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It was a summer morning in 1959. Boris Vian, an eccentric young French writer, was at the screening of the adaptation of his book called “I will Spit on Your Graves.” He knew what the film would be. He didn’t like it and had tried to get his name removed from the credits. Soon after the film began he started shouting at the producers, but then collapsed and tragically died on the way to the hospital.
Boris Vian had thus far only been successful with books published under his pseudonym, Vernon Sullivan. But after his sudden death, people started to get interested in the novels published under his real name as well — the novels he saw as his best works. “L’Écume des Jours” (Mood Indigo) is one of the few that was translated into English. Three times actually, since his books have many made up (French) words and word plays, which makes them incredibly hard to translate. And if a book is hard to translate, imagine how hard it would be to turn into a movie. A daring endeavor Michel Gondry took upon him.
Mood Indigo follows a young, wealthy man (Romain Duris), who falls in love with a girl he meets at a party (Audrey Tautou). Seems straight enough, right? Well, it would be if you don’t count the mouse that lives inside his house, in a mini version of his house. Or his shoes that bark and try to run away from him. Or the pianocktail, a paino that produces a cocktail based on what music you play. If this all makes little sense, wait until Audrey Tautou’s character grows a flower in her lung and becomes ill. What follows is a long struggle where she has to stay inside surrounded by flowers to stay alive. And without spoiling anything, the end is even more twisted.
Director Michel Gondry is unquestionably an incredibly creative man. But creativity isn’t everything as his filmography shows. He is responsible for Jim Carrey’s best film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). But at the same time directed one of Seth Rogen’s worst film, The Green Hornet (2011).
“An extremely mixed experiment”
In between he did Be Kind Rewind (2008) with Jack Black, which was a bit hit-and-miss. And directed Gael García Bernal in The Science of Sleep (2006), which I personally really enjoyed.
So after seeing those films, what can you expect from a extremely daring adaptation of a book many claimed unfilmable? The sad truth is: an extremely mixed experiment. There are many things to like about Mood Indigo. The cast is very enjoyable. It’s shot beautifully. And it’s incredibly quirky and creative at its core. But the whole film feels like one of those weird dreams. You know, the ones you think about after waking up and they’re so weird and so illogical you stop caring about them? It’s more like a collection of creative ideas thrown together. And at the core there’s a love story that’s simply too predictable and unrelatable. Sometimes the film seems more like quirky videoclip. And sadly it just doesn’t work as a 2 hour long film.
Michel Gondry deserves credit for trying to adapt the work of Boris Vian. But I guess some books are better left to the imagination of the reader and just won’t translate into a movie. What Boris Vian would think of all of this however, we’ll never know. 
Mood Indigo hasn’t been picked up for distribution yet (US). + more dates
filmOA | score
64%
worth the popcorn
