22 November 2005
KANYE VID TO PREMIERE AT RESFEST
Speaking of RESFEST Montreal, the world premiere of Michel's version of Heard 'Em Say will happen there this coming Friday night. Michel will be there to premiere it for the fine Canadian folks at Ex-Centris at 9:00pm. If you attend, please e-mail a report! (info AT director-file.com)

The Bill Plympton version of the video finally premiered in America yesterday on BET's 106 and Park. It's now airing on BET and MTV. UPDATE: Roc-a-Fella just posted Plympton's video online: Windows hi - Windows lo - Real hi - Real lo


16 November 2005
THE MILL ON THE DENIAL TWIST
Why did TDT take 3 weeks in post, you've been writing? An unlinkable article at The Mill clarifies:

"[T]he Mill's visual effects team created transitions between the various sets and brought seamless enhancements to provide the extra touches that could not be established during production.

"The masterpiece of the project was the set for the final scene created by Mill NY's talented CG team. Their work involved extensive tracking, 3D reconstruction and match moving shots - a result of the fact that the video was shot on steadycam - so no repeatable movements were possible. The Denial Twist was finished in HD to ensure a resolution that would retain the maximum detail for the optical effects Michel and The Mill created."

They have another copy of the video.


14 November 2005
D-F.C REPORT: RIDDLES SOLVED AND EVERYTHING ELSE
Okay, Michel's Kanye vid has indeed been put down.

No, wait! It's not actually scrapped! In a combination of post-production tardiness and corporate serendipity, Heard 'Em Say will debut on an MTV Christmas-Kanye special in December. No date has been set for this yet, but the show will feature all the behind-the-scenes Making the Video footage and more magical excitement. The whole video is, according to a source, really both amazing and magical. Flying-pianos magical. Macy's will, get this, play the video in the Young Men's department. Wow.

On to The Denial Twist. Director File still doesn't know what Michel meant by squishing Jack and Meg White - yet. Some fun tidbits, though: The squished car is actually made of some 20-odd car pieces, and was hand made by the same fellow who designed Jim Carrey's car-bed in Pecan Pie. And, as you guessed, the video required some 3 weeks in post. Can you spot Michel in it? Also, see the Stripes and their video on Conan 2 December.

The Science of Sleep will open in France first, on 14 March 2006. Michel & co. are still tweaking its bits and bobs, but it should be done by the end of the year. Expect to see it (yes, I've bought your plane tickets) at Sundance in January.

Dave Chappelle's Block Party will also be completely finished by the end of the year, pending any nefarious scenarios. It's also slated currently for a March theatrical opening. Busy month for the Gondryman.

Lastly, Michel is going to RESFEST Montreal. Sometime between 25 and 27 Nov. there will be a "big thing" there, still unannounced.


13 November 2005
KANYE-GONDRY VID COCK-BLOCKED BY PLYMPTON??

People everywhere are wondering what is up with Heard 'Em Say. Shots reported on 9 Nov. that Michel's video was "just finished." Still, it has not been seen anywhere on TV. It is also no longer listed on MTV's Making the Video page, where it was originally set to premiere. I'm trying to get the official word on this, and will probably post something on Monday.

Instead a different video premiered last night on Channel 4 in the UK. Animated by none other than Bill Plympton, it is a black and white pencil-drawn animation, with occasional inserts of Kanye and Adam Levine. Read more at Wikipedia. Given the amount of time it would take to get (I still can't believe this) Bill Plympton to animate a video for you, I would guess that this is the official UK video. (Thanks, Alan)


13 November 2005 - UPDATED!
THE DENIAL TWIST IS ONLINE
The Denial Twist makes its premiere online at Video-C. It's also in the new Partizan player. Or try here: QT | Win | Real Hi | Real Lo


9 November 2005
MICHEL INTERVIEWED BY MTV NEWS

MTV News has a new interview with that French guy.

They talk about The Science of Sleep, which is going through the focus groups at the moment. Apparently it's due out in March in America.

MTV also reveals that the soundtrack will have the Willowz and the White Stripes on it. Michel will even apparently do a video for the White Stripes' Instinct Blues, his fifth for them!

Finally, Michel's next film, after Master of Space and Time, will be a more autobiographical film. "It's about my friend in my old band [Oui Oui] in the early '80s. It's set in 2005 and we meet our [1980s] selves in the present and interact. It's a completely stupid story!"


7 November 2005 - ONLINE!
TWIST, MICHEL, FATBOY REMIX GO-GO'S FOR NORDSTROM

From the press release:

"On Monday, November 7, Nordstrom customers will be invited, via email, to download Nordstrom Silverscreen. The broadband media channel, powered by technology from Maven Networks, will premiere a first-ever video remix featuring The Go-Go's Our Lips are Sealed, directed by Olivier Gondry, executive produced by Michel Gondry and with music remixed by Fatboy Slim. In the video, new footage showing women in Nordstrom merchandise is blended with the original Go-Go's footage."

Those of you who aren't on Nordstrom's 2.5 million-strong mailing list can see a less elaborate version of the clip now online. The HD-quality, full-screen downloaded version is apparently clickable. You like that blouse Belinda Carlisle's wearing? Click on it!

This is the first in a monthly remix-video campaign Nordstrom is pioneering. (Coming soon: Culture Club!) The original Go-Go's video was directed by Derek Burbidge.


7 November 2005
PIERRE BISMUTH & MICHEL GONDRY NEW EXHIBITION

The two gentlemen who collaborated on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind have a new exhibition which runs from 12 October to 3 December at Cosmic Galerie in Paris.

Titled The All Seeing Eye, it is a video projection of a camera spinning in a room as the contents of that room slowly appear and disappear. Read the entire description here. (Thanks, Fred Leray!)


21 October 2005
MORE ON THAT KANYE VID FROM ADAM LEVINE

MTV News talked recently with Adam Levine of Maroon 5, who plays a Macy's security guard in Michel's Kanye West video Heard 'Em Say. "I let Kanye and his family in, after hours, to spend the night. And he's got three kids with him and they're running around and I'm chasing them," he says. "This sounds weird, but it's kind of a surrealistic Christmas world that Macy's becomes. [The video] is so weird! There's, like, dancing suits in the men's section, all kinds of craziness, but I'm excited about it. There's this one scene where we're driving, like, a police-car bed. It's so weird! There's dancing suits in the men's section, all kinds of craziness, but I'm excited about it."

MTV also noted, "[Michel] created a Mary Poppins-inspired fantasy world inside the department store, where Kanye and his fictional kids run amok. Utilizing his signature special effects, the director created a seemingly endless race track that comes together piece by piece within seconds, sofa beds that fold and unfold to the beat, and more." Jon Brion makes a cameo appearance playing a piano.

The MTV article has photos from the shoot + the treatment!


17 October 2005
TALL TALES FROM THE WHITE STRIPES SHOOT

noise64 links us to a Village Voice blogger named Status Ain't Hood (aka Tom Breihan) who appears in the one-take video The Denial Twist with the White Stripes, Conan O'Brien, and their miniaturized selves last Thursday. He posted a late-night entry recounting the day, including bits of the video's concept..

Jack and Meg play on scrunched-up flattened Late Night stage with dwarf Conan, Jack and Meg walk over to elongated Late Night desk with tall Conan, Jack and Meg leave in scrunched up elevator and scrunched-up sports car and then watch the show in their miniature weird-perspective apartment, where they're joined by the real Conan. The whole video is one long camera shot, so all the sets were built in a circle in one big room on a Greenpoint soundstage.

..and then a longer, second entry about his impressions of everyone involved. He also includes a nice, juicy bit about the new Kanye West vid Heard 'Em Say, filmed late last week: "Apparently, it takes place in Macy's, where they filmed for two nights, and it involves little kids and magic; it was hard to tell what he was saying through his accent."


12 October 2005
THE FUTURE OF THE DIRECTORS LABEL IS WIDE
MTV recently talked to Directors Label producer Richard Brown, wondering what is next for the DL. Besides the upcoming Tongs (hot ness) and Mike Mills DVDs, Richard says he'd like to do Shynola, Roman Coppola, and Jean-Baptiste Mondino.

Apparently Richard would also like to do a Directors Label off-shoot for R&B/rap video directors. A top idea! His first thoughts on that are named Paul Hunter, Little X, and Chris Robinson.


4 October 2005
THE NEW DIRECTOR FILE··MICHEL GONDRY
Welcome!

I'm opening up the site a tad bit early because I'm completely excited about it. It's not finished, so tread lightly. But notice the new, large stills for much of Gondry's work. We're now better covering his short films, features, and those other bits and bobs that ran through the cracks of our previous site. Check out the new Friends section as well, which I hope to expand with more external links and info about those who work closely with Michel. (Julie and Georges, I'm coming to get you!)

Some of the texts need to be updated, though I've done some extensive writing already. Stills will be added as well. Some of this will happen in short time. As for the site layout, I am disappointed that I couldn't update the "book" idea I had with the previous edition. It comes down to time and energy, really. I would have loved to have created something that operated quite like a real book does - that was my initial thematic aim, but I don't have enough resources to conquer that idea. As well I've always aimed to keep the site as minimal as possible so people who can't afford high-speed connections aren't shut out. So, I hope you like what I've done instead. I've hidden some surprises in here and more are coming.

Feedback is welcome. Write: info AT director-file DOT com. I plan on adding a news archive (which Director File··Chris Cunningham needs as well), or just making this page a blog.

This has been an absolute labor of love. I hope I've lived up to the sometimes-daunting standards that Michel's work calls for.

I'm excited that director-file.com is nearly completely redone so I can focus more on housework and more personal projects. Get on with it a little, maybe create something of my own (though I still don't want to be a director).

··Kevin Holy


19 September 2005
RESFEST, I WONDER, AND ME

Michel's Willowz video I Wonder is at RESFEST, which just opened last week in NYC. It's playing as part of the Videos That Rock screening. RESFEST will be in 35 major cities on 6 continents, so there's a chance one is around you.

Check out the new edition of RES Magazine! They published a letter of mine about terrorism in the front. Yes, I live in Athens, Ohio. Yes, you should subscribe to RES.


2 July 2005 - UPDATED AGAIN!
Michel interviewed the White Stripes in the latest edition of Les Inrockuptibles. The Stripes fansite Triple Tremelo has the scanned article, which is, yes, in French.

UPDATE: Bruno - the Gondry Fotolog fella - translated the article into Spanish.

2ND UPDATE: The interview has come full circle! Viewer Adrian Zacapa was kind enough to translate Bruno's Spanish translation back into English. I edited it into clearer English, but don't expect the words to be the exact ones Meg, Jack & Michel spoke. Like dumping from DVD to VHS to VHS-C, it's probably got a bit of noise.