This podcast is being brought to you by WXAV.com. WXAV. Bringing the best artists to you. The sixth annual Chicago French Film Festival is taking place the week of July 22nd through the July 28th year in Chicago at the Music Box Theatre and your absolutely wonderful film Microbe and Gasoline will be shown there.
Now you wrote and directed Microbe and Gasoline. Can you discuss a little bit of what your inspiration was for telling the story? Well, the inspiration was, I mean, it was a time where I was thinking of this time of my life and why I was friend with the most rejected or outcast of the class year after year. So I realized that I was fine with them because they were more interesting than the average kid.
So I remember this type of relationship I had on our dreams at the time, my issues, my sort of existence and problem, my fear. But that was the starting point for the story. And it's an absolutely fascinating story and you really do focus on the oddballs and also kind of opposites attract. And you really see that in the friendship of Daniel and Theo because one's very outgoing, doesn't care what other people think, what one cares very much, what people think.
Can you talk a little bit about how their friendship is so central to the story? Well, the movie is about their friendship, so therefore it's going to be the sort of the movie. But I mean, the adventure they go through is sort of a background for their story and hearing how their brain and their emotions function. So, I mean, I think the actors are really captivating.
And it's really what I wanted to talk about. It was more fun to see them in this road trip with this crazy and bizarre adventure than to see them sitting in a room and speaking to each other. Absolutely, and they really go on great adventures. And I got to say, I love the house car.
It's just such a great visual. Your films are so visually stunning to look at. Can you talk a little bit about how you approach photographing this film? Well, I was coming off a very graphic and visual, complicated film, a movie in the middle, and I wanted to shoot this one the opposite way.
So, I had one camera, we used always a semblance, and the camera was on a tripod, and it was shot like a normal movie in a classical way. So, I guess it sort of created an aesthetic, because it's not really how movies are shot these days. Which was really about being honest and literal. What do you see as kind of films greatest artistic merits?
Why is it that we humans get so attached to film in your opinion? Well, I mean, it's a show with a spectacar, so you go and see it, you have a good time, then you have a good memory of the film attached to this moment of your life. Then you can identify more or less to the character, and then so you get part of the film, and then you leave an adventure that you enter beyond the internet, and you leave an adventure that's not necessarily that you are not part of, because you're not part of the screen, but you forget the screen and then you're in the story. And I think that's why it's sort of addictive.
Now, you've been working in film for close to 20 years now, you know, you've been in a band, so you really have been around this industry for a long time. How do you balance your artistic vision for a story that you're trying to tell while still making it accessible to the masses commercially, things like that? Well, I don't take all these elements in account. I mean, some are the result of something else I try to achieve.
And like the way a microman gathering looks, it's not something I wanted to, this is dedicated, I don't want to create it, but it was there because of how I wanted to shoot my actors. So it's not really deliberate. I'm also beginning of the question, maybe you can refer it to me. Sure, how do you, when you come up with a story that you want to tell, what's your general approach that you take with it?
Do you usually have like a target audience in mind, or is it just very broad instead? No, I don't target energy. I cannot control that. I mean, the audience, the type of audience will get comes pretty clear when the movie is finished.
Another movie is financed, so there's also a producer on the financial, final think people take a guess on the potential of the audience to put the money on the table. But from my point of view, I always hope that most people will see the film, but it varies from film to film. One final question I have for you, we're affiliated with a university. Do you have any advice for any aspiring student filmmakers?
I think it's very important to finish the project. If you start something and you don't finish it, the next time you do a project, you won't have any confidence to finish it. And then even if it sucks and it doesn't really reflect what you want to achieve, you can't really evaluate that or learn anything if you have not finished a project. And the second advice is a start project.
So because a lot of aspiring directors are very good at talking about projects, but they very few actually make it happen. So you really have to find a way to shoot your film. And as well as the third advice, it's not to try to be influenced by a visual director like Kubrick or also Nuevson. I really love this director, but you don't want to look at the film too much to do your first film.
I'll find the subject that it's really personal to you. I mean, it's really what I think for myself, but if people ask me my opinion, it's what I say. Well, thank you so much for giving so generous of your time today. Again, the French Film Festival is taking place here in Chicago, July 22nd through July 28th.
And you can see the great film, Microbe and Gasoline. It's wonderful and highly recommend you go check it out. Michelle Gondry, the writer and director. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you.