Michael Curcio-Scene Analysis- Be Kind Rewind

The montage sequence in “Be Kind Rewind” played upon many different elements and themes carried throughout the film. The music bolsters the “ho-hum” small town attitude that the film portrays. It’s beeping indie soundtrack pumps the scene to an exciting pace but does not take away from the action at hand. This subtle display of music shows the characters’ “sweding” accomplishments but much like how the music is handled in the rest of the film, it allows the story to unfold without strangling the audience with an overbearing song.

            Gondry edits this sequence in a flowing, transitional pattern that does not break into cuts. Instead, the camera turns, pivots, pinwheels, changes color, rotates, and bounces from one “shot” to the next all while maintaining clean and smooth camerawork. Gondry has perfected this technique, which is often cheaply imitated by less-than-savvy indie editors. This montage showcases Gondry’s attention to detail and mise-en-scene by including necessary props that show show the audience what kind of “Sweding Filmmakers” they’re dealing with at this point (and here on out) in the movie. Jack Black, Mos Def and their crew use household supplies and junkyard scraps and a whole lot of imagination to create their films. The entire film relies heavily on this concept that Gondry so geniusly extrapolates on in this montage; it conveys the motif of a rag tag group of filmmakers rushing to make blockbusters their own way. Gondry chooses not to break the scene up with any quick cuts or spliced edits because he takes the time to plan and execute this montage-which I’m sure took weeks-to show the audience that even though the filmmakers in the movie make hack interpretations of Hollywood films, their imagination and attention to detail, no matter how small, makes their films worth watching because they do so much with the little they have.

            Gondry’s expertly crafted montage breathes clarity into the quaint film while reminding the audience why he, Jack Black, Mos Def and their crew are worth watching.