Gondry's first feature is a playful examination of, well, human nature. A girl named Lila grows up eventually covered in body hair due to a biological disorder. As a woman (Patricia Arquette), she meets a scientist Nathan (Tim Robbins) who teaches mice table manners, similar to his parents' strict lessons in etiquette when he was a youth.
Lila and Nathan find a man in the wild (Rhys Ifans) who believes he's an ape. The ape-man becomes Puff when Nathan decides to civilize him in his lab in frequently humorous means. Meanwhile, Nathan's lab assistant Gabrielle (Miranda Otto) decides to seduce him as a very convincing French woman. Louise (Rosie Perez) is Lila's friend electrologist and, ultimately, therapist.
The characters are quagmired: Nathan struggles with his parents' strict beliefs (particularly his mother's, played by Mary Kay Place), which has made him a lonely man. Lila struggles with her need to be in nature, free from the ridicule her disorder has caused her, a life which has also made her lonely. Puff struggles with how much of Nathan's game he plays in order to satisfy his only need: his sexual "instinct," played to comic effect. Gabrielle quite acerbically toys with Nathan's weak desires.
All of this is put in the context of a murder and a Congressional hearing.
The flick sees Gondry team up with Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze, writer and director, respectively, of the spellbinding 1999 flick Being John Malkovich. Jonze, of course, is a fellow music-video director that anyone reading this text knows too much (or too little?) about.
Says Gondry: "I'd been in Los Angeles for about a year and I was trying to read as many scripts as I could but they were all really boring to me - I really ended up thinking that all scripts were boring and you just have to make them good as movies. But then Spike (Jonze) gave me the script of Being John Malkovich and I couldn't believe how entertaining it was. It was original, fun, deep and entertaining. I was really happy to see that a good script could exist but then I was depressed because I didn't have one. But then I met with the writer and he gave me his script for Human Nature and I liked it immediately."
"There is so much communication and politics before you even get to the first day of principal photography - It's unbelievable how long it is and how many stages you have to pass by and how many people you have to convince and how many times you think that everything is going to collapse. It's really a miracle to end up actually shooting a movie. A lot of directors will juggle three to five projects until they finally get one going but for me it's impossible to find five projects I liked and I didn't want to have to sacrifice Human Nature. When I found this one I really concentrated on it and I took all the chances I could."
"I don't see the point in becoming a boring director and doing exactly the same as everyone else. I'm not trying to say that I'll be more interesting than anyone else but at least if I can bring something new and challenging then I have to do it. I will make it just like my universe. Even though the story by Charlie is really strong I will try and make it mine too. I'll use techniques and skills I've learnt from doing videos but in a really narrative way, not just to be flashy, but to help the narration. I want to shoot half of the movie on stage and half outside. I like the mix of both - it's like the comedies from the 1950's. It's not so it looks old-fashioned but really to experiment with what is real and what is not and focus on how to tell a story."
"The thing is it's scary but on the other hand I've got such a great script that everyone likes that it gives me an amazing strength to feel confident. Every time I start a commercial or a video I always go through a stage where I don't know exactly who the characters are because it's very short - you've got to build up a background very quickly to give something to fit your actors but here we've been talking so long about the story that I know each character inside out and I've got great casting. I really feel great about it - I know it'll be perfect. The story is very articulated - there are a lot of locations, a lot of scenes - so production wise it's not an easy task, but the story is so good I feel confident." (credit)
Box office total
AMERICAN TOTAL (April 12, 2002): $705,308
Courtesy boxofficemojo.com
DVD
Available in France, with behind the scenes footage, Gondry and Ifans commentary, Gondry's short film "La Lettre," and 3 Oui Oui videos.
Available in USA, with American trailer.
American theatrical release date April 12, 2002.
production companies . . Good Machine, Le Studio Canal Plus
distributor . . Fine Line Features (bought for $3 million)
production began May 2 - wrapped June 30, 2000 in Los Angeles
soundtrack released by Pleximusic, distributed by Ryko.
score by Graeme Revell, with songs by Jean-Michel Bernard, and others (including Michel Gondry and his mother).
Links
Official Sites: Fine Line Features' site, BAC Films' site.
Being Charlie Kaufman has press coverage and more.
Creative Review 10.01 article (excerpt). Click PICS for images.
JoBlo.com has ten small trailers.
indieWIRE article.
'boards magazine 12.00 article.
Telerama.fr 29.11.00 article.
French Premiere magazine posts 12 pictures and some clips.
Image taken at L.A.'s Westlake Studios in June 2000, shows Jean-Michel Bernard, Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry (top), Patricia Arquette, Tracy McKnight, and Anthony Bregman. credit.
Cast And Crew
Director ... Michel Gondry
Screenwriter ... Charlie Kaufman
Producers ... Anthony Bregman, Julie Fong, Ted Hope, Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman
Editor ... Russell Icke
Casting ... Jeanne McCarthy
Production Design ... K.K. Barrett
Art Direction ... Peter Andrus
Set Decoration ... Gene Serdena
Costume Design ... Nancy Steiner
Cast (in alphabetical order)
Patricia Arquette ... Lila
Chase MacKenzie Bebak ... Young Nathan
Peter Dinklage ... Frank
Hilary Duff ... Young Lila
Robert Forster ... Nathan's Dad
Paul Giamatti
Toby Huss ... Young Nathan's Dad
Rhys Ifans ... Puff
Miranda Otto ... Gabrielle
Rosie Perez ... Louise
Mary Kay Place ... Nathan's Mom
Tim Robbins ... Nathan
Miguel Sandoval (I) ... Wendell
Celia Weston
Anthony Winsick ... Wayne
Complete Cast and Crew listings are here at IMDb.com.