Through Partizan, Gondry has built a commercial and music video reel that is as notable for its innovation as its awards. Levi's "Drugstore" received the Gold Lion at Cannes in 1994, and was one of the director's first attempts at commercial work.

In 1997, "Smarienburg" for Smirnoff claimed the Gold at both Cannes and the Clios. With the success of videos like the Chemical Brothers' "Let Forever Be" and a series of spots shot for Gap's "That's Holiday" campaign, Michel Gondry's feature Human Nature may be one of the most highly anticipated films of the year, certainly amongst the commercial production community.

Human Nature is the director's first feature film starring Patricia Arquette and Tim Robbins. Written by Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich), the film's producers are Anthony Bregman, Julie Fong, Ted Hope, Kaufman and Spike Jonze.

For Gondry, the filmmaking process is an opportunity to embark on a personal journey. "You have a lot of immature feelings that you get from growing up," says Gondry, "through your experience. When you relive them, it's like a sweet sensation."

"When you tell a story, you release this internal bubble of emotion accumulated in your life. If you can mix them all together to tell a big story, it's really satisfying. Then you can share that with other people."

To date, the director's most autobiographical piece is a short film titled "The Letter" in which an innocent boy realizes his love is unrequited. "It's a bit masochistic," reveals the director, "it's about wishing...sadly wishing."

The short is emotive; a device Gondry says is born out of his desire to create a believable narrative. "You get excited because you tell a story that you like and you tell it with images that touch you. The goal, I guess, is to get people to share those emotions; for them to be touched by what you were touched by."

Gondry was taken by the humanity portrayed in Kaufman's script, given to him by director Spike Jonze. "I was really trying to find a script that I enjoyed to read and I read three scripts from Charlie that were very original and very well structured with great characters," says Gondry. "Each time somebody stuck in me, they were just expressing their feelingsin a funny way."

"On top of that [Kaufman's] dealing with the hardest genre, comedy, which is the most established form in a way. You have to follow the words otherwise it's not funny, it's not working. On the other hand it's incredibly original. So it's really challenging to make it work."

Part of the challenge for the director was maintaining the integrity of the characters throughout the editing process. "The main difference [between commercials and film] is that you have to be careful with the balance of things," says Gondry. "If a part of the movie seems a little bit disconnected or dragging, then you perceive the rest of the scenes in thewrong way."

"As well, you have to be consistent with the evolution of character. When I started to shorten the film my main concern was to create human characters not cynical ones," continues Gondry. "I notice a lot of independent American movies play to cynicism and are a little bit condescending to the audience and I really wanted to avoid that."