Michel Gondry’s Block Party

Of the two Michel Gondry features making their debut at the Berlinale this week, the concert film, "Dave Chapelle's Block Party" and the whimsical diary piece, "The Science of Sleep", only the latter retains his familiar technical ingenuity and charm. Unfortunately, the film also drowns in it. Where "The Science of Sleep" is overwhelmed by a Gondry script, Gondry autobiography and Gondry animation, "Dave Chapelle's Block Party" belongs to no one. Like its subject matter, which is what happened on one rainy day in September, the television star who arranged it and people who made it all happen, "Dave Chapelle's Block Party" is a grassroots production in the heart of New York City and, in a better world, would reside in the public domain. That said, its worth your ten spot.

In 2004, comedian Dave Chapelle got it in his head that he should host a party – a big one. In Brooklyn, New York, they call them block parties because as the day goes by, the crowds swell and fill the whole block. A block party shuts down the city street for a while, halting the ordinarily hectic and weathered New Yorker’s day for a warm fall afternoon or a breezy summer evening of pure social relaxation. Imagine the spontaneity of the block party combined with the big artist line-up of a major concert tour. Imagine the hip-hop superstar Kanye West mingling with day care teachers, a Midwestern marching band, gas station attendants, senior citizens, and fans from all ages and all the boroughs of New York City.
They arrive on school buses and Greyhounds and convene in front of a dilapidated warehouse which was adopted by an eccentric married couple and transformed into a live-in sculpture called “The Broken Angel”, now one of the most beautiful and strange buildings in a city famous for them. The district is Bedford-Stuyvesant, the famous black and Hispanic neighborhood of Brooklyn, that has produced half of today’s most respected rap artists and was immortalized by Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing”.

The film follows the absurdly charming Dave Chapelle, a stand-up comedian who made himself into a small movie star in films like “Half Baked” and an enormous TV star on his own show, “The Chapelle Show”. First stop: Dayton, Ohio, Chapelle’s hometown, where he invites people to hitch a free bus ride to New York, complimentary room and board and a freestyle concert featuring the hip-hop stylings of Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Mos Def, Kanye West, Talib Kweli and, in a finale that can only be called a hallmark in music history, The Fugees. Those who are not hip-hop fans might identify more with the guests from Dayton, who at least seem to appreciate a window into a very different culture, a window which Gondry make as clear as possible.

Gondry is an invisible presence throughout the film and, other than a signature animation sequence during the opening credits, he restrains the talent he has for creating wondrous worlds because the one before him is wondrous enough. I would like to think that it was an act of providence that brought a great director, a great performer and a great ensemble cast of civilians together before the camera, but when it comes to talent there are no coincidences. It is their job to make this kind of magic happen.

Katie Kohn

© Berlinale Talent Campus 2006