Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? (2013)

Directed by: Michel Gondry
Country: France

Movie Review: After the realism of “The We and The I” and the surrealism of “Mood Indigo”, the multifaceted Michel Gondry embarks in a unique conversation with Noam Chomsky, a renown American linguist philosopher, politic commentator and activist. Shot with an old mechanical Bolex camera and adorned with animation, “Is the Tall Man Happy?” reveals an interesting approach and presents a very didactic conversation about themes such as evolution, development, science, traditional vs. modern, religion, astrology and life's coincidences, generative grammar, holocaust and death, among others. Therefore, and for quite some time, the film seems like a philosophical lecture that encompasses Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, and David Hume, just to mention a few. The interesting here is that Chomsky also enters in the personal field, telling us about past memories, from childhood to high school and college, and elucidating us about his professional path and the education given to his three children who grew up surrounded with political tension and took different directions in life. The simplistic animation was carried out on top of images with an antique look, like a simple room, streets, places, or occasionally the interview itself. Hard to be absorbed immediately, this instructive animated-documentary, narrated in English with a strong French accent by its filmmaker, requires to be seen more than once to be fully apprehended. If you’re interested in philosophy and science, this is a film for you; otherwise you may find it too dense and puzzling.