MICHEL GONDRY THE WORK OF... DVD DIRECTORS LABEL, EMI RELEASE: DECEMBER 3, 2003 REVIEW: DECEMBER 17, 2003

I must admit I am somewhat hesitant when it comes to arty, odd, pretentious, celebrated French "genius" directors, who mumbles about their concepts in ugly clothes. But I watch Björk's "Bachelorette" (six Björks included here) and Massive Attack's "Protection" and surrender. This guy is talented. He treats the four minute artist commercials like they're feature films.
This is not your everyday MTV shit, I can tell you that. With a solid music DVD library you don't need their commercials, jingles, fill-outs and Shakira videos on repeat. You have your own channel.
One can't possibly enjoy all the clips and music on this DVD, but you don't have to. It's indeed a wide spectrum of styles and Ideas (with capital I). The stuff is almost always interesting to watch one way or the other, especially when you hear about the many thoughts and efforts behind it all, Lego block videos, palindroms and reversed worlds included. But I think most of the Gondry videos are too much - taken too far. Use the remote and skip a some of the work here (if you're not into The Rolling Stones or Oui Oui, for instance) and you are still feeded enough visual candy to motivate the price tag.
We're talking about two DVD sides with 27 videos (with Björk, Massive Attack, Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, Kylie etc), a 75 minute film, a 52 page book and lots of extras here. Gondry might be pretentious, but obviously generous.

MIKAEL KAHRLE