Those who have been sorely disappointed by Michel Gondry's recent body of work (The Green Hornet) should take hope. The filmmaker has a pair of projects that should allow him to flex his creative muscles, the way he did with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep. He's currently at work on The We & The I, a film inspired by his book: You'll Like This Film Because You're In It, which was based in part on Gondry's Be Kind Rewind. And while that community filmmaking project sounds great, it's what he has afterwards which has my attention.
Last summer we learned of his plans to direct The Foam of Days, an adaptation of Boris Vian's 1947 French novel, Froth on the Daydream. Audrey Tatou(Amelie) and Romain Duris(The Beat That My Heart Skipped), two of France's biggest stars, joined the project and now Gondry has added two more international stars who have recently been waking waves here in the States.
Lea Seyoux and Gad Elmaleh are the latest to join the rather unique sounding French-language film. The story centers on Colin, a wealthy man who meets and quickly marries Chloe. During their honeymoon, Chloe becomes ill from a water lilly in her lungs, a rare and painful condition that can only be cured by having her constantly surrounded by flowers, the expense of which drains his fortune.
Seydoux recently appeared in two critically acclaimed films, turning up in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris and as a villain in Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol. Elmaleh also had a small role in Allen's film, and provided one of the voices in Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin. Um, he'd probably like for us all to forget he turned up in Adam Sandler's Jack & Jill, but unfortunately I can't. Sorry, dude.
We probably won't see this until later in 2013, but it's Gondry, and so we have to expect it'll be colorful and visually arresting. Another one to keep a close eye on. [Variety]
