FEATURE:
20/20 Visionary
IN THIS PHOTO: Björk/PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Tonge/Getty Images
one of the most innovative directors ever turns sixty. You may not necessarily know Michel Gondry by name alone, but you will definitely have seen his music videos and films. Directing films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotlight Mind, and directing videos for the likes pf Kylie Minogue, The White Stripes, Daft Punk, and Björk, he has an imagination and style that is mind-blowing! I wanted to celebrate his approaching sixtieth birthday by featuring the twenty best music videos he directed. It is hard whittling it down, but hopefully the list is not too contentious! Apologies if any of the videos are not great quality image/pixels-wise, as I am grabbing them from YouTube - and you have to rely sometimes on fans posting the videos or some low-quality transfer. In any case, I will come to that. I want to finish this part with some biography from IMDB:
“He grew up in Versailles with a family who was very influenced by pop music. When he was young, Gondry wanted to be a painter or an inventor. In the 80s he entered in an art school in Paris where he could develop his graphic skills and where he also met friends with whom he created a pop-rock band called Oui-Oui. The band released 2 albums ('Chacun tout le monde' and 'Formidable') and several singles until their separation in 1992. Gondry was the drummer of the band and also directed their video clips in which it was possible to see his strange world, influenced by the 60s and by his childhood. One of his videos was shown on MTV and when Björk saw it, she asked him to make her first solo video for 'Human Behaviour'. The partnership is famous: Gondry directed five other Björk's videos, benefiting by the huge budgets. This led to commissions for other artists around the world, including Massive Attack. He also made a lot of commercials for Gap, Smirnoff, Air France, Nike, Coca Cola, Adidas, Polaroid and Levi - the latter making him the most highly-awarded director for a one-off commercial.
Hollywood became interested in Gondry's success and he directed his first feature movie Human Nature (2001), adapting a Charlie Kaufman's scenario, which was shown in the 2001 Cannes Festival. Although it wasn't a big success, this film allowed him to direct Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), for which he again collaborated with Charlie Kaufman. The movie became a popular independent film and he and his co-writers won an Oscar for it”.
A truly brilliant director who I hope we see a lot more from, you can see the sheer number and variety of videos he has been responsible for. I know he is less prolific now than near the start of his career, but he is still producing amazing work. A genius with a mind like no other, I hope others celebrate the sixtieth birthday of a pioneer. This is a man who has been responsible for some of the most memorable, striking, unusual, beautiful, mind-bending and…
STUNNING music videos ever.
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