September 28, 2005

A couple of years ago, Palm Pictures launched The Director's Label Series with directors Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and Michael Cunningham. Their influence was so much a part of the launch that now, with the second wave of DVDs, they are credited as the creators of the series.

The idea was truly ingenious. Here were three of the most interesting filmmakers of the moment. Jonze had already had the most commercial success, Gondry was in the midst of Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, and Chris Cunningham stood as the least known, but most avant-garde of the trio.

The opportunity to explore the breadth and depth of the double disc sets, discovering all kinds of things about the filmmakers and their emerging film styles.

This year's group of four filmmakers doesn't offer quite the depth that the initial group did. Two of the filmmakers, Mark Romanek and Jonathan Glazer have feature films to their credit. Two, Anton Corbjin and Stephane Sednaoui do not, though they each have at least one music video that lives in The Pantheon of the form. None of this group had enough work to command a 2-disc set. But there is stuff here worth the price, though the value of each has a slightly different degree of correlation between your artistic obsessions and your wallet.

All four of these men are spectacularly talented, but for me, the most forgettable of the discs is Anton Corbjin's, which has the most music videos of all seven of the discs in the series. There are four from Depeche Mode and two each from Echo and The Bunnymen, Metallica, U2, Mecury Rev, and Herbert Gronemeyer. The multiples tell you both that Corbjin inspires a lot of loyalty from those who work from him and that he can vary his style quite skillfully. Of 26 videos, the only two that are likely to be familiar to a wide number of people are U2's "One" and Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box."

There just isn't much here besides the music videos and some "making of" interviews and clips. There are some things of minor issue, but unless you are committed to exploring Corbjin's work in music videos, you can probably pass.

Next is Stephane Sednaoui's. He has a long list of music videos, but not much to offer outside of his impressive list. The best known of the videos are probably Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Scar Tissue," Alanis Morissette's "Ironic" and U2's "Mysterious Ways.:

It is hard to nail down Sednaoui's style. He has great skill with color and he likes ot bend the image. But you really don't get a clear signature from watching his work.

Perhaps my favorite experience on the disc is a short film he did called Acqua Natasa which could be a loop in a public space that you could watch over and over for many hours. It is, simply, a model named Natasa Vojnovic floating in water under (is it under?) a large piece of plexi-glass. She presses up against the glass, floats away from it, all the time moving in her flowing, sheer gown. The image is soothing, sexy, sweet and endlessly intriguing. It is a beautiful human in a fish tank. There is no start or end. But it is just lovely to watch.

Sednaoui also has a short inspired by Lou Reed's "Walk On the Wild Side," pretty literally. It is a graphic little piece, but it is an interesting experiment and even includes a cameo by Reed.

Jonathan Glazer moved into the movie world with the hugely well-liked Sexy Beast. It relaunched the international career of Ian McShane, gave Sir Ben Kingsley a great chance to flex, and showed Glazer to be a director with extraordinary patience behind the camera. His second film, Birth, showed even more patience… perhaps too much.

In any case, his disc is the least (of all seven) infected with music videos. He offers only eight. But among them is one of the best known in history, Jamiroquai"s "Virtual Insanity" with that guy with the Dr. Seuss hat floating around the room with the cement walls and mod furniture. There are some excerpts from the two movies and some celeb interviews, but it is pretty light on content.

That said, it is worth buying, if you are interested in Glazer's work and future, for the 11 commercials on this disc. When we think about commercial directors who moved on to features, the Scott Brothers tend to come to mind first. But even though Ridley did some of the highest profile ads ever, I would compare Glazer's commercial reel to anyone's.

The work here is amazing. He does a series of Guiness ads that are mind blowing, original and really make you interested in the product. His work for Levi's should be run here in the U.S…. both pieces are completely compelling. His two spots for Barclays with Samuel L. Jackson are among the best celebrity spots I have ever seen for anything. And the ancient machismo of his Stella Artois spots is unforgettable.

I know I am gushing, but this stuff is a real treat. Show commercials like these before movies and everyone stops complaining.

The fourth director here has the best line-up. Mark Romanek seems to have had a hard time making a music video that wasn't legendary from their release. One of my very favorite all-time videos, Johnny Cash singing Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt," is still mesmerizing, even after scores of viewings. He created a new style with Lenny Kravitz' "Are You Gonna Go My Way." Madonna's "Rain" is one of her most gentle videos. Janet Jackson's "Got 'til It's Gone" was one of the first "reality music videos" made in near-sepia chocolate. Janet & Michael Jackson's "Scream" is one I love, though a lot of people interviewed for this disc really despise it. I thought it really spoke to the glory and the isolation of the life of MJ in particular. Beck's "Devil's Haircut" is so much fun. "Free Your Mind" really defined En Vogue's appeal. kd lang's "Constant Craving" is really the one great video in her amazing career. I had never seen Jay-Z's "99 Problems," but I loved it, despite the endless use of the world "bitch." And perhaps his most infamous video, Fiona Apple's "Criminal," is still as sexy and creepy as ever… plus there is a great interview with Apple about how she really felt that the video had hurt her deeply and that she has just now come to forgive Romanek.

It is an amazing list, loaded with diversity and fun and kink and class. Like the other discs, there isn't a lot more to chew on. There is a satirical mini-doc with all kinds of stars dissing Romanek and a less satirical piece with memories from many with whom he has worked.

All four filmmakers have accompanying books that they have put together. Those books are all priceless themselves. They offer intimacies and images and further insight about how things come together. And again, my favorite s Romanek's, which has an interview with Spike Jonze and one of the great pictures of an actress ever, a shot of Samantha Mathis that shows just half her face, but captures the joy that any man hopes to see in the eyes of a woman.

It will be interesting to see where they go with the next series. It would be interesting to see some variations. For instance, the Scott Brothers work would make an amazing multi-disc set. A disc with a history of one of the great short film makers or animators would be terrific. I'd love a disc of the earliest music videos - shot on film back then - with a focus on the directors.

And the one thing that was in the first series and much less here is commentary from others who were involved with the videos. If they are not available in the future, I would still try to get someone on there to do liner notes, in the album tradition. It was great to be able to watch a Spike Jonze video and then watch it again with Chris Walken explaining how the day went.

But thank goodness for Palm for taking the initiative here. These discs should be a proud part of any hard core film lover's DVD library.

E-ME.