Artist of the Day: Michel Gondry

Brooklyn-based French filmmaker Michel Gondry directs feature films, shorts, commercials, and what he may be best known for, music videos. Much of his work is full of practical and digital effects, often of the hand-made do-it-yourself variety, always clever, and typically animated.

While many people stiffen and become more conservative as they age, Michel has retained the natural enthusiasm of youth to experiment creatively and to release and publish all sorts of work fearlessly. This DVD menu screen from one of Michel’s music video collections illustrates his playful approach to art:

Michel’s longest music video directing relationship is with Bjork. He directed the video for “Human Behavior” from her Debut record, and most recently directed the video for “Crystalline” from her Biophilia record, with animation direction by Peter Sluszka:

http://youtu.be/MvaEmPQnbWk

Michel draws and creates books. Picturebox has published three of his books. One is a comic book and another is a book/film collaboration with artist Julie Doucet.

He recently released Haircut Mouse, a short multimedia animated film:

Here is a trio of Rubik’s Cube solving videos. The first utilizes a simple filmmaking trick before escalating into the use of digital effects in videos two and three:

Here is a teaser for Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy?, the “animated conversation” with Noam Chomsky, directed by Michel:
http://youtu.be/3CoolLU0wp4

You can see more work at Michel’s website and watch “TV Gondry” for a brief commercial of Michel pushing his products:
http://vimeo.com/11535835