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

the A SIDE:
The Hardest Button to Button ~ The White Stripes
Come Into My World ~ Kylie Minogue
Dead Leaves & the Dirty Ground ~ The White Stripes
Fell In Love with a Girl ~ The White Stripes
Let Forever Be ~ The Chemical Brothers
Star Guitar ~ The Chemical Brothers
Joga ~ Bjork
Deadweight ~ Beck
Bachelorette ~Bjork
Everlong ~ Foo Fighters
Around the World ~ Daft Punk
Sugar Water ~ Cibo Matto
HyperBallad ~ Bjork

the B-Side:

Like a Rolling Stone ~ The ROlling Stones
Army of Me ~ Bjork
Isobel ~ Bjork
Protection ~ Massive Attack
Lucas with the Lid Off ~ Lucas
Human Behaviour ~ Bjork
Le Mia ~ I Am
La tour De Pise ~ Jean Francois Coen
Ma Maison ~ Oui Oui
BOlide ~ Oui Oui
Junor Et Sa Voix D'or OUi Oui
Les Cailloux OUI OUI
UN Joyeux NOEL OUI OUI
La VIlle OUI OUI

This a great DVD with extra bonus stuff besides the videos and a great price. These videos to me are almost like art. They are creative, imaginative, and at the same time whimsical. Plus visually there is so much to absorb that viewing it once is not enough. And sometimes you just have to ask yourself "how'd he do that"?

The dvd also includes a 52 page book with drawings photographs and interviews.

This would be great for fans of any of these groups who don't have their videos on DVD.


FINALLY!   September 26, 2003
Mark Slonsky (Kanagawa -Ayase-Shi, JAPAN)
18 out of 20 found this review helpful

As a avid admirer of videos that are both unique and rare I am salivating at the chance to own this and the other two titles (spike jonze & chris cunningham). It has taken me a many months to find works by these talented people. The closest you could come to finding a fraction of their work would be to buy Bjork dvd's (which might I recommend are works of arts themselves) In an age where MTV defines what makes good music videos these 3 men are a breath of fresh air and a slap in the face to all those who claim EMINEM's latest video is "so creative". Other than their own films and videos there are many commercials and short films out there featuring their talents. Why should a media so unlimited be limited...press play and take these all in.


Oui oui!   May 15, 2004
E. A Solinas (MD USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Michel Gondry's massive imagination is full of weirdness and wonder. The director of "Human Nature" and the wonderful "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" has a certain kind of cleverness well-suited to music videos. Now the best of them are shown in "Director's Series Volume 3: The Work of Director Michel Gondry."

Among his vivid music videos are the White Stripes' "Dead Leaves & the Dirty Ground," "Fell In Love With A Girl" and "Hardest Button to Button," and a slew of other respected bands like Massive Attack ("Protection"), the Chemical Brothers (the funhouse mirror "Let Forever Be"), Daft Punk (colorful "Around the World") the Rolling Stones ("Like A Rolling Stone") and a bunch of videos for the French pop-rock band Oui Oui, for which he played drums. And that's not all of them!

The two part documentary "I've Been 12 Forever" includes interviews with Gondry, behind-the-scenes information, and bits and pieces of how he forms his unique visions. There are commercials, all tinged with the strange but immensely effective. And on the short film front, Jim Carrey stars in the cute, immensely amusing "Pecan Pie," but the freakily scatological "One Day" falls utterly flat. Wrapping up the whole thing is a booklet full of even more interviews, drawings and inspiration.

Aside from his films, Gondry is perhaps best known for his Bjork music videos, presented in their glory here. The attitudes of the bands and musicians are reflected in the music videos, so the personality shines through, as if Gondry has carefully shaped the images around the music. Nothing is normal here -- whether it's the White Stripes made of Legos, or Jim Carrey riding his bed like a car.

The double-sided disc allows fans to check out the evolution of Gondry's style. He was a lot less sophisticated in his Oui Oui days, but the relatively immature videos he did for those songs were enough to get Bjork asking for him to direct "Human Behavior." The rest is musical history. After that, Gondry's style becomes somewhat stranger but no less riveting.

There's plenty of information for those who love Gondry's warmly quirky style, including interviews with the musicians. What it lacks are some of his other prominent music videos, like Radiohead's "Knives Out." However, it contains a lot more early material than the other Director Series DVDs. And what it has is quite personal, since Gondry also made the music for the earliest music videos.

With the exception of the occasional dud, "The Work of Michel Gondry" is an effervescent trip into a mind where the music video becomes a flexible art form. Vivid and vibrant.


a really good Best Of collection...   January 15, 2004
Cubist (United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Michel Gondry is a visionary music video director who presents images that feel like they have sprung right out of fanciful dreams or fevered nightmares. Like feature filmmaker Terry Gilliam, Gondry seamlessly blends reality with dreams so that it is impossible to know where one ends and one begins.

Included with the DVD is a 52-page booklet that features behind-the-scenes photos, interviews with Gondry and several of his written treatments for the music videos he ended up directing.

Several of his short films are included on the DVD. Among them, "Drumb and Drumber," which anticipates the same kind of technique he would perfect on a more ambitious scale with the "The Hardest Button to Button" video by The White Stripes.

"Pecan Pie with Jim Carrey" is a funny short film that involves the actor riding around in a bed in his pajamas. It's a surreal vignette that makes no sense-which is largely its appeal.

The DVD also collects some of Gondry's commercial work, most notably one for Levi's jeans which beautifully captures many of the video director's pre-occupations.

In lieu of audio commentaries for the videos (as on the Spike Jonze DVD) there is a 75-minute documentary about Gondry and his career that is divided into two parts over both sides of the DVD. The second segment is the most interesting because it features interviews with many of the musicians that have had videos directed by Gondry. One of the highlights is when Jack White dryly noting that Gondry's concept for "Fell In Love With A Girl" was better then his bandmate, Meg's idea of having them be made out of Oreo cookies.

This DVD perfectly conveys Gondry's unique vision with an excellent cross-section of his work. This disc is highly recommended for fans of the music video medium.