Maya, Give Me a Title

Michel Gondry has always been a remarkable explorer of cinematic form. Far from confining himself to a single genre, he ventures into everything: feature films, shorts, fiction, animated documentaries, commercials, music videos. And within each genre, he explores again: temporality, plays on dimensions and perspectives, redundancies, technology alongside the analog, all infused with color. What unites all of Gondry’s works—such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind, and The Science of Sleep—is the unusual creativity of someone who never rests on his laurels.

So, it’s no surprise to learn that after his separation from the mother of his daughter Maya, Gondry continues to communicate with his little girl, who has a lively imagination. With Maya, Give Me a Title, Michel Gondry invites us to discover short paper-animated films that he creates from titles or snippets of stories his daughter provides. Just a single word is enough for the father to start inventing talking fish, seas of ketchup, burglar cats. It’s as if the filmmaker is inviting us to storytime. Maya, who has inherited her father’s mischievous traits, appears to announce the story titles in a playful setting. We would have loved to hear or see Maya’s reactions to these little films, but in any case, we can sense how much this father misses his daughter’s presence.

Maya, Give Me a Title lets us rediscover the vibrant colors, ingenuity, and humor of Michel Gondry, proving once again that he has retained his spirit of an adventurous child, even at 62.

Christine Chevarie
Filmmaker