While there has been a trailer for the film since its world premiere at the Cannes film festival last year, a new official U.S. trailer has arrived for Michel Gondry’s latest, “The Thorn In The Heart.”
A documentary about his 77-year-old former school teacher aunt Suzette, the film is putatively a portrait of a family member that the filmmaker admires, but as “The Thorn In The Heart” progresses, it reveals to be more of an exploratory look at painful family dynamics and dysfunction.
We saw the doc recently at the SXSW film festival and found it to a wistful, but somewhat difficult endeavor. On one hand the film is slow and delivered with zero context which almost makes it feel as if Gondry is figuring out its structure as the picture runs out on screen — it feels like a home movie for his family. And then on the other hand, ‘Thorn’ eventually becomes quite heartrending and emotionally trenchant. It’s a bit maddening in that sense, but ultimately a worthwhile doc that might require a lot of patience (and it might not be for the Gondry fans with a predilection for his wowing, dynamic cinematic tricks).
The trailer is… well the film is certainly not that blithe and playful (minus the short section with the kids with the “invisible clothes” that is super endearing), but hell, you’ve got to sell it. It becomes much more emblematic of the film at hand around the 1:19 mark where it gets into the darker, yet melancholy and nostalgic tone that’s quite moving and resonating in the film’s second half.
It features some of Etienne Charry’s piano score (one of Gondry’s bandmates from his old group Oui Oui, who also did the music to Gondry’s “Interior Design” short from the omnibus film, “Tokyo!”), but surprisingly not the Charlotte Gainsbourg song featured in the film (sort of feels like a slight missed opportunity since its use in the film is so buoyant and lively). “The Thorn In The Heart” hits theaters in limited release, starting on April 2nd in New York and on May 14th in Los Angeles.