The Work of Director Chris Cunningham – Chris Cunningham (Palm Pictures)
I’m cursed with nightmares. I have them often and I have no idea why. There are many nights when I let out a weak, low moan in my sleep and scare the shit out of my old lady. In my dream, I’m trying to scream but the sound is muffled in my throat and the pathetic whine of a broken air raid horn is what comes out.
Nightmares are rarely linear. They play out as bits and pieces of strange and frightening images spliced together with little thought to storyline, but with terrifying results. Director Chris Cunningham delves into imagery with the twisted delight of a nightmare creator. His images are confusing. From the subterranean darkness of his video for Aphex Twin’s “Come to Daddy” to the sterile automation of Bjork’s “All is Full of Love,” Cunningham creates landscapes and characters that seem out of place in reality but horrifyingly realistic.
The Work of Director Chris Cunningham DVD is a collection of his finest work with an incredibly obnoxious index page. Too bad too, because Cunningham’s mastery is in NOT hitting us in the face with a frying pan and that is altogether more frightening.
Videos:
Second Bad Vibel (Autechre), Come to Daddy (Aphex Twin), Only You (Portishead), Frozen (Madonna), Afrika Shox (Leftfield featuring Afrika Bambaataa), Come on My Selector (Squarepusher), Windowlicker (Aphex Twin), All Is Full of Love (Bjork)
Features: 52-page booklet, which includes behind-the-scenes photographs, storyboards, sketchbook drawings, record cover art and interview; “Making All Is Full of Love”: Behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with Björk and Chris Cunningham. Monkey Drummer (video installation featuring music by Aphex Twin), flex (excerpt from video installation featuring music by Aphex Twin), Mental Wealth (Sony PlayStation commercial), Photocopier (never-before-seen Levis commercial), Engine (Nissan commercial featuring music by Boards of Canada), Windowlicker (bleeped version).
I didn’t know what to ask for for Christmas, so I asked for this DVD, as well as its companion volumes covering the work of Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry. Oh, and some socks.
JTL
This DVD is on my list, too. I bought the Spinke Jonze one for myself and it’s worth it for the documentaries alone. And then there’s MUSIC!
I have all 3 and I regret nothing. Buy these immediately. My impulse buys on the net always have a drunken element, if that helps anyone. Yay Amazon and gin. Even with the exchange rate to get it up here in chilly T.O., the Jonez and Gondry collections are it worth it. C’mon, you deserve it! There are, however, a couple of video ommisions, but thanks to gin, I can’t remember nor care! Lalala…zzzzzz…