Michel Gondry talks "Microbe and Gasoline," leaving Hollywood behind and predicting of Brexit
Michel Gondry made a name for himself as a unique, inventive filmmaker with work like "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Be Kind Rewind." But ever since making the Seth Rogen-starring "The Green Hornet" five years ago, he's stayed away from larger budgets and Hollywood in general, focusing instead on indie fare and work in his native France.
His latest, "Microbe and Gasoline," is a coming-of-age tale of two Versailles misfit (Ange Dargent and Théophile Baquet) who build their own car to escape their tween doldrums. As Gondry told CBS News, a lot of the story comes from his own life.
This feels like a very personal film. How much comes from your own experiences?
The first half of the film is nearly 100 percent real, from my memories and experiences. And then the second have is fantasy-based from the first half. My friend and I had planned to build a car, but we didn't build it.
How far did you get with it?
I mean, I guess we had a go-kart. We built the whole thing, but we didn't build anything like the car you see in the movie.
Was the coming-of-age aspect also representative of your own experiences?
Yeah. I mean, I had a very slow and difficult coming-of-age, not very different from Daniel's. He has his sexual frustrations and questions, and very little outlet for them -- no girlfriend, not many friends. So that's like in the movie, but I was not really a wimp or a super-shy kid. It's true I was mostly interacting with girls as a friend, but unfortunately that would not lead for me to get in their beds. That was the wrong way to follow.
Did you have a nickname yourself?
Well, the nickname I had came earlier, when I was five years younger. It was "muscled shrimp." I don't know why. I was a shrimp, I understand, but muscled? I had no muscles at all, but that was my nickname.
Are these the youngest lead actors that you've worked with in film?
Maybe, yes. In "Human Nature," I had this younger kid, but it was just a small part. But I don't see them as kids. I really see them as like me, basically.
Did you have to alter directing style to get the right performances out of them?
To be honest, it was the easiest directing I've had to do. Because they were very truthful. I told them right away that I would not compliment them because that would affect their performance and their ego. At the end I would say they were great and so on, but during the shooting it was not about being great or bad. It was just about trying again with something different.
You've eschewed big studio films for smaller, indie work or French productions since making "The Green Hornet." Did that experience leave a bad taste in your mouth?
I don't know, exactly. It's not really a conscious decision. It's where the projects take me, basically. It's more about the type of movie. The superhero type, I don't find really captivating. There was an element of it that I had to deal with, and it was not the easiest thing for me to do.
As a European yourself, do you have any thoughts on what's been going on in the U.K. with the Brexit decision?
Well, I'm used to the English never wanting to be part of Europe. They want to be part of America. So I'm not surprised. England never wanted to mix with the rest of Europe. For the E.U., especially between France and Germany, they have to think about how they can maintain the union. It's a crisis for them, of course. I don't know, maybe I don't care so much. It sounds very selfish.
"Microbe and Gasoline" is in select theaters starting July 1.