So Be Kind Rewind is coming out in a few short days, and I’m really looking forward to it. I think this the first movie of ‘08 that I’m excited about, in fact.

The premise (two dudes accidentally erase all their VHS tapes, and decide to re-shoot them all by themselves) might seem either far-fetched or hokey to you, or maybe you’re not a Jack Black fan. Even if both of those hold true (and I can understand being annoyed by Black at times, though I really think he’s good in quite a few things), I still think you should approach the movie with an open mind.

Consider Michel Gondry, the film’s director. He’s already proven himself to me, film-wise, with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (I’m ashamed to say I haven’t yet seen The Science of Sleep). But he’s done a lot of other stuff.

Here’s one example—his video for the White Stripes’ “Fell In Love With A Girl” (an excellent song by an excellent band):

Convinced? Awed? I am, but maybe you need more. If so, what about his video to the Foo Fighters’ Everlong (another excellent song from an excellent band). Or maybe his Around The World video for Daft Punk. Perhaps his video for Knives Out by Radiohead?

If music videos aren’t your thing (why not, I ask?), how about his Rubik’s ‘solution’:

Check out the response and actual solution. It’s certainly not the most sophisticated bit of filmmaking, but it’s interesting and fun. I like that when he’s not doing movies or videos, he does stuff like this.

What I’m finding as I read up more on Gondry is that he’s done all sorts of stuff I’ve seen and enjoyed, and that I didn’t realize he’d done (for a ton more, check out the commercials he’s done, complete with plenty of youtube links).

So, to bring that all back to the topic at hand, what I’m saying is that given Gondry’s very impressive and inventive body of work, it’s a pretty safe bet that this movie will have a quality that the same subject shot by a lesser filmmaker would lack. I suppose it’s time you actually saw a trailer for the movie, eh?

And to underscore the point that Gondry is, well… Gondry, he remade his own trailer in the spirit of his movie:

Without having actually seen the movie, it seems like the plot, hokey as it might initially sound, is Gondry’s attempt to honor not only the films he enjoys, but also the creative process and methods of experimentation that he has undoubtedly relied upon to generate the amount of quality stuff he has. On the official Be Kind Rewind Youtube site he’s encouraging users to create their own trailers for movies they like. I bet a lot of it wouldn’t be considered quality, but I doubt that he’s all that concerned with that.