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Henry's Cat purruses the latest collection of the best and brightest new promo videos. Directors H5, Francois Vogel, Michel Gondry, Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, Alex & Martin, Numero 6, Geoffroy de Crecy, Jean-Luc Chansay, Stephane Levallois, Elisabeth Arkipott/Laurent Fetis, L Houplan & H De Crecy, Tristan & Gilles This year the French seem to have taken the opposite route to the Japanese (see Made in Japan) in video art, producing films that, whilst not always stunningly original, are incredibly well made and polished, a pleasure to watch. Once more, veteran Michel Gondry steals the show with a hat-trick of promos of unrivalled quality, both in terms of the underlying idea and their actual realization. The best is the Chemical Brothers Star Guitar video, a passenger's perspective from a train window, the moving scenery perfectly matched to the music - for every bass beat a bridge will pass by, for every drum kick a pylon rushes past. Although the idea isn't the most original, this is definitely the most polished example, beautifully and seamlessly edited, looking natural, unlike a great deal of the CG offerings in the program. The other two videos, directed by Gondry, both for The White Stripes, are not as enjoyable, but just as well produced. Francois Vogel presents a short film, Les Crabs, involving warring factions, and a video for Ready Made, using a prism-like effect to shift video around the screen. Both are excellent. H5 also present two pieces: a video for Röyksopp's Remind Me, featuring a day at work, entirely rendered in the style of a geography text book, and for Wuz's Use Me, involving a combination of wire-framed and flat-shaded CG to give a very distinct style. Numero 6 have created a video for the Super Furry Animals track, It's Not The End Of The World, showing the destruction of the planet in the style of a miniature diorama, that's technically incredible, as well as extremely amusing. All of the contributions to this program are excellent, making it probably the best Mirrorball program at the 2002 EIFF. It should be required viewing for anybody even slightly interested in music video, or digital manipulation of film. It is unfortunate that these promos are not nearly as good as those offered in the Fabrique En France and New Work Mirrorball shows. Last year the Japanese offerings were some of the best and the most original. |
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INSIDE IOFILM
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