Michel Gondry: “Artificial Intelligence will always be at the service of someone, free will cannot be invented”

2023-12-20 09:05:32

Updated Wednesday, December 20, 2023 – 08:05

The French director returns to the feature film with ‘The Book of Solutions’, a delirious autobiographical essay about creation and its neuroses in times of Artificial Intelligence

The film director Michel Gondry.ZOULERAH NORDDINE

Few directors capable of so much and few creators willing to do almost everything like Michel Gondry (Versallles, 1963). His last work, ‘The book of solutions’, It is, in fact, the best proof of the overwhelming excessiveness of an artist who refuses to be classified, defined or, for that matter, questioned (he is not good at answering questions and makes it known quickly). Based on the time of productive effervescence very close to simple bipolarity that he experienced while working on his film ‘The Foam of the Days’ (2013), the new production by the author of one of the best romantic films of all time (‘Olvdate de m’) stands in front of a mirror and with the intervening figure of the actor Pierre Niney he lets himself go. Gondry has returned… Or rather, as he himself corrects, it is we who return to him. He, in truth, never left.

What has led you to return to the cinema after almost a decade without releasing a film? Let’s go in parts. It’s not ten years, it’s eight. We can take away three from these due to Covid. So, for now, there are already five years that I have taken off his calculation. It is curious how common places are reproduced. I read somewhere that I’m back, but I never went anywhere! This reminds me of an anecdote I heard from Kubrick. And with this I don’t want to compare myself with him at all. It became common to talk about the 100 takes he took of each shot. The truth is that sometimes it was 30 at most. But when the story appeared in the newspapers, to round it off, it was around a hundred. A little more is always added, it is never done the other way around. You will forgive me, but I am a little critical of the work of journalists. I repeat the question then, what has led you to return to the cinema after almost five years without releasing a film? I have developed another film that I could start making within of little. In addition, I have written two scripts: one more finished one and ‘The Book of Solutions’. That’s not counting the scripts I’ve received in the meantime that I didn’t like. I have also made many cartoons for my daughter, filmed a series with Jim Carrey and directed several music videos. I like to move from left to right and open myself to as many influences as possible. But yes, I agree with you that I don’t make a movie every year. Okay. What he says about being receptive to influences fits perfectly with the plot of his film, which is none other than that of creation… What does it mean to create? Let’s say that creating has accompanied me all my life, because I drew from a very young age. And it is clear that, compared to the rest of my family, I was, to put it mildly, an artist. For me it is a way of existing. It is natural. I am not bragging, I am not saying that my creation is exceptional, but that is my activity. My idea is to do something that is different and have enough confidence and encouragement to make that something different exist. But this is how I see creation. I don’t mean to say it has to be like that. If we defined creation in a single way, it would no longer be such. Let’s start from the fact that there should be no limitations. Watching your film, it is not clear whether creativity is a gift or a disease. Is genius perhaps a symptom of a disease? Right now it is true that people can be called genius for anything. If someone fixes a faucet, they are called a plumbing genius, for example. And the word genius is very flattering, but at the same time it qualifies a kind of madness and carries with it incomprehension. Create isolation. In any case, the film is very autobiographical and portrays the moment in my life when I was editing ‘The Foam of Days. I had a crisis that was bipolar mania. I was full of ideas, like in the movie, and I had to control myself to gain balance and not end up in any way. Do you think that in times of Artificial Intelligence it is more necessary than ever to think precisely about the meaning of creating? I couldn’t say. It’s a little scary, when it comes to writing and creating stories. Superhero movies, for example, are already identical to each other and Artificial Intelligence would make them even worse. But I believe that the problem and the danger lies beyond cinema, in society. At the end of the day, if cinema disappears, we won’t die. What is the danger you see? It will worsen the control that companies have over their employees, dehumanizing them. This is what we have to worry about because it is not visible. There are many people who will find (in fact, they are already doing so) a way to use all these systems to have more control, more profitability and to get rich at the expense of the workers. The argument constantly put forward by artists is a bit selfish. We should consider the problem more globally. In reality, Artificial Intelligence will always be at the service of someone. I don’t believe that Artificial Intelligence has free will. I do not believe, in fact, that free will can be invented. I remember when one of his films, ‘Rewind please’, analyzed in its own way what it meant in the history of cinema and in the way of seeing and understanding cinema. emergence of the video. With the platforms, with the AI ​​that you have talked about, with the new technologies… How exceptional is the moment that cinema is experiencing right now? It is difficult to know how rare or extraordinary something is. All moments are exceptional for those who are living them. Or perhaps the exceptional thing is that there are no exceptional moments. It’s like the Bermuda Triangle. There must be a place where more ships sink than others. What will not be normal is for all ships to sink in the same way in all places. That’s how I see it. I don’t know if I have answered the question. What I think is that it is very difficult to know if this moment is different from any other. It is true that technology changes and its development changes everything around it… but it is difficult to know if things change for the better or worse. I get lost. I think of the Internet, an extraordinary instrument that has ended up having negative consequences such as power. excessive use of networks when generating opinions, for example. I’m talking about cancellations and all that. It would have been good to develop tools to balance things a little, so that it was a knowledge mechanism as it was intended to be. In truth, everything we do ends up becoming commercialized and that is when the need to regulate it arises. And, returning to what we said before, it is true that perhaps the time has come to think about how to regulate Artificial Intelligence to ensure that it is not always the same people who benefit from it. You have talked about cinema, but in its aspect of cinema. music video director, what do you think is happening now in the world of music? It’s difficult to compare what’s happening right now with what happened, for example, in the 90s. Yesterday I was watching a documentary about Billie Eilish and it was quite revealing . How revealing it has been when I have worked with Rosala. But with Eilish you realize how the technological revolution has changed everything. She and her brother record their albums in their bedrooms with very simple applications and tools. It’s really incredible because, in truth, it has the same value as the Beatles, for example. This if you want to compare it with something indisputable. You come across people who tell you that before it was better because it was recorded like this in a studio with tapes this way… But you see Eilish and she couldn’t care less about all that. She is interviewed and admits that she has not listened to a CD of hers in her life. And nothing happens. Her music is very intimate, deep and full of talent.
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