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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: 4 stars
Summary: Great, although sadly incomplete
Review: First off, this is a great collection, and we're lucky it was put together at all, so any complaints seem nit picky. But..... one of the dissapointments about this wonderful collection is that there isn't more of it. At the risk of sounding greedy, I wish it was as densly packed as the other two discs. But mainly, (and is there anyone else totally upset about this) I wish the FLEX short was here in total, all we get is the first 5min of this astonishing piece and, in my opinion, his best. My guess is that (having been lucky enough to see the whole thing) it was really too graphic to be on a DVD so widely distributed, and also, it being an "art" piece it has to remain an excerpt so as to still bring in an audience on the exhibition circuit - both, I guess, are understandable reasons. Its just too bad - that so many people are missing Cunningham's finest work and I really wish they would find some way to make it accessible. Aside from that I'm glad its out, although the trailer is really misleading - as it includes the edited pieces of FLEX as well as several videos and commercials that are not on the DVD, too bad.... thanks anyway guys...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: FLEX - why there is only a short piece on the DVD
Review: Flex was made as an exhibition piece [I saw it at the Royal Academy of Arts, London as a part of the Apocolypse exhibition]. I enquired about purchasing a copy of the film and was told that the asking price was £100,000.
I suppose we could all have a 'whip round' but then you'd all have to come to mine if you wanted to see it!

I havent seen the DVD but have most of chris's work on video anyway. [Can someone do a track listing of whats actually on it please?]

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: can't agree more. more FLUX, please!
Review: I can't agree more with all this reviews. Why such a tiny piece of FLEX ?? (This piece was shown in my country and I foolishly missed it...now, where is the punishment whip) I sort of felt disappointed by this DVD but it is only because I wanted ALL CUNNINGHAM on one DVD. You can't have it all I guess... But this kind of comment is for the die-hard fan, if you have never seen a video by this man this dvd is worth for every cent it costs. Complete or not I can't stop watching it!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good, but Flex...
Review: I realise of course that Flex is an exhibition piece, and part of the point of conceptual/video art is to break away from commercialism... but I still really want to see all of Flex. It is unlikely that it would travel to Australia, or that I would readily hear about it if it did.
What I desire even more than that is to hear from Chris himself the reasons why he included what he did and didn't. Why is everyone interviewing Jonze but pretending Cunningham and Gondry don't exist? arg?
I've noticed that there are no videos on the disc that include band members playing instruments (which is unfortunate because I think the 12 Rounds video is one of the most beautiful 'standard' clips I've witnessed), but beyond that I can't really figure it out - Back With the Killer Again has no instruments that I have seen, so why was it omitted? And why was Second Bad Vilbel included when in the booklet he openly states his dislike of the video? He has also made a wealth of advertisements that weren't included, any of which are as good or better than that unseen Levi's one. And the final shot of the full Nissan commercial is sublime...
But I guess that's what the Director-file webpage and video sharing communities are for.
I'm still very happy that I bought it, and there is a reason behind my star rating, but as another reviewer said - if you buy it, you will want more.
Here's to waiting for Rubber Johnny.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: [an opinion]
Review: I really like Chris Cunningham's videos, and this DVD is worth getting. Especially since otherwise it's pretty hard to see most of these videos. The Portishead and Squarepusher videos I hadn't seen before getting this, and they are really exciting to see. Cunningham's drawings in the book that comes with this DVD are really sweet as well. Madonna in "Frozen" rolling around in the desert and morphing into a dog is so hilarious. The excerpt from FLEX is the most bad ass thing on here though, and it's a total bummer that it's only a tiny bit. I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting this especially because it would be a chance to see all of FLEX. SO MUCH MORE should have been put into this, and it's lame on Cunningham's part for leaving out the other videos he's done, which even if not up to his standards or whatever, I'm sure people who are interested in his stuff would love to see. Even the Nissan commercial he did has had a chunk taken out.
Hopefully the DVD he is currently making for Warp records will be put together better. Anyway, don't let this put you off, because almost everything on here is meaty.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great videos, but could've been so much more...
Review: Like the earlier reviews, the work shown is strong but there is a lot missing. Just giving a short taste of Flex is really cruel! What I think would put this collection over the top is more input from Chris Cunningham. The included book is just exerpts from an interview in Res magazine. I was hoping for at least commentaries on the included videos. If you watched the MTV2 special about this DVD, they have interview with other directors about Chris' work, etc. Why aren't any of these on the DVD?

Still, the videos included are fascinating to watch over and over again. Just be careful because you will want more after seeing them all.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good, but the least of the three
Review: Of the three Director's Label DVDs, Chris Cunningham's is by far the least of the three. The work included here is great, but there are only eight videos and not a lot of extras, interviews or commentary.

Most baffling is the fact that there are stills of videos in the booklet and in the DVD menu graphic that aren't included on the DVD. The clip for the Auteurs' "Light Aircraft On Fire" is the most confusing omission. I'm not sure if Chris didn't want them included or what, but the fact that so much of Michel Gondry's older work is included on his disc suggests that the director had control of what went on the disc and what didn't, and Chris decided to skimp on the content.

Like I said, what's here is great, but if I could only buy one of the three discs it wouldn't be this one, if only because of the low quantity of material.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: How con you possibly rate this 4 stars?
Review: Okay I might not really give it a 1 if everyone else hadn't given it 4 stars. This DVD pales in comparison to the other two sets of the series. Genious? That word no longer has any meaning for me. I wouldn't even call Michel Gondry a genious even though I love that DVD almost more than life itself. Yes Chris does create a smooth clean movie. But he can't write a story worth poo. Not to say that music videos need story, but they gotta have more substance than fast moving images. Bjork's movie is as close as it gets to any sort of story whatsoever. And come on, my lame friends from a community college were pasting their heads on top of women's bodies. But his own face?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Super Fun Time
Review: Really cool overall, but not including things that you show in the trailer is..uhm...confusing. Also, having all of Flex would have been nice. It's worth it to have all the famous videos at such a high resolution though. The Bjork mini-documentary is nice too.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: where's the rest????
Review: sooooo many videos left out! why? But the good ones are here at least, but some great ones left out. Why isn't FLEX on here in full? I'll never get to see it I guess. not as good as the other discs but worthy of $14.


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