Michel Gondry returns to the French video scene with Je danse le mia by rap collaborative IAM. Mia is a bumpin', groove-based track, featuring Akhénaton [née Philippe Frangione] on the mike. The song is on their album Ombre est Lumière.
The visuals are just as pumpin' as the song. Gondry playfully moves the viewer along the small journey through Club Prive in a visually groundbreaking way. Gondry utilizes the same technique he created for his Natwest "Zoom" commercial. Briefly, it involves taking one shot and zoom-morphing into the next. The zoom can go just about any direction one chooses: forwards, backwards, circular, etc. The technique was later used by the likes of Marcos Siega and fanatically by Wayne Isham - a few Ishams: Metallica "I Disappear," Bon Jovi "It's My Life", *NSYNC "Bye, Bye, Bye", Ricky Martin "Livin' La Vida Loca" and "Shake Your Bon Bon". In RES, Gondry illuminates: "I remember seeing the video for Will Smith's "Miami" - there are 10 shots in a row which have exactly the same framing as my commercial [for NatWest.]"
Anyway, here's where it came from. Gondry takes us into the club, beat by beat. Many of the zooms occur during the beat; so the visual flow is very natural, yet quite grabbing. Frequently along the path we come upon Akhénaton, flowing as smoothly as the video. We see him at the door, lounging inside the club, on the dance floor, etc.
Again we see him (in another, more furry outfit) checking himself in a mirror. A few zooms later, he's walking away from the camera, right next to the original Akhénaton. Our furry antihero punches a guy out behind our original hero. The video zooms on the poor chap, who falls on a table full of glasses.
One zoom-morph later and we see a bottle crashing on a curb. Gondry has used this simple method to transport us to another place entirely. He does this frequently in the video, proving that he can take a simple concept and magnify its uses, often with a playful eye.
The video is on both the Work of Director Michel Gondry and on the 2004 French PAL DVD Au Couer d'IAM.
