"Be Kind Rewind" brings Michel Gondry to the Apple Store, SF

By Susan Gerhard

“Sweden” is a country that I imagine will want to have nothing to do with “sweding,” which is an invention of the mind that brought us a hirsute Patricia Arquette in “Human Nature,” who can be seen “solving” a Rubik’s Cube with his toes on YouTube, who’s made at least one brilliant music video from Legos, and at least one feature film (“The Science of Sleep”) with a combination of pipe cleaners and cardboard cut-outs. To make a verb of “swede” is no giant leap for film/music video/commercial director Michel Gondry — it’s an imagined name for the process of remaking a beloved film with only the resources of your friends and their favorite thrift stores. Enjoy an hour or so inside the wilds of Gondry’s brain tonight at the Apple Store, SF, on Stockton St., at 7 p.m. I’ll be interviewing Gondry, and showing clips from his latest film, “Be Kind Rewind,” which re-magnetizes a de-magnetized video store by re-creating all the films one strange regular has accidentally erased. It stars Mos Def, Jack Black, and also features Melonie Diaz, Danny Glover, and Mia Farrow.

01.07.2008