Microbe & Gasoline (Michel Gondry, 2015)
Michel Gondry’s intimate film Microbe & Gasoline (Microbe et Gasoil) tells the seemingly straightforward tale of Daniel (Ange Dargent)—nicknamed Microbe because of his unusually small frame—and Théo (Théophile Baquet)—called Gasoline based on his affinity for mechanics—two friends who bond, as so often happens, in misery. The pair suffers the indignity of schoolyard taunts, the uniquely painful heartbreak of dance-floor rejection, and family members that don’t understand or respect their passions and preoccupations. This is where the film takes a delightfully offbeat turn: to cope with it all, the two young rebels build a car from parts scavenged from a scrapyard. After failing to make the contraption street legal, the pair slap on four walls and a roof and depart on a madcap road trip across France in the car, now disguised as a house, guided only by crumpled paper maps, faint sun-soaked memories, and a half-baked (ultimately unsuccessful) scheme to win over a girl.
The film could come off as hopelessly gimmicky, but the filmmaker’s liberal use of personal history adds a healthy dose of reality to Microbe & Gasoline. As the filmmaker shared with us in the Q+A session after my screening of the film, several scenes are painstakingly reconstructed from Gondry’s memory. His best friend really did save the day after a disappointing and poorly attended art show, there was a time when he misunderstood the rules of a drawing contest, and even the would-be sweetheart was conjured from recollection rather than imagination (in a tragic turn of events the girl, named Laura, briefly dated Gondry’s older brother, but it didn’t end well). More important than these surprisingly factual plot elements, the friendship depicted within the film is tangibly true; the magnetic quality of the relationship reverberates through the intervening years and on to the screen.
Microbe & Gasoline (Michel Gondry, 2015)
It only helps that the infectious camaraderie at the heart of the film is palpably alive in the film’s two leads (according to the director during the talkback). The genuine affection can be seen, for example, in a shot of the two boys grinning goofily as they perform an exaggerated, jerky walk down a hill. Their elbows and knees jut at odd angles, huge grins on their faces. The camera seems to stumble on two friends enjoying each other’s company rather than capturing a planned imitation of attachment. The film contains any number of such small, warm moments that help build the film’s dreamy authenticity. On the other hand, it’s not all cool leather jackets and red carnations in faux window boxes (i.e. the film’s idiosyncratic version of sunshine and rainbows); Microbe & Gasoline unflinchingly includes fights as well as laughter. Despite the inclusion of the crush, the film never forgets that it is first and foremost a story of friendship.
In reality, Gondry and his friend never actually built the car; they never got to take the trip. In this way the film generously deals in fantasy as well as fact. A shot of an airplane landing backward highlights how the film refuses to take itself too seriously; Microbe & Gasoline delights in all that film can achieve in realms where real life fails to satisfy. The film allows the director to fulfill his childhood dream cinematically, in all its messy glory. As an audience member, I felt lucky just to be along for the ride.
Author Biography
Dominique Silverman is a senior English-Film Studies major and gender studies minor at Hendrix College. In addition to film she enjoys podcasts, cross stitching, and working towards dismantling patriarchal structures.
Mentor Biography
Kristi McKim is an Associate Professor of English and Chair of Film Studies at Hendrix College, where she was awarded the Charles S. and Lucile Esmon Shivley Odyssey Professorship, honored as the 2014-15 United Methodist Exemplary Professor, and nominated for the CASE U.S. Professors of the Year Award. Her publications include the books Love in the Time of Cinema (2011) and Cinema as Weather: Stylistic Screens and Atmospheric Change (2013), in addition to pieces in Camera Obscura, Studies in French Cinema, Senses of Cinema, Film International, The Cine-Files, and Film-Philosophy.
Department Overview
Hendrix College offers a major in English with an emphasis in Film Studies and a minor in Film Studies. This growing program within an intimate and rigorous liberal arts college environment includes a variety of courses in the history and theory of film and media, alongside co-curricular experiences (such as this trip to the New York Film Festival) generously made possible through the Hendrix-Odyssey Program. Extracurricular film-related groups include Hendrix Film Society and Hendrix Filmmakers.
Film Details
Microbe & Gasoline (2015)
France
Director Michel Gondry
Runtime 103 minutes
Follow this link to read the introduction to this set of reviews: https://www.filmmattersmagazine.com/2016/05/21/2015-new-york-film-festival-introduction/
