The Director's Label Vol. 4-7: The Works of Mark Romanek,
Jonathan Glazer, Anton Corbijn and Stéphane Sednaoui
Jonathan Glazer did not receive enough appreciation for his film Birth, an extremely dry take on the concept of love for which he suffered the result of literal-minded critics and audiences. Now with his best of DVD, one of the four new Director’s Label discs from Palm Pictures, he is likely to again be the victim of masses who just don’t get it. “The Work of Jonathan Glazer” features only eight music videos versus the 20-25 included on the other three, and this inadequacy will likely affect its sales comparatively.
The coolest thing about the Director’s Label DVDs, though, is the commercials, of which Glazer’s disc has plenty. People may be familiar with his videos for Radiohead and UNKLE, but the filmmaker is rarely recognized for his amazing Guinness ads, and not just because they aren’t typically seen in America. If he had been the man behind Budweiser’s frog ads, that fact would still be under the radar of television viewers because unlike music videos, there is no direct artistic association with advertisements.
That isn’t to believe in America’s supposed ignorance and despise of TV ads. The Super Bowl just wouldn’t be the same without the attention given toward quality commercials. The problem is that if even Steven Spielberg directs a Levi’s spot and nobody issues a press release, the public has little way of knowing, and so whether or not the ad is noteworthy, its time on the minds of viewers is likely to be short. The Internet Movie Database has been listing commercials for directors and actors in the “other works” feature, but often seeking out creative information about an ad will get you little more than the name of the song it features.
Article comments
1 - David R Perry
Excellent review, although I would have liked more info about the non-Glazer discs. But I'll be passing this review on to some art friends of mine who adore the series (and from whom I'll probably borrow copies for a weekend.)
2 - Ali
Are you serious? You REALLY think that McG and Brett Ratner should be considered in the same company as Mark Romanek, Michel Gondry, and Chris Cunningham? Yes, they both made films that went on to do very well, but come on. Have you SEEN their videos? Fincher definetly deserves a disc, the possible others would Mary Lambert (remember Like A Prayer and Nasty? She did both), Matthew Rolston, David LaChapelle (both are fashion photographers turn video directors with some intriguing videos to their credit), and maybe just maybe Hype Williams (not so much because he makes amazing artistic videos -- because he rarely, but just because he became such a cultural icon within music in and of himself...more as a symbol than anything).
3 - Film Cynic
I'm not sure if I'm familiar with the music videos directed by McG or Brett Ratner, but I think it would be interesting to see them compared with their movies. I'm not saying they are good directors, but their work could sustain a disc. Anyway, I don't care for Romanek much more than I care for either of them.
4 - richard
give me a break mcg? marcos seiga? that's bull. i agree with david lachapelle & roman coppola. and why not any female directors like sophie muller or floria sigismondi. how about mike mills?