IS THE MAN WHO IS TALL HAPPY?

MICHEL GONDRY at BERLINALE PANORAMA 2014

(Documentary / Animation, USA 2013 by Michel Gondry, with Noam Chomsky, Michel Gondry)

Critique by Sieva Diamantakos

IS THE MAN WHO IS TALL HAPPY? - by Michel Gondry

Is the man who is tall happy is a conversation between Michel Gondry and Noam Chomsky, one of the most influential thinkers of our time. While Noam talks, the director animates his thoughts with his wonderful drawings, drowning the viewer in an ocean of coloured scenes. The topics are linguistics, learning processes and science while Noam’s political views are barely touched. There is also space for the intellectual’s personal life, from his childhood onwards, but not enough to give the audience something deep to dig into.

Many topics are just hinted, and due to the vastness of the subject they are useful for further elaboration. On the other hand the French speaker Gondry does not seem to fully understand the intellectual partly because of his English, partly because his interviews sometimes don’t focus the points. The director starts the film with an assumption that seems to unify his editing theories with Noam’s ones; the audience isn’t aware of the manipulative process in cinema because they forget the cuts, a faculty called psychic continuity. Gondry says his movie wouldn’t follow this pattern, because it will make the audience aware that it is just his interpretation.

One of the main topics of the movie centers around the ideal of teaching: Noam openly criticises the competitive school system that has its main limits in the way the present concepts become dogmas where students are allowed only to remember and not to question them. In life and in our careers (especially scientific ones) we should learn how to be puzzled, to develop ideas of our own and not taking anything for granted. If we don’t do that, we risk to simply become replicas of someone’s else mind while science doesn’t go any further.

The concept of endowment has been widely explored by Noam: Through his research the nature of our cognitive system is criticised. This is due to the fact that scientists, philosophers etc… don’t pay enough attention to our innate mechanisms that are the reason why children are able to construct complex phrases at very young age, avoiding by instinct the easiest solution. The example that follows gives the title to Michel Gondry’s documentary. When children construct the interrogative sentence “Is the man who is tall happy?”, they use a much a more complicated structural proximity instead of linear proximity. This is a good example for us to be puzzled.

Chomsky is almost never shown while the drawings visualise the concepts; they are undoubtedly beautiful and moving but sometimes a little too fast to be stuck in your mind. The director sometimes shows his opinion too, as in the case of inspiration. He admits that ideas often come to his mind because of misunderstandings. For the thinker, the source of inspiration is still unknown and it changes widely among individuals.

Chomsky and Gondry

One of the most emotional traits of the documentary goes into Chomsky’s personal life. While he refuses to talk about his recently deceased wife, admitting he didn’t get over it, Gondry shows both of them walking over the clouds on two horses while a song from Mia Doi Todd completes the touching scenario.

If you judge the conversation itself as a source to deepen your knowledge about concepts, it doesn’t fully reach the aim, but if you look at it as an inspirational piece of art, you can be thrilled. With this spirit, each time you see this documentary, Chomsky’s words and Gondry’s mixed media technique will become more and more fascinating.

Gondry will be part of the Berlinale Main Competition Jury, while his film is shown in the Panorama section for the European Premiere.

Evaluation of the film: * * *