Directors Study - Michel Gondry

Born in 1963 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.

Gondry’s style
Gondry has a very unique style, he loves the idea of surreal settings and visual effects. His music videos have been portrayed as very smart, as he likes to perfect the music with visuals. He is known to make good use of space with the rhythm of music, to make the video itself appealing to the audience. A great example of Gondry’s work where he has cleverely done this, is Daft Punk “around the world” he uses all the dancers in the video individually to represent a beat, he also uses his space well by making the space appear “round” to connote the title of the song.

Facts

In his video clips and commercials, he was a pioneer for a lot of things. For example the video clip he made for IAM (Je danse le Mia) was the first video clip using the morphing technics. And above all he invented the technique of several cameras taking pictures in the same time around somebody. This technique was used for the first time in a commercial for insurance, then in Björk's "Army of Me" video clip and in The Matrix (1999).
Gondry is a musician which may of helped inspire his passion for music. He has shown his talent by appearing in Kanye West’s video "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" (2005) playing the drums. "Before he lost the shop my father gave me a drum kit and my brother a bass guitar. We formed a couple of bands together, that played punk rock...or maybe it was more like New Wave...and that's how I got into music. Then when I left Versailles to go to art college in Paris I formed the band Oui Oui with some friends from college."

His 1994 "Drugstore" spot for Levi's 501 Jeans holds the record for most awards won by a TV commercial.

Personal Quotes

“Sometimes it's better to have less money and more freedom.”
“Every great idea is on the verge of being stupid.”


Music Videos

Daft Punk “Around the world”
White Stripes “Fell in love with a girl”
“Dance Tonight" Paul McCartney (2007)
Kanye West “Heard em say”
Kylie Minogue “come into my world”
Radio Head “knives Out”
The chemical Brothers “Star Guitar”
The Rolling Stones “Like a Rolling Stone”