Doc/Fest - Sheffield

The Thorn in my Heart begins with its subject, seventy-something Suzette, recounting a lively anecdote to her nephew, acclaimed director Michel Gondry, and assorted other family members around the dinner table. The subsequent film, in which Michel probes Suzette, a former teacher in a remote part of rural Southern France, about her life and family, captures the relaxed intimacy of that opening shaggy dog story. Gondry¹s trademark offbeat style is in evidence, with animation and even an enchanting sequence involving invisible coats, ¬ but the director is also a sensitive and astute interviewer, encouraging Suzette and her grown-up son Jean-Yves to talk about their troubled relationship (the eponymous thorn in Suzette’s heart). Gondry’s tender, illuminating insight into his own family history strikes a universal chord, and in the tirelessly creative, defiantly childlike spirit of Suzette Gondry one can recognise the shared DNA with her nephew Michel. As one former colleague says of her teaching method: "Suzette was very avant garde"