Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou in Michel Gondry’s ‘Mood Indigo’

This year marks the tenth anniversary of French filmmaker Michel Gondry’s science fiction romance Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the filmmaker has another quirky, fantasy-soaked romance on arrival for American audiences later this year.  Mood Indigo, the French language romantic comedy-drama opened throughout Europe and much of the world last spring was picked up for U.S. distribution by Drafthouse Films, according the Variety.

The film, which made its U.S. premiere at last fall’s Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, stars Romain Duris (The Beat My Heart Skipped) and Audrey Tautou (Amélie) as newlyweds Colin and Chloe whose romance is put to the test when Chloe develops a most unusual ailment – that of a flower growing inside her lungs.  The film was adapted to the screen by Gondry and Luc Bossi from the novel L’Ecume des Jours by Boris Vian.  “Not since Amélie have we seen Audrey Tautou so undeniably whimsical and charming,” said Drafthouse founder Tim League, who continued, “Her storybook romance with co-star Romain Duris is set perfectly within a quirky, visually-stunning fantasyland that only Michel Gondry could imagine.”  The film also stars rising French actor Omar Sy (The Intouchables).

Gondry, most prominent to American audiences for Eternal Sunshine, which he has a “Story by” credit on and shared the Original Screenplay Academy Award honor with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and Pierre Bismuth, has also directed the Kaufman-scripted Human Nature, The Science of Sleep, the surrealist comedy-drama which starred Gael Garcia Bernal, the Jack Black-Mos Def cinema homage piece Be Kind Rewind, and most recently, the animated Noam Chomsky documentary Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?, which opened in very limited release this past fall.

Drafthouse Films, the off-shoot distribution arm of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is relatively new to the distribution game in independent cinema but has had some striking output.  This past year they released the buzzy documentary entry The Act of Killing, which is a likely Oscar frontrunner in that category.  They also have a handful of intriguing foreign films that are likely to open later this year including The Congress, the animated oddity from director Ari Folman (Waltz With Bashir) starring Robin Wright that made waves last spring at the Cannes Film Festival, and Borgman, another 2013 Cannes entry which has proven popular with international audiences.  Mood Indigo, with its established directors, attractive stars and unique premise may be their biggest grab yet.