Movie News

MARCH 19 To what does Michel Gondry attribute his success as a director of music videos (including “The Hardest Button to Button”) and movies (Human Nature)? He says he owes it all to the White Stripes. “The best thing that can happen to a director is if you get onboard with a band that’s just taking off and you go to the summit with them,” says the 40-year-old Parisian. Today, he trades MTV for the multiplex with his second feature film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Jim Carrey stars as a man who undergoes an experimental procedure to have his ex-girlfriend (Kate Winslet) erased from his memory, but when he changes his mind midway through the operation, it creates a Being John Malkovich-like limbo in Carrey’s head, where much of the movie takes place. (Not coincidentally, Malkovich screenwriter Charlie Kaufman also wrote Sunshine’s script.) Gondry’s biggest dilemma was being a Frenchman in the United States during the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq. “I had an argument with some of the film’s crew,” he recalls. “The 80-year-old union boss came in the next day. He’s like, ‘Are you Michel Gondry?’ And I said, ‘Yes, but people call me French Toast.’ And he was like, ‘No. Liberty Toast.’ He was totally serious.”

 

1. H.R. Pufnstuf: The Complete Series So that the next generation of stoners can enjoy the adventures of young Jimmy and the whimsical dragon mayor of its title, all 17 episodes of 1969's H.R. Pufnstuf are rolled into this three-disc set. Creators Sid and Marty Krofft may deny the countercultural implications of their classic kiddie show's decidedly psychedelic look, but anyone familiar with the Mr. Show parody "Druggachusettes" knows better.

2. Journeys With George While campaigning with then-candidate Bush, filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi recorded this portrait of a baseball enthusiast who discovers there's little more to politics than a firm handshake and an oversize Texas belt buckle. While she's treated like a bimbo with a camera, Pelosi (daughter of California Rep. Nancy Pelosi) captures our commander in chief as a personable, slightly stern guy who might have made a ?better middle-school principal.

3. Blow-Up Groovy, baby: Available for the first time on DVD, this film is the real inspiration for Austin Powers. Michelangelo Antonioni's moody portrait of a fashion photographer (played by David Hemmings) who accidentally captures a murder on film (or does he?) is a perfectly preserved piece of mod-era swinging London and the model-bedding men who made the most of the scene. Think of it as a prototype for CSI -- with the Yardbirds and orgies. D.V.