Micheal Gondry is a french music video director. Micheal grew up in Versailles in the 1960's. In the 1980's he joined an art school in Paris where he planned on developing his graphic skills and where he met friends who he formed a pop band with called Oui-Oui, Gondry was the bands drummer and he also directed their music videos. By 1992 the band had released two albums and several singles before there breakup. His videos were greatly influenced by the 60's and his childhood.
Bjork saw one of Gondrys videos on MTV one night and got him to make her first release 'Human Behaviour.' After its relsease, it have been known that Gondry and Bjork have a special relationship as he has made at least four of her videos. This led to huge commercial work for famous brands such as Gap, Coca cola, Smirnoff, Nike, Adidas and many many more making him the most highly-awarded director for a one-off commercial.
Mad World by Gary Joules is my favourite video in which Micheal Gondry has directed. Its such a simple idea but has lead to several commercials using his simple idea.
This song made it to number one in the UK, Canada and portugal. The reason why i love this video is because it is just such a simple idea, and the way they show Gary Joules looking down on the pictures and you can see him singing along to it is fantastic. Also, Michel didnt use grown adults to make this animations, they used children. Because they used children, the lyrics have a link with the video, the lyrics can be interpruted as missing your childhood, And how the video just finishes on Gary Jules playing the piano on the top of what appears to be a primary school.
Throughout the video it appears that it had be shot in new york or a massivly built up area as there are alot of skyscrapers in the background, but then as the camera turns so we see Gary Jules on the piano, it appears to now be a residentual area, the houses resemball them in spain as they are either a yellow, orange or browny colour and they all look very easily made.
In an interview with the washington post Gondry quotes '"It's very good to keep in touch with music," "It's moving faster than the film world. It's more in touch with reality."
So even though Michel Gondry has begun directing films such as 'Be kind rewind' 'L'Epine dans le Coeur' 'Tôkyô! ' and many more, his heart still lies in music video directing.
Responces to Michel Gondrys work;
- This man has a fantastic knack of simply matching images to music. No other director exhibits such a real feel for the music - every video here totally matches the artist and the song. So many clever touches - you really have to watch some of these videos several times to 'get' all the ideas he puts into his work. In short, there is no other video director who is quite so innovative, creative, artistic and just plain damn brilliant as Michel Gondry.
- Michel's DVD spans the late 80's right up to now. You can watch his videos in artist order, chronological order or a nice randomized shuffle order ... a nice touch. The artist are all of high calibre, Bjork, White Stripes, Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, Rolling Stones and Kylie (who even waives her fee for her track & video Come Into My World to donate to the NSPCC, another reason to buy!). The videos themselves are pure art, the lego animation of White Stripes is as I said, jaw dropping. Michel knows how to tell a story with his videos, how to have a visual representation of the music for us to see on screen. Probably why our wonderful songstress Bjork has chosen him so many times to provide the visual side to songs like Joga, Bachelorette, Hyperballad and so on. What he does is literally unexplainable and something you have to see in action. Wonderous photography skills and innovative ideas that you'd never be able to see from anyone else
- 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.
- Michel Gondry is more than just talented, and even his humble creative beginnings display an almost obsessive compulsion to create and invent astounding new film techniques. Michel Gondry has made some of the most beautiful and innovative music videos ever. He provides a staggering volume of work here(of somewhat mixed quality), far more than the other 2 DVD's in this series. The great ones are amazing..but there is some filler. The added documentary also provides great insite into the methods and experiences that helped shape his vision as a director. Must have for anyone who likes anything.
Michel Gondrys work has been appriciated and viewed by all ages, fellow directors and artists and his indivitual style and that creative knack he has of making something look so simple when its actually incredibly complicated is superb. Personally, i do not listen to any of the bands that he has directed videos for, but even i cannot deniey that he is a creative genius.
'Every great idea is on the verge of being stupid'
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