher, who raised Mike but apparently isn't his father, and is being threatened by demolition due to the shabby and dangerous state of the building. It's a cute little place, very individual friendly, a little unprofessional. On the wall outside is painted their policy - "One video. One day. One dollar. Every day!" Fletcher goes away to conduct research on how to compete with the local rental chain -- West Coast Video. He has only just left when Jerry attempts to sabotage the nearby electricity plant and becomes magnetised. He then comes into the shop and unknowingly wipes blank every one of the tapes. Discovering this, Mike tries to replace the films but since no one else stocks VHS, only DVD, he and Jerry are driven to remake all the films in his shop with the help of a girl from the local dry cleaner's, Jerry's mechanic, and various other local fans of their work. The extremely amateurish but extremely creative and funny films find a cult following and soon it looks like they will be able to raise enough money to save the shop from destruction. But then the copyright lawyers come and trample all the tapes with a steam roller (yes, really!). In the end they make a plan to produce their own film from scratch, show a premiere, and raise the remaining money. They make the film but don't have enough for even half of the necessary repairs. The shop closes, but at least they have their film and all their friends and fans from the neighbourhood!! Yay!

The film, unlike Gondry's previous offerings, follows the "Hollywood Curve" perfectly -- we are introduced the characters, then a dilemma is established, they find a way to fight against it, and everything goes great, great, great, until one drastic plunge into misfortune, and then in the end everything is resolved at the last minute. He even has a sentimental close stapled on to the end, where a huge crowd of local people has gathered around the shop to watch their home-made feature, and applaud joyfully. Even the heretofore stern police, and the city council minister who came to close them down laugh and shake their hands. Oh, it felt so superfluous after an hour and a half of Gondry's portrayal of this stark new-fangled modern world where creative, friendly people don't fit in. It feels like that ending was added by someone else, or like it was forced upon him. Nevertheless, in this film, like the above two, imaginative people who can't live in our difficult modern world create their own existence out of cardboard and tinfoil, and hide in it as far as possible, until they are torn out of it. For him, imagination and craft is comfort, it unites. (Be Kind Rewind is set in a town with inhabitants of every race and creed, who all live side by side and seem to get on just fine -- and yet not in a soppy, Hollywood gleam kind of way) and it raises the small man up onto cotton-wool clouds and tinsel stars, above the oppressive society of laws, bureaucracy and office jobs that we all have to rot in.

And so, for me, Gondry is one director who is going to keep film alive, relevant, and important. About every twenty years someone writes an article about how film is dead (eg. Jakobson's "Is the Film in Decline?" , 1987 ) and just the other day this comment came up in our conversation. But I am realistically optimistic. Or optimistically realistic? It is true that we rarely see films that are entirely new and surprise us totally and make us want to live differently. But I don't think that we should give up just yet. Gondry's creative and original films that are always surprising and charming and relevant, prove that people still know how to capture our feelings on film. He knows how to grasp something out of the air and reflect how we really feel deep in our hearts. He is also a director that makes people marvel at his ideas and wonder just what he is going to come up with next. True, it is slightly disappointing that in this film he has conformed to the Hollywood norms of dilemma-development-crisis-resolution, but relieving that even within this rigid and recognisable structure he created a truly new and charming and emotionally and socially true film. I think that he is capable of great things, and can't wait to see what he will magic up next.