Out to Lunch

Michel Gondry


I’m a fan of Michel Gondry and there’s a new film of him in the movie theatres right now, The Science of Sleep. I haven’t seen it yet but what I’ve heard is that it doesn’t leave one cold. You either love it or hate it.

Before he became a well known director and darling of ze rich and famoz like Björk, The White Stripes, The Chemical Brothers and many others, he made video clips for little known French bands and artists. A remarkable one from his early period is La Tour De Pise which he made for a French singer-songwriter Jean François Cohen. I found it – as always – on youtube. In this clip he makes clever use of the city landscape of neon’s, billboards and traffic signs to write the lyrics. It’s all done with split screens which pop up and fade out to the rhythm. The choreography very nicely follows the flow of the song. It’s a nice tribute to the city and city life in the wee small hours and early morning.



Something similar was done in a mid-'70s episode of an old American children's TV programme called The Electric Company.