The Work Of Director
MICHEL GONRDY

Like Spike Jonze's DVD, French visual genius Gondry also fills up a double sided disc. Both sides contain 27 of his absolutely brilliant music videos from 1995-2003. Some of his regulars include Björk and Oui Oui (each 6 in total), The White Stripes (x 3) and two of the Chemical Brothers. These are also the most incredible ones. Björk's are all visual fairytales. The White Stripes get a clip consisting entirely of animated Lego blocks (!), a drum and amp multiplication slant and a home scene where the preamble of each room's aftermath is physically projected onto the walls, becoming part of the scene. Chemical Brothers' Let Forever Be is an absolute visual triumph of scene shifting, elements from each brought back into the other, between real life and studio set-ups - it has to be seen to be fathomed. He's also done videos for Daft Punk (Around The World), Beck, Rolling Stones, Kylie Minogue, Lucas, Massive Attack (Protection), Foo Fighters (the nightmare Evil Dead angle of Everlong) and Cibo Matto (an innovative split screen running two scenes - one forward, another backwards - linked up with amazing physical technical finery. Gondry's angle is rhythmically inclined (being a drummer) and he also has a fascination with repetition (visually and physically), almost all of his videos displaying it in one form or another. Extra footage include over a dozen clips billed as Stories And Things - they range from short films and some of his very first Super-8 work as a kid to him playing drums in various locations; Levi's, Schmirnoff and Polaroid commercials and an off-the-wall piece with Jim Carrey driving a bed, singing Pecan Pie in an Elvis fashion (!). His menu page is one of the best I've seen, a miniature slice of entertaining on its own - Gondry sits outside, playing a little drum kit, a kid's head in each tom-tom, the boys screaming every time he hits the drum they occupy…whacked out and hilarious. An absolutely incredible experience and one of the best additions to anyone's DVD collection (together with the Spike Jones and Chris Cunningham companion releases). Truly inspiring video makers. Each of these Palm Pictures Directors releases contains a stylish, individual, info packed 52-page book with pictures, interviews, drawings and other great stuff on each groundbreaking director.

6 / A
- PB

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