Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?

A series of interviews featuring linguist, philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky done in hand-drawn animation.

Because of Gondry's accent, and at times because of Chomsky's age, the discussion is a bit difficult to understand, and you have to focus. Interestingly, there is a communication breakdown between Gondry and Chomsky, as well, because of translation and pronunciation issues.

The film is part biographical, part about language acquisition. There is no discussion of politics, which is probably good, because it makes this a much more timeless presentation.

There is mention of "irreducible complexity", which seemed odd, and then Gondry mentions astrology? He seems to be a bit out of his league at times. At least he was able to get Chomsky to talk about his wife Carol, which has been a sensitive topic.

As is usual, this new interview with Noam Chomsky brings out his analysis of current and recent goings-on in the world, focusing on how U.S. might and knowledge has been misused to advance U.S. interests, not always successfully. You'll either agree or disagree, but his extensive reading and his bent for radical inquiry produce some striking eye-openers.

The interview also covers Chomsky's views on linguistics and evolutionary biology in terms that will make sense to most lay people.

But what's really new in this particular film is that we learn from Chomsky about his upbringing, his family, and his life since the death of his wife in 2008. Coming from the horse's mouth, this is quite an important addition to our understanding of a remarkable life.

Accompanying the interview are lighthearted stick-figure cartoons illustrating the points at hand. Probably the filmmaker's idea was, laudably enough, to move away from the talking heads format, but the result is pretty goofy and distracting. The interviewer's thick French accent makes his questions hard to follow, but the DVD comes with English subtitles. Plus, over the course of the interview your ears may get habituated enough to the Frenchman's distortions to make out what he's trying to say.

It's a warm, incisive, broad-ranging interview, with lots of new material for even the most dedicated Chomsky devotee.

Then see this. Otherwise it's just sad to shut down Michel s optimism at every turn. Ugh.

Even when they are full of ideas, some filmmakers can be sometimes a bit 'stingy' when they try to film great thinkers. What happens when an image inventor confronts a creator of concepts? There can be many misunderstandings (maybe due to the language barrier?) and theaters can remain painfully empty. Not long ago, in 'Film Socialism', Jean-Luc Godard filmed Alain Badiou talking in front of an empty theater.

It seems that Michel Gondry accepts with great pleasure the emptiness that can sometimes separate images and philosophy on the screen. His film plays with the principle of 'illustration': this funny documentary is made of (often) naive drawings, coming from the discussion between the two men.

The viewer will not leave the theater with a manual on 'generative grammar' of the American linguist, MIT star. Instead he will be struck, blown away by the creative explosion of a free filmmaker, an inventor renewing at a rate of a thousand digressions and associations of ideas, with its memorial vein and dream, like in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep (his most romantic period). No wonder that the film is secretly haunted by Chomsky's absolute love for his late wife, Carol. Nonetheless, I found this 'little film' immensely refreshing.

This is a fantastic, intelligent wedding of word and image. It's like a genuine synthesthetic experience, like the animator wanted us to have a cogent, dependable hallucination of Chomsky's brilliant, eloquent statements. From time to time I would sort of "forget" whether I was hearing Chomsky or seeing what he was saying; they sometimes switched places... or (perhaps more accurately) truly merged in my mind, like finally having the image of one of those 3D "art" images pop out at you when your eyes finally settle into the correct parallax and focus mix. I found that when I was relaxed and letting the flow of ideation wash over me, my experience was "of a piece"; almost psychedelically.

What can I say? It's just a lovely way to mainline a genius' thinking; the filmmaker succeeds in his quest to enhance and tease out the intuitive aspects to technical/scientific thinking; and that's downright inspirational!

Check it out.

--------Addendum

Just want to add one more point. As much as I find Chomsky's politics to be vital and morally attuned, it STILL strikes me as a great artistic decision on the part of Gondry to 1) minimize the politics, 2) put them off 'til (largely) the end, and 3) subsume them to the task of conveying warmth (not urgency). You get a measured, requisite dose of Chomsky's politics, *without* the overwhelming sense one often gets with Chomsky that, up against so much troglodytic inertia, the task truly daunts. Bravo.