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Mark Romanek has directed many of the most distinctive and iconic music videos of the past decade, as well as the 2001 hit movie One Hour Photo starring Robin Williams. In 1999 he won the MTV Video Vanguard award.
Further Information:
Music Videos:
Jay-Z 99 Problems (director�s cut)
Linkin Park Faint
Red Hot Chili Peppers Can�t Stop
Johnny Cash Hurt
Audioslave Cochise (director�s cut)
No Doubt Hella Good (director�s cut)
Mick Jagger God Gave Me Everything
Janet Jackson Got Til It�s Gone
Fiona Apple Criminal
Nine Inch Nails Perfect Drug
Beck Devil�s Haircut
Weezer El Scorcho (director�s cut)
Eels Novocaine for the Soul
Sonic Youth Little Trouble Girl
Michael & Janet Jackson Scream (director�s cut)
Madonna Bedtime Story
R.E.M. Strange Currencies
G. Love & Special Sauce Cold Beverage
Nine Inch Nails Closer (director�s cut)
David Bowie Jump, They Say
Madonna Rain
Lenny Kravitz Are You Gonna Go My Way
Keith Richards Wicked as it Seems (director�s cut)
En Vogue Free Your Mind
kd lang Constant Craving
Special Features:
The Work of Director Mark Romanek
A brand new documentary featuring Beck, Jay-Z, Rick Rubin, Michael Stipe, Janet Jackson,Trent Reznor, Anthony Kiedis, Gwen Stefani, Keith Richards and others.
Romanekian
Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and Robin Williams discuss Mark�s work
Making of 99 Problems
Interviews and Commentaries
Individual artist and director commentaries for all the music videos.
56 Page Book
Includes photographs by Mark Romanek and Spike Jonze interview with Mark
| Catalog Number: MC-443 |
Type: Shorts Compilation |
Genre: Music |
| Copyright: 2005 |
Length: 300 minutes |
Format:
DVD Region: 1 |
| TV System: NTSC |
ISBN: |
UPC: 660200307929 |
| Label: Palm Pictures |
This title is available in Europe for Wholesale - List Prices: £16.99 / 24.98€
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2006-09-29 Movie Habit
By Marty Mapes
Mark Romanek is probably best known for the Nine Inch Nails video Closer, with such images as a monkey on a crucifix, a nude bald woman, and a floating, spinning Trent Reznor. But the most interesting film on this DVD is the video for Hurt, by Johnny Cash, a video that could easily bring a genuine tear to your eye.
Although Romanek is the kind of director who doesn’t repeat himself, the piece that really seems to capture the essence of his style is Faint, by Linkin Park, with an elaborate lighting rig (something he seems to love), a clever concept, and gorgeous, detailed photography.
Romanek presents his videos in reverse-chronological order, starting with 99 Problems by Jay-Z and ending with kd lang’s Constant Craving. Each video has one or two commentary tracks, one by Romanek, one by someone from the band.
The commentaries are almost all worth listening to. Romanek will almost always explain what was going on in his head when he conceived the video, and it was usually an influence from the world of art or photography. For Janet Jackson’s Got ‘til It’s Gone, Romanek drew inspiration from a South African magazine by and for blacks from the 1950s. For the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Can’t Stop, he borrowed an exhibit called One-Minute Sculptures from Austrian artist Erwin Wurm.
Unlike with most movie DVDs, not everyone interviewed for The Work of Director Mark Romanek feels obliged to praise everyone else involved. Fiona Apple and Romanek both acknowledge that she was too young to really get what Romanek was going for in Criminal, and that the concept actually backfired. Likewise, Flea and Romanek both acknowledge a big clash between Romanek and the Chili Peppers’ guitar player. Romanek himself is forced to admit that he has (or had) a temper, belied by his gentle tenor voice, that he wasn’t afraid to use.
It’s interesting, then, that Mark isn’t such a megalomaniac that he feels he has to do everything himself. He’s a delegator. He uses editors, photographers, and lighting technicians who work as a team. He’s quite happy to tell the experts what he wants and then let them figure out how to do it.
Aside from the videos and their commentaries, the are only two other features. One is a documentary, made from the same interviews that made up the audio commentaries. Also included are interviews with Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher, Bono (Romanek made the U2 iPod commercials), and fellow Directors Label honoree Michel Gondry.
The other feature is Romankeian, a video roast of Mark Romanek with Robin Williams, whom he directed in One Hour Photo, Ben Stiller, and Chris Rock.
I’d strongly recommend watching the documentary first. It’s a good summary of the videos on the disc, and it will make you want to watch the whole thing in one sitting. That may not be possible, as there are four hours of content on this disc. But it’s not a minute too long.
Each of these DVDs comes with a 56-page booklet. Romanek’s is filled with full-page photographs spanning his career, interspersed with an interview he gave to Spike Jonze.
The interview turns into less of an interview and more of a reminiscence between two old friends, but it’s still got some details that you won’t find on the video or audio tracks. Like Romanek’s appreciation for Stanley Kubrick when he said the words “more daring and more sincere.”
Picture and Sound
The sound quality is excellent. Watching the videos with the audio commentaries is aurally mundane. Then you switch to the full surround-sound version of the perfectly-mixed pop song and the video takes on a new life.
Picture quality is impeccable as well. Even the oldest videos still have immediacy, clarity, and rich colors. Another fine job by the good people at Palm Pictures and Directors Label.
The Work of Director Mark Romanek is an easy title to overlook if you don’t know who Romanek is. I feel fortunate to have been assigned this review because the more I learned about Romanek, the more impressed I became. Romanek is not an easy guy to pin down. He never makes the same video twice. But all of his videos have several things in common: great vision, photography, and lighting, and ultimately great aesthetic and entertainment value. |
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Work of Director Chris Cunningham, The
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Work of Director Jonathan Glazer, The
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Jonathan Glazer is a music video and commercial icon whose extraordinary work reveals his gift for intense visual ambition.
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Work of Director Michel Gondry, The
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Work of Director Spike Jonze, The
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Spike Jonze is most widely known as the director of Being John Malkovich (which garnered three Academy Award nominations) and Adaptation. However, Jonze also remains a pioneer in the world of music videos and for many years has been best known as an... more >
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Work of Director Stephane Sednaoui, The
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Sednaoui's career took off with the phenomenal success of his videos for Red Hot Chili Peppers "Give It Away" and U2's
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