It’s been far too many years since audiences have gotten to see director Michel Gondry’s imagination make it to the screen in unfettered form, as last year’s The We and the I was centered in reality and The Green Hornet before that was not the kind of fantasy film Gondry fans want to see. Luckily, his next film Mood Indigo looks like his most visually ambitious effort yet, and U.S. audiences will soon be able to see it now that Drafthouse Films has acquired the rights. To celebrate the occasion, they also released a new still from the film, seen above, which unfortunately doesn’t involve miniature musicians or swaths of flowers.
Mood Indigo is based on the 1947 novel L’Écume des Jours from French author Boris Vian. It centers on the blossoming romance that forms between Colin (Romain Duris) and Chloé (Audrey Tautou), resulting in a big and fabulous wedding. Colin is a wealthy young man with both a manservant (Omar Sy) and the booziest musical instrument ever created, the pianocktail. He uses his wealth to assist their friends in marriage, and soon sees his life falling apart when Chloé is diagnosed with an incredibly rare condition involving a water lily growing in her lung, where the only remedy is being surrounded by flowers at all times. Rich people’s problems, right? The film also stars Gad Elmaleh, Aissa Maiga and Charlotte Le Bon.
The still really doesn’t impart even the smallest percentage of visual whimsy that Mood Indigo’s trailers are dripping with. The film has achieved a fair amount of critical acclaim over the last nine months, both domestically from its Fantastic Fest screening and internationally, where it has already been released in most markets. Normally I’d complain about being last in line to see something, but Gondry’s work is generally worth the wait.
It seemed at one point that the Alamo Drafthouse brand couldn’t get any cooler, but their distribution company has proven that assumption wrong, and Gondry is the latest filmmaker to get their special brand of promotion. While no specific dates have been set, Drafthouse will be giving the film a theatrical release at some point in 2014. I can’t wait to see Gondry’s "No Cell Phones in Theaters" ad.
Below you’ll find two trailers for Mood Indigo, though only the first has English subtitles. The second trailer is more focused on unique worldbuilding rather than dialogue anyway.
