Michel Gondry - You'll Like This Film Because You're In It

Gondry

Jack Black and Mos Def in a community film

Writes from a very utopian perspective about community filmmaking: aspires to create a marxist style of filmmaking, yet he largely retains directorial control. Follows the hollywood paradigm: inverse filtering of "actors" by skill.

Economics: is the currency of accreditation worthy of the work of the community actors? What about ownership?

Emphasises authorship over the system: "And the key to my system was this: The people who shot the film were the ones who watched it. There was no concentration of power, so each person has the same amount of connection with the film. No hype. No coercive advertising. And no room for idolization." (Gondry: p19)

Jack Black and Mos Def - hierarchy of actors. If he was interested in making a film about community, why use celebrity actors?

The first failed attempt: "My system seemed to work only because it was held together by the big attractive filmmaking machine." (p21)

Discussion about community

Raymond Williams: On community

Frankfurt school of 'armchair upper-class leftists.'
-> Adorno on kitsch