Director Michel Gondry adapts French polymath Boris Vian鈥檚 fatalistic story of impossible romance; the result makes a refreshing and surreal contrast to conventional cinema.
Mood Indigo 鈥unfolds as an idealistic and poetic love story; yet through a series of bizarre and entirely illogical events this visual feast rapidly transforms into a breathtakingly poignant Greek tragedy. On the surface, it is an animated Surrealist painting whilst in substance it is almost entirely faithful to the 1947 novel L鈥櫭ヽume des jours (Froth on the Daydream鈥) written by French author, philosopher, inventor and jazz musician Boris Vian.
L鈥櫭ヽume des Jours is the tale of Colin (Romain Duris), a handsome and wealthy romantic who spends his time inventing bizarre contraptions such as the 鈥減ianocktail鈥 鈥 a piano that mixes cocktails according to the notes played 鈥 and dining on wonderful food with his closest friend Chick (Gad Elmaleh), prepared by manservant Nicolas (Omar Sy). Colin鈥檚 apartment is a suspended railway carriage that he shares with a good-natured mouse who, according to Duris, 鈥渆mbodies the spirit of freedom,鈥 and so his life seems ideal and carefree. However, Colin has a palpable vulnerability and states early on in that he does not believe it is normal to be alone.
Colin鈥檚 life is altered when he meets Chlo茅 (Audrey Tautou) at a party; he woos her to the sounds of Duke Ellington as they spend an evening dancing the 鈥淏iglemoi鈥 鈥 an anatomy-defying dance that bends the legs to reflect the bass tones of Ellington鈥檚 jazz. According to Tautou, Chlo茅 鈥渆vokes something poetic and filled with sunshine. She鈥檚 the embodiment of kindliness, virtue and delicacy. She is like Shakespeare鈥檚 Juliet because there is a lot of purity and romance in the story and, of course, there is impossibility.鈥
This 鈥渋mpossibility鈥 is due to a cruel illness that strikes Chlo茅 almost immediately after the couple鈥檚 meeting: a water lily begins growing in her lung (a striking metaphor for cancer) and will only die if surrounded by fresh flowers. As Chlo茅鈥檚 illness worsens, Colin is forced to take on a series of gruelling jobs to pay for the piles of white roses, lilies and carnations that begin to fill their apartment 鈥 meanwhile Nicolas, Chick and even Colin鈥檚 apartment also deteriorate, which leads to the final poignant climax.
The novel L鈥櫭ヽume des Jours 鈥塱s hugely important to French readers, and for this reason Mood Indigo 鈥塪irector Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 鈥塧苍诲 The Science of Sleep鈥) felt he 鈥渉ad a huge pressure on [his] shoulders鈥 when it came to making this latest adaptation. International audiences may not understand the French attachment to the story, which Gondry explains with: 鈥淏oris Vian belongs to everyone. Everyone has his or her own version of the story 鈥 I remember what Agn猫s Varda said to me: 鈥業 hope you make us a good film because we all love that book …鈥欌
With this in mind, the narrative of Mood Indigo 鈥塱s almost entirely faithful to the novel, even including sections which might seem outmoded, and incorporating Vian鈥檚 ingenious puns and spoonerisms. However, the visual universe of the film is very much of the director鈥檚 own characteristic style: part set, part art installation. Working with producer Luc Bossi, who had written the first draft of the screenplay, and set designer St茅phane Rozenbaum, Gondry created for the film something of a magical, never-ending sweet shop of visual tricks and surprises 鈥 shot almost entirely without bluescreen.
The film opens with Colin鈥檚 kitchen, which in Mood Indigo 鈥塱s not so much the 鈥渉eart of the home鈥 as the most concentrated focus of Gondry鈥檚 production design. Within this long tubular space, chaos reigns as chef Nicolas follows, through a screen, the outlandish recipes of a modern-day version of 19th century chef Jules Gouff茅, who reaches out now and again to add seasoning or lend a hand. Nicolas鈥檚 dishes appear on Colin鈥檚 table as quivering stop-animations (fish that bite one another, six-tiered cakes filled with objects, and sausages that fly from their plates) and Colin and Chick remain unfed for the majority of the film, never able to catch their food before it jumps off the table, or the tabletop itself is tipped onto the floor by Nicholas 鈥 who prefers to sweep the smashed plates from the floor than wash up. Gondry explains: The book is really visual and I didn鈥檛 just want to match what鈥檚 on the page; I wanted to bring my own universe and I think it鈥檚 complementary to that of Boris Vian.鈥 Accordingly, the idea for this Michelin-starred kitchen-cum-laboratory grew from Vian鈥檚 reference to a cookery book 鈥渙f very flamboyant nineteenth-century cooking鈥 by Jules Gouff茅.鈥淚 bought this book and saw all of these great illustrations,鈥 Gondry explains: 鈥淎t the time photographs were not as sharp as they are now so they had to draw little lines around them so that you could print them and still recognise what was there. This gave me the idea to bring a sort of artificial aspect to the food 鈥 a mix of photos of real food, felt, paint and different materials. I used stop animation like in The Science of Sleep鈥: we鈥檇 finish the day with the actors, leave everything on the spot and the animator would come in; using the same camera, and the same lighting and angle they would animate the food very carefully frame by frame. The next day we鈥檇 carry on shooting.鈥
鈥淲e did only one or two weeks of bluescreen 鈥 it just makes you depressed. Some movies are shot entirely on bluescreen and you can feel that the actors just aren鈥檛 in the same world鈥 really wanted to focus on [the actors鈥橾 performance, that鈥檚 why we didn鈥檛 use [much] digital post production; a lot of it, like when they try to eat the sausage and it keeps moving, was just little tricks 鈥 here we had fishing wire so they really were trying to catch it.鈥
While Gondry鈥檚 small-scale set pieces favour mechanical tricks rather than high-tech gadgets, his larger props brought with them a slightly taller order, as producer Luc Bossi explains: 鈥淢ichel was determined to reconstruct part of Colin鈥檚 apartment on the roof of the offices of French daily, 尝颈产茅谤补迟颈辞苍, to ensure some real views of Paris to add to those we鈥檇 already come up with in the studio. Assembling a set on a roof would significantly add to the budget and some of the crew were sceptical, but Michel was determined. And the roofs of Paris on the screen really do bring something extra.鈥 The film includes a myriad of illusions and visual triumphs 鈥 a joyride over Paris in a cloud-like glass bubble; a factory filled with hundreds of typewriters attached to conveyer belts, intended to illustrate workers finishing Vian鈥檚 story line by line; and finally the physical shrinking of Colin鈥檚 apartment to which each day the crew 鈥渁dded more dust to make it become smaller, more oppressive.鈥
Gondry notes that his 鈥渕ain concern was how to translate the romanticism and relationship of Chlo茅 and Colin, and the sadness of the end of the story; in this very rich universe, I still wanted the focus to be on them,鈥 and the design of the film does bolster rather than infringe upon the performances of his cast 鈥 they are often reacting as much as they are acting. With his cast, Gondry achieves a series of mesmerising characters in addition to the two leads.
Omar Sy is Nicolas, Colin鈥檚 employed Swiss Army knife and friend, who is strangely also, according to Gondry: 鈥淭he most scientific, articulate man in the story.鈥 Nicolas becomes a grounded protector of Chlo茅 when Colin can no longer cope, and with this closeness becomes one of the first characters to decline as the story darkens: ageing 50 years from one day to the next.
Meanwhile, Chick is the turbulence to clash with Nicolas鈥檚 steady foundation 鈥 a fascinating character and the epitome of Vian鈥檚 black yet playful humour. Chick is a hard-core addict; his romantic life, financial situation, work and entire life is plagued by a single vice: Jean-Sol Partre (Vian鈥檚 witticism on Jean-Paul Sartre). Gad Elmaleh absolutely masters the look of a man gnawed away at by a compulsion, and therefore creates an agitated contrast to the film鈥檚 otherwise relaxed movement, dialogue and music. As Gondry comments: 鈥淣owadays it鈥檚 hard to imagine how a philosopher, like Jean-Paul Sartre, was a star and masses of people would wait outside his lectures and fight to get in. The closest modern example I could think of was Steve Jobs presenting the new iPad. But I didn鈥檛 want to sell an iPad 鈥 I thought that I needed to include the famous thinker.鈥
It may seem ridiculous to contemporary audiences to present Chick鈥檚 interest as akin to drug addiction, yet with this Gondry achieves a genuine portrayal of intellectual obsession 鈥 just as the physical worsening of the apartment mirrors growing depression; Nicolas鈥檚 sudden ageing reflects the effect of trauma; and Colin鈥檚 willingness to take on ridiculous jobs, losing them almost immediately due to his absent-mindedness, depicts the actions of a desperate lover. In Vian and Gondry鈥檚 combined fantastical, seemingly nonsense world, there is in fact a huge amount of truth. Of course the core of this world is the relationship between Colin and Chlo茅, which is first recognised with the increasingly eminent exchange: 鈥淚 feel like my whole life depends on this moment. If I miss it …鈥 鈥 Colin. 鈥淚 think the exact opposite. If we miss this moment, we try at the next one and if we fail, we try at the next moment again. We have our whole life to make it work.鈥 鈥 Chlo茅.
These short lines identify Colin鈥檚 insecurity compared with Chlo茅鈥檚 optimism and confidence; as Gondry recognises, he is the main character but 鈥渟he is the one you fall in love with.鈥 In casting the role, the director states 鈥淭he first actress I could think of was Audrey; I had always thought that she had the capacity to be fragile, but there鈥檚 also something strong in her 鈥 she always carries a movie on her shoulders 鈥 She has an energy that was essential to the character 鈥 Chlo茅 has to find the strength to reassure everyone else so that everyone else can reassure her in turn. There鈥檚 a clarity in her face that reminds me of actresses of the golden age like Lauren Bacall. She also has a sensitivity that evokes stars of the silent screen.鈥 Romain Duris followed Tautou in the casting, 鈥渢o harmonise with her,鈥 and impressed the director in his very first scene during which 鈥渉e has to shoot at water lilies with a twisted rifle鈥, something that Gondry notices 鈥渋s not easy to do. Sometimes, an actor鈥檚 talent isn鈥檛 measured by how they get across some amazing emotions, but by how good they are at making you believe in the simple things.鈥
What Tautou and Duris are truly effective in conveying is this sort of utopian, flawless romance between Chlo茅 and Colin, an idea very rarely played out on contemporary cinema screens. Still, this is not strictly a contemporary story (set somewhere between 1947, 1970 and 2014). Gondry鈥檚 film communicates a recollection. He says, 鈥淚 had memories of the first time I read the book more than 30 years ago: very vivid flashbacks in my mind that I wanted to integrate into the movie.鈥 The effect of this is that the representation of love and relationships within Mood Indigo 鈥塱s based on the opinion of a teenager 鈥 na茂ve and uncomplicated; and combined with Vian鈥檚 intellectual wit and Gondry鈥檚 vivid illustration of an all-encompassing psychological and physical decline, this becomes a poignant rather than foolish notion.
Gondry鈥檚 affection for L鈥櫭ヽume des Jours and admiration for Boris Vian is evident in the film鈥檚 proximity to the novel, and its considered additions: Colin鈥檚 railway carriage apartment, for example, is based on an American diner as Vian adored American culture but could barely travel due to his heart condition, and the typewriter-filled factory, which asserts to viewers that Gondry鈥檚 story, L鈥櫭ヽume des Jours, is not his own. The director explains that his sensitive approach was influenced by Boris Vian鈥檚 death during the screening of the first adaptation 鈥 鈥渉e died very young, at 39 鈥 I felt I didn鈥檛 want him to die a second time, if he鈥檚 watching me from the heavens.鈥
Mood Indigo 鈥is a handcrafted, whimsical and timeless film that fades from optimism to despair, and finally moves from vivid colour into the greyscale of genuine tragedy; it is a unique and fearless piece, as Romain Duris reflects: 鈥淚t deals as much with what one loses as with what one gains.鈥
Mood Indigo 鈥is released 1August in UK cinemas. .
Chloe Hodge
