as far as the eye can see

I am not always as keenly attuned to the future as I should be. I don't have cable so I really wasn't aware of Michel Gondry until Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind came out. Which is one of my favorite movies. Human Nature, his first film, is fantastic when Rhys Ifans gets to take over, and a little trying at other times. However, the collection of Gondry videos that Palm Pictures put together is probably my single favorite DVD of all time (until a proper Ladislaw Starewicz collection comes out). If you haven't seen it, take a few days off of work and dive in. It is inspiring, funny and really not as shallow as it should be. Some of my favorite junk on there is the early stuff for his band, Oui Oui, and another insane French hiphop nugget called "Le Mia." http://www.palmpictures.com/videos/theworkofdirectormichelgondry.html

... which actually reminds me that there are still a lot of cool video jobbers from France that they do not share with us baseball-hat-wearing SUV-driving neandarthals in the US of A. But they should, cause we need 'em:

1. La Vieille Dame et les Pigeons, which is the hilarious, superb prequel to Triplets of Belleville. By Sylvain Chomet and Nicolas de Crécy, as was Triplets before de Crécy had his name taken off. Or so I'm told.

2. Delicatessen is still not on English-language DVD, last time I checked. What kind of nonsense is that??? This is my favorite non-animated (?) film of all time.

3. The first flick (as far as I know) from Jeunet and Caro (the Delicatessen guys) called Le Bunker de la Dernière Rafale. It's a student flick, but it's enjoyable and makes the miracle of Delicatessen all the more mind-boggling, after seeing what they can do with some friends, killer props and an abandoned bunker.

4. The bug movie to end all bug movies - better even than Joe's Apartment, I daresay, - MICROCOSMOS. It's touching and elegant and filming it was technically as mind-blowing as filming anything else you've ever seen. Plus you will cry in empathy for a dung-beetle.

5. Going out on a limb here, a little, but we McAmericans deserve to at least check out Dobermann. Which is visually rich and bugged-out funny, if hyperviolent and not very soulful, like Tarantino. I've seen it several times and I still think the good outweighs the bad on this. The 2-disc version from France has all of Jan Kounen's short films and commercials, some of which are amazing (like Gisèle Kérozène) and some that are just eye candy. Another flick by the same guy, called Blueberry, has tremendous visual effects but is overall unwatchable (the botoxed acting by Juliette Lewis is no help to the French actors trying to sound like cowboys.. although it is unintentionally funny). Released in the states as Renegade.. rent and skip to the shaman scenes... they're pretty marvellous, in a Naked Lunch sort of way, and they are obviously the reason the rest of the film got made. I will look forward to whatever Kounen does next.