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French director Michel Gondry got his start playing drums in the French pop band Oui Oui, but he soon began getting more attention for the video clips he was making for the band than for his musicianship. He hasn't looked back, and he's been winning music video awards for over 15 years now. Gondry's video's are characterized by ground-breaking, colorful and whimsical imagery that often strays into the surreal. He's best known for his collaborations with Bjšrk on some of her most memorable videos, such as "Human Behavior," their first together, which featured Björk as a hunter who eventually winds up inside a bear's stomach. 
The Work of Director Michel Gondry provides the first comprehensive catalogue of Gondry's work. The DVD begins in the late '80s with Oui Oui and continues up through recent highly-acclaimed videos like the White Stripes' "Fell in Love With a Girl," which transforms and Meg into Legos, and Kylie Minogue's "Come into my World," which features an ever-increasing number of Kylies interacting with each other. It's Groundhog's Day meets a hot Australian. Brilliant.
Other highlights include videos for The Chemical Brothers, Beck and Daft Punk. In Cibo Matto's "Sugar Water," Gondry splits the screen, running one side forwards and the other back, then reversing it. If it sounds complicated that's because it is-- Gondry manipulates reality with a sense of playfulness, but also with amazing technical skill, rendering completely believable fantasy worlds. Both Massive Attack's "Protection" and the Foo Fighters' "Everlong" illustrate this ability, using distorted perspectives and improbable tableaus to create credibly three-dimensional worlds. For The Rolling Stones' "Like a Rolling Stone," Gondry pioneered the use of filming a subject from multiple camera angles simultaneously-- a technique that later formed the backbone of the Matrix Trilogy's revolutionary special effects.
The list goes on, but there's far more than music videos-- this double-sided DVD is overflowing with content. In addition to Gondry's musical work it includes the short films "Drumb and Drumber," "La Lettre" and "Pecan Pie," starring Jim Carrey. You'll see commercials for Levi's, Schmirnoff, and Polaroid, and a two-part Interactive documentary on Gondry's work, entitled "I've Been 12 Forever," which includes interviews, storyboards and links to the videos and short films.
The title menus for The Work of Director Michel Gondry appear on a box of colored pencils and a set of watercolor paints, exemplifying the sensibility of the entire disc-- it's art at its most fun and uninhibited. And that's how Gondry sees his work; he's been twelve forever. Only he's a twelve-year-old with an amazing gift for visual imagery and unmatched technical skill. His innovations have been benchmarks, not just in the music video community, but in the film world as well. With his second feature film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Carrey, slated for release in 2004, Gondry seems poised to catapult to the next level. This DVD shows why he belongs there.
(words by eric bergemann)
DVD Contents include:
The Hardest Button To Button
The White Stripes
Come Into My World
Kylie Minogue
Dead Leaves & The Dirty Ground
The White Stripes
Fell In Love With A Girl
The White Stripes
Star Guitar
The Chemical Brothers
Joga
Bjork
Deadweight
Bjork
Bachelorette
Bjork
Everlong
Foo Fighters
Around The World
Daft Punk
Sugar Water
Cibo Matto
Hyperballad
Bjork
Like A Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stones
Army Of Me
Bjork
Isobel
Bjork
Protection
Massive Attack
Lucas With The Lid Off
Lucas
Human Behavior
Bjork
Le Mia
I Am
La Tour De Pise
Jean Francois Coen
Ma Maison
Oui Oui
Bolide
Oui Oui
Junior Et Sa Voix D’Or
Oui Oui
Les Cailloux
Oui Oui
Un Joyeux Noel
Oui Oui
La Ville
Oui Oui
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