Sixty-one-year-old music video director, producer and filmmaker Michel Gondry lives in New York, while his child daughter Maya lives in France. Like any loving father, he misses her enormously. So he found a peculiar way to communicate with her, while also ensuring that he remains actively engaged in her life, fantasies and dreams. He asks Maya to name a film title, and he creates a short story in order to illustrate her request. This 61-minute feature film consists of these brief creations, combined with short videos of Maya making her request to the camera. These interactions took place during the period of six year.
The handmade stop-motion technique employed in music videos such as Bjork’s Human Nature is employed on the silver screen for the first time. It may come a surprise to some, but Maya, Give me a Title is Michel Gondry’s very first animated feature film. The drawings here are a lot simpler and more puerile than Gondry’s early creations, with crooked lines, plush and extravagant colours – exactly as you would expect from a small child. Gondry embraces unrestrained absurdity. His imagination is wilder than most children’s, with a succession of incredible twists and resolutions ensuring audiences remain hooked throughout.
The titles proposed by Maya start with a very succinct “Earthquake”, on to “Bird Airplane”. and then progressively moving to more elaborate demands such as “At Sea With Bottle of Ketchup. A disaster-prone, drum-playing version of Michel Gondry is featured in his the film, as is Maya’s mother. She accidentally cuts off her own arm while chopping onions (the message is clear: stay away from sharp objects, kids!). Squirrels on hammocks, giant cats who rescue children from harm, a clock fish, a mini-Maya who nearly gets flushed down the bathtub, and a bird-propelled airplane made from household appliances are all central characters.
French actor Pierre Niney delivers the narration with passion and confidence. Handwritten English subtitles pop across the screen, ensuring that the movie remains intelligible to children across the globe. Strangely, the Berlinale opted to have live German interpretation on top of the movie’s sound. The outcome was genuinely awful, killing off not only Niney’s performance, but also the work of music supervisor Frédéric Junqua. It also prevented film reviewers such as myself from evaluating various aspects of them film.
Gondry returned to filmmaking after a 10-year hiatus two years ago with The Book of Solutions. Maya, Give me a Title goes one step further: it represents a return to simplicity. A heartwarming and inspirational creation. A movie guaranteed to put a smile on the face of adults and children alike.
Maya, Give me a Title premiered in the 75th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival, when this piece was originally written. Also showing at IndieLisboa.
