• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.24
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• pp.135-154
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• 2011

Simulacra theory as propounded by Jean Baudrillard in his seminal treatise, "Simulacra and Simulation," explores the significance of images, media and art in contemporary culture. Its central theoretical premise is the simulacrum, a sign or symbol that plays a crucial role in constructing perceived reality but which lacks a real-world referent. In Michel Gondry creates simulacra in the form of hallucinatory dream imagery by combining stop-motion animation and live-action elements. As experimental film-making that combines analog and minimum digital technologies, the result is a tour-de-force of synchronization. This study analyzes the film's technique and expressive content and, by adopting simulacra theory as a conceptual framework, aims to provide a better understanding of Gondry's work.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.45
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• pp.245-268
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• 2016

Tokyo! is a 2008 French / Japanese / South Korean / German anthology film containing "Interior Design" by Michel Gondry, "Merde" by Leos Carax, and "Shaking Tokyo" by Joon-ho Bong, all of which were filmed in Tokyo. This cinematic triptych of three Tokyo-set stories is concerned with how the experience of self-alienation is related to urban life, that is, how to survive in a city as a self. The problem of life is the struggle for self-preservation. In Tokyo! the three film directors have shown that urban life is both self-deconstructing and self-preserving. In this paper, our purpose is to examine different modes of urban life by using two concepts reformulated by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida: the urban ipseity and auto-immunity. According to Derrida, ipseity is a system subjected to a circular structure. Such a system cannot avoid the general logic of auto-immunity; i.e., the structure of ipseity functions as both self-deconstructing and self-preserving. The three episodes contained in Tokyo! testify, each in its own way, to the function of that logic. In bringing to light the three modes of self: appropriation, dis-appropriation, and in-appropriation, we claim that the modality of urban life is confronted with the autoimmune reaction.