BERLIN (AFP) — French filmmaker Michel Gondry's quirky, sweet-natured movie about people who put their love of cinema into action -- starring Jack Black, Mia Farrow and rapper-actor Mos Def -- has wound up the main showings at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday.
"Be Kind Rewind," which screened out of competition, brought Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind") back to United States for another far-fetched romp with a strong dose of nostalgia.
The picture, which drew big laughs and warm applause from the Berlinale audience, tells the story of two friends (Black and Mos Def) who accidentally erase all the tapes at the video store where they work.
To help save the shop owned by a kindly old bachelor (Danny Glover) and placate one of his most loyal customers, the dotty Mrs Falewicz (Farrow), they begin remaking Hollywood blockbusters using casts drawn from the neighbourhood.
"The Lion King", "Rush Hour 2" and even the porn industry drama "Boogie Nights" get the team's low-low-budget treatment and they become smash hits in the poor, multiracial community in which they are set.
"I'll be Bill Murray and you can play everybody else," Mike (Mos Def) says when shooting begins on "Ghostbusters."
Gondry, who first won acclaim for his video clips made for Icelandic pop singer Bjork, said he used lay actors next to the big-name stars to give the film a seat-of-the-pants spontaneity.
"When you see the joy on their faces at the end of the movie when the film is projected, it was not acted," he said.
"It's because they actually shot this film altogether and I put a camera on them at the minute they were discovering this film for the first time and they were so proud."
The 44-year-old Gondry, who won an Oscar in 2005 for the "Eternal Sunshine" screenplay, said the film aimed to capture the renegade spirit he seeks to maintain in his pictures even as their stars and budgets get bigger.
"I still feel like a beginner when I shoot a movie -- I always feel it's a disaster," he said. "Sometimes I'm proven right and sometimes I'm proven wrong."
Gondry said his early experiences in the film industry were "humiliating" and that he vowed one day when he walked off the set of a director's movie to be his own boss.
"I said to myself, 'I will never work for anyone ever,'" he said. "At some point you need to find your own voice."
The film also features Sigourney Weaver as an FBI agent who cracks down on the team's "piracy."
Gondry, whose last film "The Science of Sleep" was set in Paris, said he managed to work in Hollywood without going native.
"I'm taking the side of the pirates in a way -- it's hard for me to feel sorry for big studios," he said.
Gondry said he pushed his 16-year-old son who now lives with him in New York to give up passive entertainment such as computer games in exchange for creative pursuits, much like the characters in the film.
"The message or what touched me the most is to see the joy of people who are watching something they did themselves," he said.
"That's why I believe that my concept is not completely unrealistic because this film (shows what can happen) when people are given the chance to be creative and then show their work to their community."
The Berlinale, one of Europe's top three festivals, will award its Golden and Silver Bear prizes at a gala ceremony Saturday night.
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