Director's Label Series Boxed Set - The Works of Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, and Michel Gondry
by Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham, Kim Gordon, Lance Bangs, Olivier Gondry
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DVD details
Actor: Akhenaton, Beck, Michel Gondry, Patricia Arquette, Thomas BangalterDirector: Chris Cunningham, Kim Gordon, Lance Bangs, Michel Gondry, Olivier Gondry
Brand: Universal Studios
Producer: Cindy Burnay
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
DVD Release Date: 2004-11-16
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Palm Pictures / Umvd
Product features:
- Available just in time for the holidays, Palm Pictures presents the Special Collector s Edition Directors Label Series Box Set featuring an exclusive bonus DVD and poster. This box set presents the highly acclaimed first three installments in an ongoing series highlighting the work of three music video directors who have come to define filmmaking over the last decade. Each volume features music vi
DVD Reviews of Director's Label Series Boxed Set - The Works of Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, and Michel Gondry
DVD Review: Director's Label (5)
Summary: 5 Stars
This first comprehensive issue of the Director's Label DVDs is just that - comprehensive. Not only do you get the works of Gondry, Cunningham, and Jonze on their own separate DVDs with cases, but you get an extra bonus disc as well as thick booklets to compliment each director. The booklet is a good for those who enjoy reading behind the scenes information regarding the videos or just enjoy soaking up as much knowledge as they possibly can about these directors.
Each DVD has its own unique interface representing each of the director's styles and are also filled with extras and bonuses. Simply put, the boxed set doesn't skimp out on much and has enough information and goodies to please those who are fans of one or more of these auteurs. Unlike a previous reviewer, JBW, I'm not going to comment on whether one director is better than another - that information is useless since it's entirely subjective. All three director's have their own idiosyncratic style and to exclude even one of them would really result in a handicapped collection.
Michel Gondry's style is the most technical of the three. His videos tend to involve camera tricks that easily amaze the viewer and leave them wondering how they were accomplished. During the comprehensive interview biography that's also featured on his DVD, he easily becomes comparable to a magician. Often times, he explains the foundation of his videos in a mathematical, structural style which can be so esoteric that they can't be understood until you see the final work. Videos such as this include The Chemical Brothers' "Star Guitar" and Daft Punk's "Around the World" most notably.
Chris Cunningham, who is my favorite director out of the three on the boxed set, tends to have videos that also appeal heavily to the eye but aren't as deeply saturated in visual tricks. Many of his videos provoke such an emotion that can be overwhelming at times to those seeing his work for the first time. His video for Bjork's "All is Full of Love" is easily one of these because of how it impressively visualizes the song's theme as represented through ostensibly cold, calculating robots that become imbued with souls. His ability to take an arist's signature or a song's theme and weave it so coherently is awe-inspiring.
Jonze's videos are the least technical out of the three and come off as the most amateurish in some ways - although that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Even without heavy aesthetic flourishes, videos such as The Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" and The Pharcyde's "Drop" manage to be memorable and captivating due to his ability to capture both of the groups' personality and style on celluloid. Even more simplistic videos like the one for Fatlip, while amateurish from a technical perspective, are so full of charm and humor that they're a blast to watch. His videos are definitely the most easily accessible out of the three because of Jonze's quirky sense of comedy and charm. This is perhaps the reason why a few of his videos have become not only recognizable to those who focus on this venue of art direction but to casual MTV viewers as well.
The box set is a treat to those who enjoy at least two of these directors. If you enjoy Gondry's mastery over illusions, then you'll probably appreciate Cunningham's aesthetic flares as well. If you enjoy Jonze's homebrew sense of comedy and his ability to easily elicit emotions, then you'll probably enjoy Cunningham's ability to do the same in videos such as Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker". Cunningham is the pivot that links the three directors together as is each of their ability to make memorable videos.
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Description of Director's Label Series Boxed Set - The Works of Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, and Michel Gondry
DIRECTOR'S LABEL SERIES BOX SET 1 - DVD MovieThe Work of Director Spike Jonze
When you experience The Work of Director Spike Jonze, you enter a world where anything can happen and frequently does. From the innovative director of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation., this superior compilation of music videos, documentaries, interviews, and early rarities offers abundant proof that Jonze is the real deal--a filmmaker ablaze with fresh ideas and fresh ways of filming them. While collectors will regret that only 16 of Jonze's 40+ music videos are included here, this glorious sampling represents the cream of Jonze's bumper crop, and for sheer ingenuity, it doesn't get any better than this. From the Beastie Boys' popular TV cop-spoof "Sabotage" to the intensely disciplined backwards-filming technique of the Pharcyde's "Drop," it's clear that Jonze has an affinity for inventive street theater, culminating in the sad/happy vibe of Fatli! p's introspective "What's Up Fatlip?" and the pop-jazz effervescence of Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet." Technical wizardry is also a Jonze trademark, especially in the elaborate "Happy Days" nostalgia of Weezer's "Buddy Holly" and the graceful fly-wire dancing of Christopher Walken to Fatboy Slim's pulsing "Weapon of Choice." No doubt about it: Every one of these videos is an award-worthy testament to Jonze's ability to combine hard work with fun-loving spontaneity. Accompanied by an informative 52-page booklet, this two-sided DVD also explores Jonze's artistic evolution with an entertaining selection of video rarities and three half-hour documentaries, the best being a revealing and very funny interview with rapper Fatlip after his dismissal from the Pharcyde. Commentaries for the music videos are consistently worthwhile, supporting Jonze's own belief that his best videos were made for artists whose work he genuinely enjoyed. Lucky for us, his pleasure is infectious.
The Work of Director Chris Cunningham
Like the other volumes in the acclaimed Director's Series, The Work of Director Chris Cunningham offers a feast of visual ingenuity, with one major difference: Unlike the relatively playful brightness of Jonze and Gondry, Cunningham wants to involve you in his nightmares. From the urban monstrosities of Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" to the limb-shattering weirdness of Leftfield's "Afrika Shox," Cunningham's music videos emphasize the freakish and the bizarre, but they are also arrestingly beautiful and otherworldly, as in the aquatic effects used for Portishead's "Only You," combining underwater movements with ominous urban landscapes. Some of Cunningham's shock effects are horrifically effective (his 'flex" video installation, excerpted here with music by Aphex Twin, is as disturbing as anything conjured by David Cronenberg), while others are cathartic or, in the case of Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker," outrageously amusing. And while the eerie elegance of Madonna's "Frozen" arose from a chaotic production, the signature work in this collection is clearly Björk's "All Is Full of Love," a masterfully simple yet breathtaking vision of intimacy involving advanced robotics and seamless CGI composites. In these and other videos, Cunningham advances a unique aesthetic, infusing each video and commercial he makes with a dark, occasionally gothic sensibility. That these frequently nightmarish visions are also infectiously hypnotic is a tribute to Cunningham's striking originality.
The Work of Director Michel Gondry
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
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