Michel Gondry & His Music Videos

Michel Gondry

Born on the 8th of May 1963 in Versailles/Yvelines/France, Gondry has played the drums in Kayne West's hit single 'Diamonds From Sierra Leone' (2005), he directed Kate Winslet's Oscar nominated performance in 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' (2004), he graduated from Ecole Olivier de Serres in Paris. The film 'Dave Chappelle's Block Party' (2005) inspired Gondry to make 'Be Kind Rewind' in (2008). A collection of DVDs were released about a number of different directors including Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, Jonathan Glazer, Chris Cunningham as well as other directors.

Michel Gondry has even solved a rubix cube with his feet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD-8SMOh9Qg

Gondry has made his name by creating many weird and wonderful music videos, including:

• Cibo Matto's 'Sugar Water' (2009) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN9auBn6Jys 
• Kylie Minogue's 'Come Into My World' (2001) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63vqob-MljQ 
• The White Stripes' 'Hardest Button to Button' (2003) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4dx42YzQCE 
• The Chemical Brothers' 'Let Forever Be' (1999) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5FyfQDO5g0 
• Bjork's 'Bachelorette' (1997) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5nNfbTS6N4.

This music video for Cibo Matto's 'Sugar Water' (2009) has a split screen/double narrative and follows a pattern of visual symmetry and is flipped/revered as seen in the image on the right. The right side of the screen has a backwards narrative, whereas the left side is shown forwards. Midway through the music video (2:00mins) the two narratives cross and the women on either side of the screen pass and switch positions so the female which was as first going forward, is now on the right side of the screen going backwards. This music video conforms to the conventions usually found in music videos as it follows a narrative, the artists are performing and some of the lyrics link to the video, for example, the woman on the left side of the screen sings 'when a black cat crosses my path' (02:48-02:53), a black cat is seen transitioning from the right side of the screen to the left.

At 03:32, Gondry has used the title of the song itself, and visualised the lyrics 'sugar water' as seen in the image below, which would be a convention of music videos. Including the title of the song and singing it in the chorus or verse is also a very common convention found in most music videos.