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OHTSUKI Minoru Faculty of Foreign Languages Department of English Language Professor

■ Title
iS THE MAN WHO ASKS [iF THE MAN WHO is TALL iS HAPPY] HAPPY?
- A Note on Michel Gondry's film about Noam Chomsky -

■ Outline
In his visionary documentary film "iS THE MAN WHO is TALL HAPPY? AN ANIMATED CONVERSATiON WiTH NOAM CHOMSKY" (2013), Michel Gondry focuses on some limited aspects of Chomsky for the pursuit of the possibilities of his cinematic expression rather than for the objective description of the interviewed person. This film makes use of two of the typical techniques employed in surrealist paintings: (a) realistic description of an absurd world and/or illogical (impossible) juxtapositions, and (b) symbolisation of the unconscious world under conditions suppressing conscious control, as well as a hybrid of both of these techniques. Together with these surrealistic techniques, Gondry employs many other techniques in this film, including, in particular, what we would call the "Positive-Negative Reversal." We assume that the question of happiness lies at the very basis of this film. Were it not the case, it would not be possible to explain why, unlike ordinary documentaries, it does not provide us with any new discoveries about Chomsky's achievements as a linguist, as a philosopher or as an activist - it is neither a clarification of his unconsciousness nor a revelation of the secrets of his intellectual activities. Considering that the essence of an artistic work lies in the effects that the expressions create in the mind of the viewer or the audience (or the listener or the reader), it is possible that Gondry, through his interviews with Chomsky, aims at the effects on the spectator's mind of raising the question "what on earth is this film all about?," in which case the film may be called a success as a surrealistic work.
Single Gengo no Sekai Gengo Kenkyu Gakkai 40(2),pp.45 2022/12