The Directors Collection - The Memorable TV DVD Review

Great idea for a new collection from Kaleidoscope profiling 3 prominent music video directors, two of whom have gone on to make movies. A set of double sided discs featuring the superb Spike Jonze, the eccentric Michel Gondry and the scary Chris Cunningham and pulling together their music videos, commercials and short films. The discs are available to buy separately and all come with a lavish 52 page booklet.

SO IS IT ANY GOOD?

Wow! In a nutshell these discs are stunning, both visually and content wise, the Spike Jonze one stands out as the pick of the bunch, his videos for acts like the Beastie Boys, Bjork, Weezer and Fat Boy Slim have already entered the music video hall of Fame, both the Fat Boy Slim ones featured here, Praise You (featuring the hilarious Torrance Community Dance Group) and the lavish Weapon of Choice featuring a Fred Astaire style performance from a dancing Christopher Walken are certainly amongst the best videos ever made. Jonze of course has proved he is a special talent with his movies Being John Malkovich and Adaptation.

Jondry’s work (also featuring acts such as Bjork) is of the more eccentric variety, technically very clever but sometimes a little cold, always very interesting and watchable though. Jondry’s feature debut Human Nature (which is a first rate hilarious and under looked movie) carries on with the eccentric theme.

Chris Cunningham is a different kettle of fish again, whilst working with such big name acts as Madonna and again Bjork he has most often worked with electronica acts especially The Aphix Twin, there is some really disturbing imagery on show here and although technically brilliant the videos are sometimes hard to watch.

More than just a collection of music videos though these sets also feature a wide range of other material from longish short films to 30 second commercials. These three releases are very recommended.