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An Artistic Look at Noam Chomsky by Karl Cohen
Michael Gondry creates a whole new breed doc with 'Is the Who Is Tall Happy' about eclectic thinker and political radical Noam Chomsky. photo: courtesy M. Gondry
"IS THE MAN WHO IS TALL HAPPY?
An Animated Conversation with Noam Chomsky", Michel Gondry's new film, which will be at the Roxie Nov. 29 through Dec. 5, is a delightful, engrossing series of intelligent interviews with the brilliant scholar.
The conversations between Chomsky and Gondry are fast paced and touch on numerous topics ranging from the MIT professor’s life and ideas about creativity to his theories on the emergence of language in primitive man, the development of intelligence in infants and why asking questions in the early 16th Century created modern science, among MANY other things.
Instead of creating a visually boring talking-head documentary, Gondry fills the screen with his personal style of hand-drawn animation. The ever-changing visuals, filmed with a 16mm Bolex camera, range from interesting, abstract doodles to not-so-simple drawings which are colorful and engaging to the point that they increase our interest in the conversation but do not impede the meaning of what is being said.
To avoid distracting his audience from the spoken word, Gondry's images are varied and engaging, but not detailed enough to dominate over the sound track. Some are straight ahead figurative animations, but they avoid creating a narrative. There are repetitive cycles of people doing things and other images are abstract designs.
He also uses moving lines that create still pictures. Gondry does not bore us by repeating his images over and over. While some do reappear, the colors may be different or they are in an alternative setting.
Some of the rich imagery that makes Gondry's new doc so enthralling. photo: courtesy M. Gondry
As kids, many of us are taught it is impolite to talk about sex, religion and politics, so some of Chomsky’s statements may raise eyebrows. For example he suggests at one point religions have arisen in all societies as humans are not satisfied to accept the notion that we simply go from dust to dust and that there is no great meaning to our lives.
Chomsky also brings up personal things including his first memories as an infant, his childhood and college memories, his experiences with anti-Semitism and his being arrested for anti-war activism.
Although he often broaches discussion of his trademark dense, theoretical ideas, he explains his thoughts with language that is easy to understand, avoiding the use of specialized vocabulary common to scholars in specialized fields of study.
Gondry at work on his 16mm Bolex based animation stand. photo: courtesy M. Gondry
While you may not understand clearly everything he says, you won't feel he is talking over your head either. The film is an intelligent conversation and hopefully you will enjoy listening to it.
Gondry has worked for years as an animator/director on music videos, TV commercials and the features "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Human Nature." His current film is a new kind of positive cinema experience for mature audiences, a creative blend of the animation and documentary form that is both an intelligent and an interesting documentary.
It is an excellent display of both his artistic talents and Chomsky's intellectual ideas.
Karl Cohen is an animation maven, organizer, teacher and critic and can be reached here, .