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Director's Series, Vol. 2 - The Work of Director Chris Cunningham

Director's Series, Vol. 2 - The Work of Director Chris Cunningham

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $17.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: Always the perfectionist, Chris Cunningham probably didn't include some of his video work seen in the DVD menu, but absent in the contents, because he didn't think it was up to snuff.

Unfortunately, the content of this DVD comes up short in visual material and is an overall disappointment for hardcore fans, specially considering all of the videos in the DVD can be found for free in P2P networks, including the entire (and painfully cut in the DVD) 'Flex' short.

A video interview would have been nice, but we get to see several minutes of Bjork speaking with a few seconds of the director himself.

The "53 page" booklet can be condensed to a few pages of interviews and, oh joy, you get to look at pictures of videos you will never get to see in this DVD (so, what is the point of even having the pics?)

One can get a better insight into the director's mind by reading the interviews in www.director-file.com

This is what happens when you let artists edit themselves out: A product that pleases the artist and disappoints the buyer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Chris Cunningham is Simply Amazing!
Review: An amazing DVD to own for anyone interested in artist music videos. Most are very unique - and force you to want more. Even if you don't like the song the video is potraying (which in a lot of cases I didn't), you will still watch the videos, I guarantee it!

The highlight video in this collection is Bjork 'All is Full of Love'. Madonna 'Frozen' is quite amazing as well.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Chris Cunningham is Simply Amazing!
Review: An amazing DVD to own for anyone interested in artist music videos. Most are very unique - and force you to want more. Even if you don't like the song the video is potraying (which in a lot of cases I didn't), you will still watch the videos, I guarantee it!

The highlight video in this collection is Bjork 'All is Full of Love'. Madonna 'Frozen' is quite amazing as well.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: progressive vision
Review: An amazing treat for those of us who grew up watching music videos and appreciating the truly great ones. This DVD proves that there is at least one director who still cares about creating the very best visual presentations of musicians' work...especially musicians at the cutting edge. You will be shocked at the amount of talent showcased on this disc. It is truly phenomenal.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE KING OF MUSIC VIDEO !
Review: CHRIS CUNNINGHAM IS THE BEST DIRECTOR FOR MUSIC EVER!
you will see:
-aphex twin-windowlicker
-aphex twin-come 2 daddy
-madonna-frozen
-bjoerk-... full of love
-portishead,autechre,squarepusher,leftfield and and and.. other video clips plus the dark erotic shortfilm "flex". great!

and much bonus material

his work is fantastic. brilliant !

thank you chris.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WOW WOW WOW
Review: Chris Cunningham's collection of videos is the shortest one in the series (the others being The Works of Director Spike Jonze; and Michael Gondry)- only eight of them, as well as a 'making of' and some short extras (commercials, video excepts, etc). So if you are looking for quantity over quality for the price, you might be disappointed. Yet those who frankly appreciate the artistry of producing images that correspond comfortably with the music will unquestionably admire Cunningham's unique inspired visions. He essentially realizes his dark, hallucinatory visions so well, the compositions start to depend on their videos' shocking content, rather than the contrary.
At that, it is obligatory to point out that the artists, whose tracks Cunningham converted onto the screens, are atypical in the contemporary dominance of idolized pop music. Aphex Twin is notorious within his own fan base (IDM - Intelligent Dance Music), and has composed trippy soundscapes since he was 14. His work ranges from incomprehensive and pompous to subtle and unnerving. He can be disturbingly lyrical, but also aggressive beyond reason.
Cunningham perceives the nucleus of Aphex Twin's opuses. The '97 'Come to Daddy' video has been famously banned from day-time MTV, as well as numerous other networks. I myself saw it in Moscow at around 2 am, and understood the reason - despite lacking offensive language, graphic violence and sex, the surreal, sputtering images enhance the terror of the song to an almost-unbearable effect. Little girls, all with Richard D. James' faces? Old grandma with a pit-bull? Watch out for that sickening creature crawling out of the unplugged TV-screen! As for 'Windowlicker', Aphex Twin's hip-hop influenced acidic fable - Cunningham's vision is a masterpiece, a short film of otherworldly pallid glow that takes place in LA. It disturbing, pitch-perfectly edited to the track (with occasional random acid-flashbacks to 'behind the scenes' in the midst of the action) and sardonic of its subject matter. You will never forget this one.
The most accessible videos on this compilation are Madonna's trancelike 'Frozen' (possibly her best video yet); Portishead's 'Only You' (filmed underwater for a glorious effect); Leftfield's 'Afrika Sjox' (also banned in some countries, but in all honesty it is not all that disturbing - rather peculiar and heartbreaking, but not disturbing); and the beautiful, inventive 'All is Full Of Love' from Bjork that's bound to send shivers down multiple spines.
Autechre's video is interesting to study as Cunningham's first, '95, venture into filmmaking. It is more experimental, and the track 'Second Bad Vilbel' is as incomprehensive as its name, yet Cunningham nonetheless manages to grasp the quintessence - there is a conclusion to the video that is both frightening and thought-provoking. As for Square pusher's 'Come On My Selector', if you thought Tom Jenkinson's speckled crazed beats cannot be portrayed visually, think again - this is one awesome video, pardon the minimalism of the statement.
Check out the DVD's booklet also for the art, but as for extras, there really isn't much to say - I think it's for the better. Spike Jonze has reached popularity in Hollywood ("Being John Malkovich", "Adaptation"), and so has Michael Gondry ("Human Nature") - hence the numerous extras in their packages. Chris Cunningham is yet to emerge, yet to reach the apex of his popularity, and his videos declare: "What an apex it'll be!"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gifted artist
Review: Chris Cunningham's work combines the experimental quality of fine art with the intrigue of cinema. Wow. There is some really awesome, crazy, beautiful, tripped-out stuff in this collection. Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" is incredibly intense, disturbing and powerful. Portishead's "Only You" is surreal, beautiful, emotional. Bjork's "All Is Full of Love" is cybersexual bliss. Madonna's "Frozen" is an arctic mystical trip. The stuff from the installations is really amazing too. What a talented artist!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Teaser
Review: Compared to the Michel Gondry DVD in the same series, this is extrememly disappointing. The book enclosed offers more information than the DVD. I was expecting a body of work, not a selection. What I saw I enjoyed, there just wasn't enough of it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Well worth a look despite the omissions
Review: Cunningham's work, to say the very least, is breathtaking. It's the kind of surrealism that balances danger against the sublime. You're not quite sure if the cacophony is going to spill out of your TV like the skin & bones Richard James creature in "Come To Daddy". And then on the other hand it would be nice to have Bjork's robots spill into your life with their perfect loveliness. All these videos and shorts are amazing visions that are deeply affecting. They stay with you long after your initial viewing. I'll just chime in with everyone else and say that I was disappointed with the abbreviated "Flex" and the omission of "Back With A Killer", one of my very favourite Cunningham videos. The fact that "Killer" and the other Auteurs videos were shown in the trailer for this DVD (as were more graphic excerpts from "Flex") was a big factor in my purchasing it. I was displeased that they weren't there and actually consider this to be false advertising. Hopefully a more compleat version of this will surface one day.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: As dark as a soul could get!!!
Review: First and by all means, do not get me wrong but this is the only dvd really worthy in the whole series!!! The works of Chriss Cunnigham is remarkable.

After watching the whole series (Gondry, jonze, cunningham) I have to admit that this is the only dvd that really impressed me! Even though the dvd has very little amount of material if compared with the other 2 in the package...It's the greatest, only because in so little, you get to experience so much!!!!

Chriss Cunningham work is so complex, that it will take you at least 4 intensive views to really admire and comprenhend what's really going on in the screen. His dark, cold, creepy and disturbing portraits seem to grab your attention and never let you go, and best of all, it leaves you wondering how it's possible to achive such a complex and crazy imagination/crativity and being able to capture it in a insane visual atrocity, words, music and sounds. Such beautiful yet dark work, con only come from the love of the dark and the creepy side of things. They way he uses sounds and noises to visualize the screen with eerie moving pictures and disturbing sights is simply unbelievable!!! This guy is really good! Get this package and you will certainly not be disappointed!

Now about the other dvds, well being a huge fan of Michel Gondry, I'm blessed but his kind imagination is way different from cunningham's! Even though his work is beautiful inventive, it does not even come close to Chriss. But that dvd is really good.
Spike Jonze entry is quite the most dissapointing a have ever seen. I can't believe this guy gets to be in the same package with this two genious!! hes DVD, even though is quite extensive, is the worst of the 3, just because his stupid americanized imagination does not compete!!! sorry folks but its true!

Get this dvd because is the best of the series.


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