Lots of interesting directors started out (and still continue) making music videos, Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze and Chris Cunningham being the obvious three. It was difficult whittling my favourite music videos down, so this might be the first in a series. Here are five of my favourites in no particular order:

The Residents – The Third Reich ‘N Roll
Directed by Graeme Whifler, The Residents

After recording their Meet The Residents album, The Residents moved into a new studio in San Francisco intending to embark on a new project. The project was a feature film, using commercially available videotapes instead of film as they strongly believed it would be the filmmaking format of the future. The film was called Vileness Fats, and was greatly inspired by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and other German Expressionist films. The production of the film lasted four years. Eventually after the release of The Third Reich ‘N Roll, they decided to call it quits, as the film had well and truly taken over their lives. Recycling old sets and props, they created a promotional music video for one of the tracks on the album. It is considered one of the very first music videos produced, definitely one of the first to be played on MTV, and it has been selected for preservation at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Banned in Germany.

TISM – I Might Be A Cunt, But I’m Not A Fucking Cunt
Directed by Craig Melville

As you can imagine, the title and the song lyrics led to the video being banned from every music video programme in Australia, and for those who saw it, the subject of the video was even more controversial. It’s sort of hard to appreciate the concept without seeing the video, but basically, as a parody of the infamous Mimi Macpherson sex tape, a couple have sex for the entire video wearing cricket knee-pads and flippers. The male has a cricket bat in hand and is wearing Jeff Kennett mask. Halfway through the video the camera pans to the right slightly, revealing a member of TISM in his balaclava uniform reading a novel. If you have any trouble finding it on Youtube or other websites, try track down TISM’s The White Albun DVD/CD set. Not only will you get a fairly humourous album, you’ll receive their entire videography which includes the gems Defecate on My Face and Whatareya. Yes, you heard correctly.

Sebastien Tellier – La Ritournelle
Directed by Ace Norton

I stumbled upon this one night on ABC’s Rage after I’d been to a fairly intense party. You know how drunkenness can sometimes heighten your capacity to get all emotional? My, how those tears flowed. That said,with a sober mindset I still feel a pang of sadness watching it. There are some interesting technical ideas throughout, especially the constant jump-cuts and the use of spotlights in the car and party scenes. I like how it illuminates the two lovers at their most passionate and their most aggressive. I’m not really doing it justice, but it is an extremely well-made video. Great song too.

Moby – Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad
Directed by Filipe Alçada, Susi Wilkinson and Tess Laurence

Inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince, one of my favourite books when I was younger. It bears similarities not only to the story but to Saint-Exupery’s minimal illustrations. It also may have been influenced by Quentin Blake’s art. I saw this first when I was nine years old and it immediately brought back wonderful memories of the book, and even now watching the video, I find myself moved by it. Obviously this nostalgia is a part of why I like it so much, but pushing that aside it’s still a wonderful video and a wonderful song to boot. And I don’t even like Moby!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqLvbpcsPj4
(embedding disabled by request)

Sonic Youth – Sunday
Directed by Harmony Korine

I think this might be Harmony Korine’s most impressive work. The slow-motion images are really hypnotic, and while the technique is used a lot in his films (check the tennis scene out from Gummo, where a character describes the effects of ADHD), it’s put to the best use here. Everyone remembers that near-freeze frame of Macaulay Culkin’s face as he stares in the mirror and blinks. It stays lodged in your mind. I like how, with the ballet dancers, it fluctuates between dreamlike slow-down and schizophrenic fast-cutting. The pacing in the clip is absolutely impeccable; it manages to capture the energy of the song perfectly. Bit of trivia: his girlfriend and closest collaborator, the actress Chloe Sevigny starred in Sonic Youth’s Sugar Kane video a few years prior to this.

(I cannot find the video anywhere, apologies. You can watch it on Sonic Youth’s Corporate Ghost DVD which is well worth the purchase). Anyway, there’s five, I’ll talk about another five in a future editorial.