Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry, born May 8, 1963, is a French Academy Award–winning screenwriter, film, commercial and music video director. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène.

Contents:

[Michel Gondry, portrait #1]

↑ Biography:

Michel Gondry was born in Versailles, France. His career as a filmmaker began in Paris – where he studied graphic arts – with creating music videos on 16mm, and he discovered his passion for directing and experimenting with animation and live action for the French rock band Oui Oui, in which he also served as a drummer.

Michel soon went on to make videos for other bands in France and it was not long before he was on the international circuit. His goal was to complete visual images that would compliment a song, never wanting to look as if they’d just been placed on top of an artist’s work. This unique approach to visual art was a collaboration of elements and ideas generated by Gondry and the musicians with whom he worked.

The style of his videos for Oui Oui caught the attention of music artist Björk, who asked him to direct the video for her song “Human Behaviour”, which won every music video award existing. The collaboration proved long–lasting, with Gondry directing a total of seven music videos for Björk. Other artists who have collaborated with Gondry on more than one occasion include Daft Punk, The Rolling Stones, Foo Fighters, The Chemical Brothers, Radiohead, Cibo Matto, The White Stripes, The Vines, Steriogram, and Beck.

Gondry has also created numerous television commercials. He pioneered the “bullet time” technique later adapted in The Matrix, notably in his “Like a Rolling Stone” video for the Rolling Stones and a 1998 commercial for Smirnoff vodka, as well as directing a trio of inventive holiday–themed advertisements for clothing retailer Gap, Incorporated.

↑ Professional career:

Simply known as the director whose work makes other directors cry, Michel Gondry sets the standard in everything he does. His groundbreaking videos for artists including the White Stripes, Björk, The Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk, have won him every music video award available, and he is in the Guiness Book of World Records as the director of the commercial that has won the most prizes in the world, including the Lion D’or at Cannes, three silvers at D&AD and the best campaign at BTAA, for Levi’s 501 Jeans “Drugstore”.

Gondry is often cited, along with directors Spike Jonze and David Fincher, as representative of the influx of music video directors into feature film. Gondry made his feature film debut in 2001 with “Human Nature”, garnering mixed reviews. His second film, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (also his second collaboration with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman), was released in 2004 and received many rave reviews. “Eternal Sunshine…” utilizes many of the image manipulation techniques that Gondry had experimented with in his music videos. Gondry won an Academy Award alongside Kaufman and Pierre Bismuth for the screenplay of “Eternal Sunshine…”. The style of Gondry’s music videos often relies on videography and camera tricks which play with frames of reference.

Gondry also directed the musical documentary Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2006) which followed comedian Dave Chappelle as he attempted to hold a large, free concert in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. His following film, “The Science of Sleep”, hit theaters in September, 2006. This film stars Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, and marked a return to the fantastical, surreal techniques he employed in “Eternal Sunshine…”.

In September 2006, Gondry made his debut as an installation artist at Deitch Projects in New York’s SoHo gallery district. The show, called “The Science of Sleep: An Exhibition of Sculpture and Pathological Creepy Little Gifts” featured props from his film, “The Science of Sleep”, as well as film clips and a selection of gifts that the artist had given to women he was interested in, many of them former or current collaborators, Karen Baird, Kishu Chand, Dorothy Barrick and Lauri Faggioni. A leitmotif of the film is a ’Disastrology’ calendar, Gondry commissioned the painter Baptiste Ibar to draw harrowing images of natural and human disasters.

His brother Olivier “Twist” Gondry is also a television commercial and music video director creating videos for bands such as The Stills, Hot Hot Heat and The Vines. He was asked by French comic duet Éric et Ramzy to direct Steak, but declined. The film was subsequently directed by Monsieur Oizo.

Gondry was an Artist in Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005 and 2006. He most recently directed the music video for the Paul McCartney song “Dance Tonight”, in which Gondry makes a cameo appearance.

Michel will be collaborating with Daniel Clowes on upcoming screenplays.

↑ Films:

[Illustration: Films]

↑ Short films:

[Illustration: Short films]

↑ Documentaries:

[Illustration: Documentaries]

↑ Videos:

[Illustration: Videos] [Illustration: Advertisements]

↑ Making of:

[Illustration: Making of]

↑ Interviews:

[Illustration: Interviews]

↑ Television:

[Illustration: Television]

↑ Awards:

“Drugstore” Levi’s:
Guiness Book of Records, Most Awarded Commercial of All Time
“Hardest Button to Button” The White Stripes:
D&AD 2004, Silver
“Come into my World” Kylie Minogue:
CAD Awards 2003, Best Pop Video
“Star Guitar” Chemical Brothers:
D&AD 2002, Gold
“Let Forever Be” Chemical Brothers:
Clio 2000, Gold
D&AD 2000, Silver
CAD Awards 2000, Best Video of the Year
“Holiday Campaign” GAP:
D&AD 2000, Silver

↑ Credits:

[Michel Gondry, portrait #2]

I made this webpage as a compilation of relevant informations about the different works of Michel Gondry, a person I consider – like you, I guess – as a pure genius. I wanted to share an easy and fast way to look at videos of his creations, of the best quality (sometimes only of the less bad quality, about the earlier ones) which I found on Dailymotion and YouTube. I hope you will enjoy discovering – or re–discovering – his huge and surprising talent…

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