MOOD INDIGO

France, 2013, 125 minutes, Colour.
Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Omar Sy, Gad Elamaleh, Aissa Maga.
Directed by Michel Gondry.

Mood Indigo is certainly an arresting title for a film. Those who go to the film out of curiosity about the title will either be enthralled and captivated by its imagination or simply bewildered by the story, the behaviour for the characters, and the steady downward spiral to a mood that is even darker than indigo.

The film is based on a novel by Boris Vian has an amusing quote from him at the opening about the film being true because he made it up from beginning to end. The original title of his novel is L’ecume des Jours. Ecume means froth, but the froth of these days is light while the sadness is deeper.

However, the film is very much the work of writer-director, Michel Gondry. A Frenchman, he is best remembered worldwide for his imaginative film, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. This film played with ideas of identity, loss of identity, creation of a new identity, the role of memory. While Mood Indigo does not explore these themes so explicitly, they are there in the background of an unusual story. It might be noted that Gondry also directed Human Nature, The Science of Sleep, Be Kind Rewind.

Audiences know right from the beginning that this is going to be unusual and possibly exotic. The hero, Colin, Romain Duris, a popular star of many French films, is something of an inventor. His house is full of all kinds of mechanical wonders, some very helpful for maintenance, some for cooking, others toy-like inventions. He is assisted by his cook, Omar Sy, the assistant in The Intouchables. Colin would like to be something of a man about town, but is rather a loner and awkward in his manner. His cook, Nicolas, originally from Africa, is a model of urbane manners and hierarchical respect. He also has a talent for modern dancing! So far, so amusing and intelligible. With, of course, the touch of the oddball.

At a social, Colin, on the lookout for feminine company, encounters Chloe (Audrey Tautou as an older Amelie-type), sweet but a touch awkward, but Colin and Chloe fall in love. This brings in Duke Ellington’s music as a theme, with Chloe and other songs. The love story is accompanied by humorous scenes, comic scenes, slapstick scenes, and the intervention of the inventions.

Also at hand is Colin’s friend Chick (Gad Elmaleh) comes to visit, enjoying meals from Nicholas, and play Colin invention, the cocktail piano. Which produces different kinds of drinks according to the chords one plays. Chick is also in love with Nicolas’ niece, Alice.

While the film is often in bright colour, the colour begins to fade somewhat as the film goes on. This is especially true when Chloe is diagnosed with a severe illness, and lily growing in her lung, which needs myriad flowers around her in order to strike the power of the lily. This has a terrible effect on Colin and his mood, desperately in love with Chloe, but spending all his money on doctors and medicines. And he has to find jobs to continue to support her, some really odd jobs, like lying on a mound of earth to give warmth for the growth of a range of bullets for rifles.

Gondry, though he has worked in Hollywood, obviously does not believe in Hollywood endings and the film loses most of its visual colour, moves into the darkness of black and white, and some final symbolic but bewildering images.

(Not all the film reviewers at the preview stayed the length of the film, either becoming bored or exasperated. This is certainly a possibility for many viewers who may be taken aback by the style and story and refuse to be tantalised by its clues. But for those caught up by Vian’s and Gondry’s imagination, they probably might decide to see it again and to put it all together.)

1. Reality and fantasy, the impact of the film, audience interest, enjoyment, imagination, challenge, irritation?

2. Reality and unreality? The surreal style? Allegory, the title of the novel? The title of the film?

3. The animation, cartoon style?

4. Vian and his story, the time of writing, adaptation to the present, the caption that it was true – with ironic comment? Truth versus reality? The importance of Duke Ellington and the musical score?

5. The writing of the book, the computers, moving onto the next, Colin and his typing, failing? The whole book being created – and failing?

6. Colin, in himself, at home, alone, the bath and the hole, gadgets and inventions, the presence of the mouse? Cooking, the television and help, the meals, the piano cocktail? Chick as his friend, the visits?

7. Nicholas, in himself, cooking, eels, complex, moving, the trash, the cake? Calling Colin: Sir, his formalities? Alice, Nicholas and the social, the dance rehearsal, helping, staying, concerned about Chloe, her age? Sympathetic?

8. Chick, author, buying things, drinking the perfume, playing the pianococktail? Alice, love, together, separated, preoccupation, the mannequin, author, shooting, fire?

9. Alice, the niece, Chick, social, Chloe, marriage, the help, concern, especially with the fire?

10. Chloe, Duke Ellington, television, the disks, awkward but nice, with Colin, his embarrassment, the dance, in love, together, the building site, the swan, falling, the proposal, the wedding, in the preparation, running, the race and winning, the church, the ceremony? Nicholas and the ring?

11. The change to ordinary life, and niceness?

12. The change in tone, the fading, black and white, Indigo?

13. Colin, the doctor, the diagnosis, the lily, buying the flowers, the treatment, the difficulties?

14. The Oracle, going to the mountains, getting the job? Chloe, the train, Nicholas and his promise? Getting better in the mountains? Losing his lung, the decline, in the flowers, death?

15. Colin, his money, the payment, the invoice, the job interview, the mockery and laughter, at home? Nicholas, his age, costing?

16. The job, warming the ammunition, naked, failure, the bad shots?

17. Colin, shooting the flowers?

18. The funeral, the pauper and the church? The role of the bridges, reappearing?

19. Throwing the coffin, the hearse, the bridge, the grave, the ending?

20. The experience of the film, from joy and laughter to a grim feeling? And the end underwater?