ReFocus : the films of Michel Gondry /

Edinburgh's "ReFocus" series on international directors, published since 2018, has featured anthologies on a variety of un- and underrecognized international filmmakers, including Zoya Akhtar, Lisandro Alonso, Rakhshan Banietemad, Shyam Benegal, Susanne Bier, Rachid Bouchareb, Pedro Costa, Xavier Dolan, Joaquín Jordá, Pablo Larrain, Corneliu Porumboiu, Teuvo Tulio, Francis Veber, Jocelyn Saab, and Sohrab Shadid Saless. The series also includes more familiar names: Albert Brooks, William Friedkin, John Hughes, Spike Jonze, Paul Leni, Elaine May, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Doris Wishman. This volume on Gondry features a pair of essays on his best-known work, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), as well as essays on lesser-known films such as The Science of Sleep (2006), Be Kind Rewind (2008), Mood Indigo (2013), and Microbe & Gasoline (2015). There's also one devoted to The Green Hornet (2011), a big-budget superhero film that, as Jennifer Kirby writes, mocks its superhero while heroizing his Asian American sidekick. One of the two essays on Eternal Sunshine treats it as an "art romantic comedy"--recalling David Bordwell's definition of art cinema in Minding Movies (CH, Jul'11, 48-6177) and elsewhere (http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/category/art-cinema/). The other piece views the film as "apocalyptic" comedy that destroys what it uncovers. This useful introduction to Gondry could benefit from a filmography and bibliography. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. --John Belton, emeritus, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick