He made his feature film debut in 2001 with “Human Nature” and won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” But before he had even made it to the silver screen, Michel Gondry had made a mark as a visual innovator through his imaginative music videos for iconic artists like Björk, White Stripes, Daft Punk, Radiohead and the Rolling Stones. In fact, Gondry’s work with Mick Jagger and company featured an early appearance of “bullet time,” the now-ubiquitous 360-degree special effects trick later popularized by “The Matrix” franchise.

Like his previous work “The Science of Sleep,” Gondry wrote and directed his latest film “Be Kind Rewind,” a comedy starring Jack Black and Mos Def alongside Danny Glover and Mia Farrow. Black and Def are hilarious as Jerry and Mike, two buddies charged with the unexpected task of re-creating a neighborhood video store’s catalog (everything from “Ghostbusters” to “Driving Miss Daisy”) after everything has been accidentally erased by a strange act of de-magnetism.

In a recent interview, Gondry spoke about gathering together his eclectic cast, the hilariously scary art of his son, and the importance of backing away from the computer once in a while.

You have a very interesting ensemble of characters for “Be Kind Rewind.” How did they end up coming together?
Well, I knew Jack Black for a long time and always wanted to work with him. He comes from music, like me, and has a history outside the system. Mos Def, I met through Dave Chappelle when we did “Dave Chappelle’s Block Party.” He seemed to be very funny and opinionated and charismatic. The kind of engagement of the social life, this movie is a lot about that, so it made sense to me to have him in the film.

Did you introduce Jack to Mos? They’re a great on-screen team.
Yeah, I guess so!

And Mia Farrow? How does she figure in here?
Mia Farrow, I always loved her, and I never believed that she’d be interested. But her son is a big fan of my videos and there you go. That’s my great advantage in having done those videos.

Fats Waller comes up a few times in “Be Kind,” are you a fan?
Always, and I think there is something really in the parallel of what happened in the past, when they were doing those rent parties to raise money to pay the rent [with what happens in the movie]. It was really inventive and a very common story: All the great musicians in this era and style competed through rent parties. They’d bring a piano in the house, everyone would give a dollar and they would compete. Each person would do a session or tune and depending on how people would react, they would decide who would win. It was not like you do something and you become a star because it plays on MTV. You really had to be the best of the best to have any recognition when it was just music.

The “Sweding” that Mike [Mos Def] and Jerry [Jack Black] do, which is basically filming their own version of movies, seems right in line with the online video craze of the last couple of years, where everyone’s getting into the act of trying to become the star of the show. Was this storyline inspired by YouTube?
No, actually it was an idea I’ve had for a while. I like YouTube very much. I’m not saying it’s going to solve all the problems, especially because it’s centralized and it allows big corporations to control it and make profit out of it, which is what’s happening now. So I really much prefer the small video store or the small theater. Going out of your home is very important, it’s important to socialize with people.

I don’t think if people make their own movies that it would be [good] to put them on YouTube. It’s sort of a way to look for fame. I do it myself; I put those silly videos up, like me solving a Rubik’s Cube with my nose, because I want people to know me and then they will go see my movies.

What were your first forays into film?
I was making animation on flipbooks at first. We made a system with a zoetrope to push animated pages through. That was my first approach to filmmaking.

Aren’t you making an animated film with your son now?
Yes, it’s a story called “Megalomania,” based on his universe. He’s 16-years-old, he’s very unique and very funny and violent in his drawings and his art, photography, about everything that you could think of that I should have stopped him from having contact with. [laughs] It’s about a dictator who runs a crazy world where hair is a source of energy. People in jail are forced to create art, and if the art is too good, they are executed. They kill the inmates who make good art, so they try to make rubbish art. Dan Clowes—the comic book artist, the guy who wrote “Ghost World”—is writing the screenplay.

You’ve made so many wonderful videos, but you have a particularly special work relationship with Björk. What has she taught you?
She was the first one to like the small quirky videos I was doing for my band [Oui Oui]. Nobody gave a shit about them until she saw them—she was laughing and literally crawling on the floor. She’s my best [support] in terms of laughing at my stupid jokes, which makes me very proud. She knows what people are really good at; she knows that better than people do themselves.

Would you encourage people to follow the characters in “Be Kind Rewind” and “Swede” movies to make a name for themselves?
I just realized [recently] what this movie was about: Create the work while your ideas are possible. Then maybe later new works are possible. I’m not pushing people to copy films. The new or young filmmakers who just copy things and try to make an imitation of things to be part of the system…they should be outside of the system and be independent to beat it. So I would recommend people not to Swede films. I would recommend for them to make their own.