Michel Gondry “The Thorn in the Heart” Q&A at Village East Cinema
Only a few days ago I was thinking: isn’t it amazing that everyone must acknowledge their own death as it’s happening; an incredibly courageous thing to do, even when done in cowardice, which means no mortal escapes at least one heroic deed—the experience of death alone makes everyone’s life extraordinary.
This brings us to Michel Gondry’s latest film. Since reading reviews before watching a movie is a ridiculous idea, I went to Village East Cinema thinking The Thorn in the Heart was about Michel Gondry’s idiosyncratic family, and that the woman in the poster/trailer was his mom; maybe The Gondry’s were a real-life French version of a Wes Anderson family, with a subtler, darker sense of humor. It turns out the primary characters of the documentary are Michel’s 80-something aunt, Suzette, and her middle-aged son, Jean-Yves. Both of them are wonderful characters, but I found the troubled Jean-Yves (who built elaborate sets for his model trains and made Super 8 movies as a child) to be a subject worthy of further investigation; yet the film is less about anything singularly remarkable than it is about the fact of having lived.
