AT A table in a little hotel cafe in Cannes, a man suddenly gets up in the middle of an interview, speaks animatedly into his mobile phone and leaves abruptly.

The half-dozen reporters at his table sit bemused and the watching publicists shrug their shoulders.

Minutes later, director Michel Gondry, 45, returns with his girlfriend and collaborator, the New York-based cartoonist Gabrielle Bell, 32, on his arm.

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