The worst of all words is milk

Den nye Michel (Eternal Sunshine, The Science of Sleep, Be Kind Rewind) Gondry-film, der må og skal ses (og læses), er ikke den oppustede og OK underholdende superheltefilm The Green Hornet, som jeg anmelder i næste nummer af Ekko, men en "film-book" (tegneseriebog + 20 minutter kort film på dvd) My New New York Diary, skabt i samarbejde med den canadiske indie-tegneseriekunstner Julie Doucet. Bog + film handler om og er lavet ved at Julie tager til New York og besøger Gondry for at lave en tegne/live action-/filmatisering af, at hun tager til New York og besøger etc. - fra og med hun er ankommet, bliver hendes tegnede alter ego udskiftet inde i tegningerne/tegnefilmen af hendes filmede selv, hvis I forstår hvad jeg mener!?

Filmen begynder genialsk med en sort skærm og (franske) Gondrys stemme, der på (gebrokkent) engelsk og med engelske undertekster i GULT udtaler følgende:

I can't stand when they put english subtitles to my english voice. I just say the words as I see them written. Why should I distort them to make the audience understand them? Take the word 'possible' for instance. I say it as I see it: 'possible' ... yet no one understands me. I mean I'm sure they understand but mock my accent. In order to have a proper pronounciation, I would have to destroy the writing before I read the word: Pawwwwwssible. The worst of all words is milk. MILK. MILK. No one ever gets me until I squeeze an imaginary breast ... which can be considered inappropriate.

Now that the subtitle situation has been explained ... I can start the story.

For a couple of years I had a stormy, episodic relationship with the independent comic book world. I had several attempts in merging my 24 frames per second world ... into its several frames per page world. I had noticed that the archetype of the female independent comic book artist is shy and egomaniac, discrete and self obsessed at once. Pardon my generalization, but it's based on a single example. An example that painfully aborted my colloborative ambition. Nevertheless, this trait of personality gave me the idea ... to put the author back physically in his own drawings.

[titelkort] MY NEW NEW YORK DIARY