The Work of Michel Gondry
(Music Videos. shorts,
documentaries, biographies, advertisements)
Picture:
B- Sound: B Extras: B- Videos: B
Volume
Three of the Directors Label series from Palm Pictures is the most abstract of
the initial three volumes, devoted to The
Work of Michel Gondry. From the
Legoland cover, to the extensive content on the double-sided DVD, The best way
to explain his work overall in content and as an auteur is that he operates and
creates literally with a sense of “child logic” which is far from childish.
Even
describing each and every Music Video, which will actually not be part of this review, would make his work look repetitious
and bad. Instead, we will look at how he
evolved in general as a filmmaker, then became a very complex one. His earlier years of Music Video are
contained on Side Two form 1987 to 1995.
Six of the clips are from his own band, Oui Oui. Already, he was using video and various forms
of animation to create works with their own world. This is reflected by a happy family life
covered with surprising extensiveness in the Stories and Things segments on both DVDs, as well as their
influence on him in the two part documentary I’ve Been 12 Forever (Age 12 –
12) beginning with Side Two.
This then extends to the making of many of the Videos on this DVD, which
includes a white block in the lower right hand corner, which allows you to hit
the “enter” button and take a break form the program to see the Video being
discussed.
The
transition occurs when he begins working with Bjork, herself a great
abstractionist, and the result is some of her most famous clips: Human
Nature, Bachelorette and the underrated Army
of Me form the cult theatrical feature film Tank Girl, though this version lacks clips form that film. Seven of her works are offered in all.
The
collaborations made them both more famous than before. Also early on, after doing work that was
interesting at the least, Gondry came up with an amazing breakthrough with a
black and white clip: Lucas’ Lucas with the
Lid Off. In tribute to the Jazz
Soundies of the 1930s and 1940s, on 16mm film, wee among the first time music
performances were totally separated from feature films and (more significantly)
live-action shorts. The viewer is
constantly challenged to judge the difference between a 2-D and 3-D (and there
is absolutely no digital work in this clip) imager throughout this 2-D filmed
clip. How different is a car windshield
from a TV screen or a building window when we first see it? The song itself uses scatting to mock
computers and like machines by imitating and even spoofing their sounds. At the time, this critic expected this to be
a much-imitated work, but that did not happen.
The point went over the heads of would-be rip-off artists, and that’s a
good thing.
The
Rolling Stones’ cover of Bob Dylan’s Like
a Rolling Stone has the novelty of the image being zoomed on (via subtle
digital morphing points) at all different points of the frame, but the rest of
it is obvious. It is fascinating to watch,
though. A more interesting (and
non-digital) manipulation of framing comes with Cibo Mato’s Sugar Water. This was shot with one camera to look like
two 16mm frames when presented in split screen, with the two frames often
coming together to spell out messages.
It is a fine song too, but this is an exceptionally clever video that
shows Gondry growing into new directions.
The right screen is in reverse, until the middle, when it suddenly
becomes the piece being shown in forward motion, and what was forward motion
starts running backwards. If that does
not make sense, it will when you see it.
Daft
Punk’s Around the World was featured
with a better transfer on their own D.A.F.T. DVD, but holds up extremely well
as different groups of dancers (skeletons, old-style beach girls, robots,
mummies, and bizarre Hip-Hop-styled athletes) represent different instruments
on the song, dancing on a giant reproduction of a phonograph record. The lighting patterns in the background
globes, with their changing rhythms and colors, further match all this.
While the
two clips for The Chemical Brothers offer an endless train ride (Star Guitar) and a Busby Berkeley-styled
trip into the TV medium (Let Be Forever)
that are worth your time, there is a Video for Kylie Minogue’s Come Into My World that is worthy of
Dawn Shadforth’s wild clip for Can’t Get
You Out Of My Head. Kylie is walking
near the neighborhood shops in a motion so circular that she is joined by….
Herself! This keeps occurring in layers
until the song ends and is remarkable, even with the digital work used.
The final
clips to discuss are for The White Stripes.
The Hardest Button to Button takes
a ton of band equipment, the lead singer/guitarist, and a female drummer on a
drum set, then bounces the painstakingly shot images in stop-motion animation
style, but as jump cuts to expand, contract, follow, and match the song and its
beat. This is the most physically
exhausting clip to produce since Lucas’ piece, but that is not all.
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground is a White Stripes piece about
happiness’ past as the lead singer is haunted by the better past when he was
still with his girlfriend. Front
projection is used extensively throughout.
Fell in Love with a Girl is
the clip referenced on the DVD box cover, almost totally made in stop motion
animation with Lego building blocks. It
took a long time to produce, but it is also stunning, even with some digital
work added.
As you
can see, this is abstract, complex stuff that defies the usual analysis, but its
quality plays form anywhere from interesting and smart, to brilliant and
groundbreaking. This extends to his work
in the extras, if we can refer to the non-Music Video content as that. We have already noted the two-part
documentary and shorts, so outside of another exceptional 52-page booklet ion
the double sized case (despite there being only one DVD), that leaves us with
his television commercials. The one for
Lacuna Inc. has a website, but is some kind of surrealistic put on. The other three “legitimate” ads are a
much-discussed “bullet time” clip for Schmirnoff entitled “Smarienberg”, a
funny & stylish Levi’s ad entitled “Drugstore” that recalls the landmark
1970s campaign that involved “jeans trains” riding by in the night, and a
ultra-modern train is part of the Polaroid “Resignation” ad that is also dense
with visual information. All three are
exceptional and hardly ever seen in the United States.
Why? Do these companies consider
this market just a bunch of idiots? You
will ask that too when you see how exceptional they are. We don’t even get ads this good on the Super
Bowl anymore!
The
various aspect ratios offered have varying picture quality, with the relatively
poorer looking clips having appeared on DVD before. This was the case on the Spike Jonze and
Chris Cunningham sets, so the second-generation quality can sometimes be
expected. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
is also similarly stronger than usual, so the sound is not bad for the
compression involved. Palm once again
uses better mastering and volume levels to get this right. None of them are in 5.1, though the Daft Punk
clip was on its own DVD. Sound is
remarkably consistent, despite the wide range of years and sources involved.
So ends
the third of the initial volumes of the best new series on DVD this year. It would be tragic if Palm did not continue
the series with other great Music Video directors with equally intriguing work
to offer. All three volumes are
essential for any serious collection.
Gondry thinks like no other filmmaker today and whatever he does next,
it should be some of the best work he’s done yet, because that is the level he
has worked himself up to.
- Nicholas Sheffo
