Lowest Price on Director’s Label Series Boxed Set - The Works of Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, and Michel Gondry at Amazon.
Viernes, Diciembre 4th, 2009 |
Lowest Price on Director’s Label Series Boxed Set - The Works of Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, and Michel Gondry at Amazon..
Product: Director’s Label Series Boxed Set - The Works of Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, and Michel Gondry Amazon Price: Sale Price Too Low To Display Availability: In Stock |
First I want to say that if you are unbiased considering buying one or two of these DVDs individually…forget it and unbiased choose the whole state. All three presentations are wonderful and have a high re-watch value, plus if you pick the spot you collect a bonus disc with a few more videos. If you ever saw that demonstrate slack night on MTV in the unhurried 90’s called “Amp” this region has several of the videos featured on that demonstrate.
I hafta say the Michel Gondry disc is the best because its not only double sided, but has a nice 2-part documentary on Gondry that is extremely spirited. Also, if anybody else that watched this disc is wondering about all the Kate Winslet and Jim Carey references, its because Gondry was directing the movie Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind when this disc was made. I highly recomend that movie as well.
Even though the Chris Cunningham disc has the least amount of features, the works that it does absorb are worth having since they are so shapely. I’m looking forward to seeing more of Cunningham’s work in the future.
And the Spike Jonze disc is gigantic as well. Its also double-sided like the Gondry disc.
I might be biased to review this because I happen to already like most the artists and all the songs that the directors did videos for. So its like having a DVD of music videos for songs from my believe music collection. But even with the sound turned down and other music playing, this station makes a room a bit more bright.
The site is superior for (besides unbiased watching it uninterupted) visuals for parties; playing while doing housework; background entertainment while you’re on the phone.
It beautiful great replaces primitive entertainment.
The only thing lacking is directors’ commentaries. I mediate the Spike Jonze disc has a few, but i’d appreciate to have that extra audio track to listen to for every video. The Gondry stuff is unbiased so visually wild but practically simple that I’d treasure to hear Michel report it. And the Cunningham work is very enthralling….i’m positive he has some spellbinding things to say. I preserve mentioning Spike last because he’s the most common and most people are already familiar with his work, but i’d like to hear his commentaries as well.
I guess you can watch at the accompanying bookletts as a substitute for commentaries. The books are a nice supplement to the video presentations. Each book is 40-60 pages at least, chubby color, has interviews and thoughts written by the directors.
I highly recomend this spot, not impartial the individual volumes. Don’t kill your money on buying honest one volume because once you peep it you are going to wonder what you’re missing with the rest anyway.
I got the Spike Jonze DVD for Christmas and was already familiar with some of his work such as the Stout Boy Slim videos for “Praise You” and “Weapon of Choice” (featuring Christopher Walken dancing through a deserted hotel) . I don’t like everything he has made, but his splendid stuff is really gracious and he has a colossal talent for coming up with simple but very novel concepts (like him leading a dance group outside a cinema in L.A. to the beats of FatBoy Slim) . Also, he is partly responsible for bringing us MTV’s “JackAss”, of course!
One of my personal favourites is “Tumble” by The Pharcyde which was filmed entirely backwards with some very comical results. Also “What’s Up Fatlip? ” by Fatlip who seems to be one of the few rappers that dares to appear on camera without four models hanging off each arm. In fact, he cycles through suburbia with a kiddie seat on the succor of his bike, lets his 6 year archaic cousin kick him in the balls and raps on the street clad in nothing but a dirty raincoat and a diaper.
Listening to Jonze’s commentary about making some of the videos is very revealing and, accompanied by the candid descriptions of failed attempts in the booklet, helps you realize that even highly successful directors like Jonze and Cunningham manufacture mistakes too. Chris Cunningham in particular is very primary of his beget work which unfortunately resulted in his DVD containing less videos than the other two.
Cunningham’s style is very dusky and ominous and in some cases downright scary, as in “Near To Daddy” (Aphex Twin) . You’ve probably seen it and if so, you will probably never forget it as it depicts a deformed character in a TV state screaming “Advance to daddy!” at children who all have Richard D. James’ grinning face (Aphex Twin himself) . I can barely explore it as it is exactly the kind of thing my nightmares are made of, but Madonna obviously liked it as she asked Cunningham to thunder her video for “Frozen” after having seen it.
Probably the most valuable video on the Cunningham DVD is Bjork’s “All Is Fat of Treasure” in which the Icelandic songstress is a white, plastic robot on an assembly line who ends up passionately kissing an identical robot, therefore kissing herself. The movements are so fluid and well done that it’s almost arousing to perceive, despite all the machinery surrounding them. Bjork is the popular denominator in this space of DVDs as all directors have worked with her. It is Michel Gondry however who has the most Bjork videos to his name.
“Joga”, “Bachelorette”, “Hyperballad”, “Army of Me”, “Isobel” and “Human Behaviour” are all on there, along with other artists such as Kylie Minogue, The Rolling Stones, Daft Punk and Oui Oui (a band that Gondry himself played drums in for a while) . I had never heard the name Gondry until this residence came out, but as the title of this review suggests, he is my unusual hero now! Wow, he makes some jaw-dropping videos which, besides pioneering novel video compositing techniques, point to the guy is a genius in creative concepts. He has such a generous feel for which images go with the track. Retract “Fell in Worship With A Girl” by The White Stripes for example: entirely appealing out of blue, yellow, red, unlit and white lego blocks! It works so well particularly because he sticks to very rough shapes and doesn’t overdo the details.
Gondry is the man responsible for the Rolling Stones video “Like A Rolling Stone” in which Patricia Arquette crawls through Manhattan in a drugged haze. That video had a very strong “how on earth did he do that? ” quotient as it appears to be made up of peaceful photographs morphed into eachother, yet has the fluidity of film. In fact, most of his videos build you wonder how he realized definite effects and how he came up with the belief in the first spot? The video for the Chemical Brothers’ “Star Guitar” is worth buying this DVD for on its hold. A idea from a speeding scream, the landscape rushing by as you might inquire of it to, until you realize that the landscape is in time with the music. Buildings. bridges and trees cruise in and out of the frame on the beat, almost putting you in a trance. Pure genius again (sorry to sustain repeating myself) .
The booklet accompanying the Gondry DVD contains background information on the making of positive videos, but also pages of personal polaroids and drawings and stories which Gondry faxed from L.A. to his 6-year-old son, Paul in Paris. There’s a collection of home-movies and experiments and a documentary about Gondry, named “I’ve Been 12 Forever”, a very obliging title. My favourite page in the book is one with photos of every car Gondry’s father ever owned. I cherish that kind of wacky stuff.