Oscar-winning director Michel Gondry is well known for his signature filming style — stop motions. The genius of the French director, screenwriter, and producer has now spilled over to Instagram.

Actually, it has been for quite some time and is just picking up the attention it deserves. 

With vivid light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek stop motion animations with rudimentary yet expertly crafted origami, the creative powerhouse is bound to be everyone’s favorite feed gem. 

The Whimsical Animations with a Commentary

Gondry’s background in filmmaking is rooted in social commentary through abstract expression and a sense of humor that’s left of center. Therefore, it does not come as a surprise to witness the same continue in his current pieces for Instagram. 

In his recent work, he posted a short video titled 'Nail Salon.' In it, he trims the nails of an origami hand and animates the nail fragments to huddle together and form a flower.

He concluded the video with the message to “make the best of it,” a message that has a royal place in today’s circumstances. 

That being said, perhaps his greatest hit is the one where he recreates Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy, attracting almost 60k views. In the video, not only does Gondry put up an impressive paper set-piece but also performs a purposefully bad Acappella that comes from a place of sound humor and self-awareness. 

His works also extend towards political commentary. For instance, in April 2019, he made a depiction of the arrest of Julian Assange, co-founder of WikiLeaks, a website dedicated to the distribution of classified government documents and photos to the public.

That being said, the director’s foray into this now-signature form of animation seems to have started in October 2017 with a short clip done with mini conditioner bottles to convey the message, “Life is short… in some countries”.

From there, a journey can be traced of a man working on an art form—someone beginning with rudimentary techniques to put out simple messages on the vagaries of life that have evolved into working on appreciable art that adds value to society. 

Gondry’s Contributions to Cinema

As mentioned before, Gondry is best known for expressing his art in the form of motion pictures.

With cult classic movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that has earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and more off-beat works like Be Kind Rewind and Mood Indigo, he has amassed a following for himself that is worth every bit of respect but does not demand attention. 

Another point of note is that he is behind some of the most iconic music videos out there. Top examples are the ‘Around the World’ by Daft Punk, ‘Everlong’ by Foo Fighters, ‘Gimme Shelter’ by The Rolling Stones, and ‘The Hardest Button to Button’ by The White Stripes.

His other collaborations with established names in music like Björk, Beck, IDLES, The Chemical Brothers, and commercial giants like Adidas, Coca-Cola, HP, Gillette, Smirnoff, and Volvo have truly established him as a landmark name in the industry.