Michel Gondry has a number of obsessions. The most notable of these being repetition, graphic reproduction and thoroughly deconstructing music only to build it back up entwined with a symmetrical visual foil and a sense of the absurd.
You will already know him, particularly for the White Stripes’ One With The Lego, One With The Trashed House And The Projections, and One With The Ridiculous Equalizer-esque Reproduction Of Jack And Meg. Then there are his victorious mind-melting visuals for The Chemical Brothers’ ‘Star Guitar’ where to the untrained eye it appears he has choreographed the whole of France from a train window, and to the trained eye like he’s a meticulous genius. Then there’s the psychedelic mind-warp of ‘Let Forever Be’, transforming musical desperation into necessity.
He may have embraced constantly reoccurring themes through his body of work (Daft Punk’s ‘All Around The World’ does look like an affordable demo for ‘Star Guitar’) but he still lets each song speak for itself and take ownership of the video. And with ‘Everlong’ he produced the only Foo Fighters video worth sitting through till the end. Achievement all around.
Not every last music video is a cast iron work of infinite genius, but most are a blast and there is a benchmark he never descends below. Just remember to watch French band Oui Oui’s numerous videos with the sound off. His commercials and short films are all worth repeat peeps too, ‘La Lettre’ in particular being a stunningly sweet ride. In an interview, Bjork attributes his style to a hippie upbringing, which may actually correlate with our guess, LSD.
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