Mood Indigo

Mood Indigo (L'Écume des jours, 2013) is Michel Gondry's fantasy drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Colin, a wealthy young dreamer played by Romain Duris, meets Chloé (Audrey Tautou) at a party and marries her within days. Everything looks like pure happiness.

Their world runs on its own logic: cocktails compose jazz on a piano, the doorbell scuttles across the wall like a beetle, dishes wash themselves, the couple dances on rubbery legs. Then, on their honeymoon, Chloé falls ill — a water lily takes root in her lung. The cure costs money, the money runs out, and the bright handmade fairy tale dims room by room as the apartment itself shrinks around them.

Gondry adapted Boris Vian's 1947 cult novel and built nearly every effect by hand, stop-motion and props instead of CGI. Omar Sy, Gad Elmaleh and Laurent Lafitte round out the cast. A dazzling visual ride that turns, quietly, into heartbreak. Stream Mood Indigo (2013) online on iFILM.