First Name:
Jason
Last Name:
Buel
Major Department:
Psychology/English
Thesis Director:
Craig Fischer
Date of Thesis:
May 2010
"Velocity of Time: Narrative Loops and Nonlinear Time in the World of Michael Gondry" examines disjointed time and cyclical structures in the music videos and the feature films of director Michael Gondry. The thesis argues that Gondry uses these devices in order to create a new sense of narrative time that has developed out of the tradition of postmodernism, but is unique to his body of work. Gondry's sense of time and willingness to leap through time and space reflect the history of motion picture technology. Technological advances in media (from the Edison Kinetoscope to broadcast television to the Internet) have altered the way his characters perceive their worlds. Narrative loops and nonlinear time are explored in Gondry's music videos for "Sugar Water" by Cibo Matto, "Come Into My World" by Kylie Minogue, and "The Denial Twist" by The White Stripes as well as the feature films Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind Rew