[.ca] The Work of Director Michel Gondry

From Amazon.com:
The Work of Director Michel Gondry invites the lucky viewer into a wonderland of childlike imagination. Before the Versailles-born Gondry turned his creative ingenuity to feature films (beginning with the underrated Human Nature and the 2004 Jim Carrey comedy Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), these 27 music videos and assorted "stories and things" formed a legacy of supreme cleverness, suggesting a creative lineage from the pioneering film magic of Georges Méliès to the groundbreaking experimental films of Norman McLaren. It's perfectly fitting that the accompanying 75-minute documentary is titled "I've Been 12 Forever," because Gondry (b. 1964) never lost the sense of wonder and inventiveness that children display when their minds are allowed to flourish in a creative environment. No wonder he's best known for his dazzling collaborations with Icelandic pop star Björk, resulting in music videos (seven included here) that redefined the magical potential of the medium. Each, in its own way, is a masterpiece of the fantastic. What's also remarkable about Gondry's work is its technical progression, from the homemade crudeness of his earliest videos for the French band Oui Oui, to the technical wizardry of Kylie Minogue's "Come Into My World," in which the Australian pop star is seamlessly multiplied as she strolls around a busy Parisian intersection; like many of Gondry's videos, it's a stunning "how-did-they-do-that?" work of art, reminiscent of Zbigniew Rybcynski's prize-winning 1982 short "Tango." From the hilarious dreamworld of the Foo Fighters' most popular video "Everlong" to the painstaking pixilation of Gondry's videos for the White Stripes (one made entirely of animated Lego blocks), this DVD is packed with Gondry's tireless pursuit of perfection; he'll do whatever's necessary, no matter how simple or complex, to achieve perfect harmony between song, artist, and visual concept. All the while, he's drawing from a seemingly endless well of inspiration, as evident in the delightful 52-page booklet of stories, drawings, photos, and interviews that chronicle the eternal sunshine of a brilliant mind. --Jeff Shannon

yay:
This DVD is amazing...its really trippy and imaginative

Oui oui!:
Michel Gondry's massive imagination is full of weirdness and wonder. The director of "Human Nature" and the wonderful "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" has a certain kind of cleverness well-suited to music videos. Now the best of them are shown in "Director's Series Volume 3: The Work of Director Michel Gondry." Among his vivid music videos are the White Stripes' "Dead Leaves & the Dirty Ground," "Fell In Love With A Girl" and "Hardest Button to Button," and a slew of other respected bands like Massive Attack ("Protection"), the Chemical Brothers (the funhouse mirror "Let Forever Be"), Daft Punk (colorful "Around the World") the Rolling Stones ("Like A Rolling Stone") and a bunch of videos for the French pop-rock band Oui Oui, for which he played drums. And that's not all of them! The two part documentary "I've Been 12 Forever" includes interviews with Gondry, behind-the-scenes information, and bits and pieces of how he forms his unique visions. There are commercials, all tinged with the strange but immensely effective. And on the short film front, Jim Carrey stars in the cute, immensely amusing "Pecan Pie," but the freakily scatological "One Day" falls utterly flat. Wrapping up the whole thing is a booklet full of even more interviews, drawings and inspiration. Aside from his films, Gondry is perhaps best known for his Bjork music videos, presented in their glory here. The attitudes of the bands and musicians are reflected in the music videos, so the personality shines through, as if Gondry has carefully shaped the images around the music. Nothing is normal here -- whether it's the White Stripes made of Legos, or Jim Carrey riding his bed like a car. The double-sided disc allows fans to check out the evolution of Gondry's style. He was a lot less sophisticated in his Oui Oui days, but the relatively immature videos he did for those songs were enough to get Bjork asking for him to direct "Human Behavior." The rest is musical history. After that, Gondry's style becomes somewhat stranger but no less riveting. There's plenty of information for those who love Gondry's warmly quirky style, including interviews with the musicians. What it lacks are some of his other prominent music videos, like Radiohead's "Knives Out." However, it contains a lot more early material than the other Director Series DVDs. And what it has is quite personal, since Gondry also made the music for the earliest music videos. With the exception of the occasional dud, "The Work of Michel Gondry" is an effervescent trip into a mind where the music video becomes a flexible art form. Vivid and vibrant.

I've Been 12 Forever:
Quick -- name the director who made a bunch of cool music videos before directing 2 feature films written by Charlie Kaufman. If you said Spike Jonze, you'd only be half-correct. While Michel Gondry might not yet be a household name, you'll no doubt recognize his work. In fact, most of the music videos on this DVD have been my favorites for years and I had no idea they were directed by him! Unlike Spike Jonze whose videos rely almost entirely on a clever premise, Gondry is much heavier on visuals and special effects. I was actually more impressed with his "simpler" videos though, like Cibo Matto's brilliant, palindromic "Sugar Water" and the Chemical Brothers' "Star Guitar" in which the scenery seen from a moving train is perfectly in sync with the music. Instead of commentaries, the DVD comes with a very intimate and insightful documentary called "I've Been 12 Forever." Be sure to watch Part 2 first, then Part 1 (don't ask).

Breaktrough in any comeover known:
Any trace of intelligence on the planet should consider spending spare day to contemplate this. Guy is exposing plenty of european creativity (did he surely knew our Jonas Mekas in NY?) - enough to satisfy ALL YOUR NEEDS. From real punk for me, to real Kylie Minoque for my daugther. Just great all the time. Even classique-to-be methods of image transformation are there for uebergeeks amongst us. And quantity is winning on top of all that. STOP!

A video pioneer:
Gondry remains an artist ahead of his time. This fresh and GIGANTIC collection of stellar videos will totally enthral anyone with a pulse. No home should be without it.