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He grew up in Versailles with a family who was very influenced by pop music.
When he was young, Gondry wanted to be a painter or an inventor. In the 80s he
entered in an art school in Paris where he could develop his graphic skills and
where he also met friends with whom he created a pop-rock band called Oui-Oui.
The band released 2 albums ('Chacun tout le monde' and 'Formidable') and several
singles until their separation in 1992. Gondry was the drummer of the band and
also directed their video clips in which it was possible to see his strange
world, influenced by the 60s and by his childhood. One of his videos was shown
on MTV and when Björk saw it, she asked him to make her first solo video for
'Human Behaviour'. The partnership is famous: Gondry directed five other Björk's
videos, benefiting by the huge budgets. This led to commissions for other
artists around the world, including Massive Attack. He also made a lot of
commercials for Gap, Smirnoff, Air France, Nike, Coca Cola, Adidas, Polaroid and
Levi - the latter making him the most highly-awarded director for a one-off
commercial.
Hollywood became interested in Gondry's success and he directed his first
feature movie Human Nature (2001), adapting a Charlie Kaufman's scenario, which
was shown in the 2001 Cannes Festival. Although it wasn't a big success, this
film allowed him to direct Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), for
which he again collaborated with Charlie Kaufman. The movie became a popular
independent film and he and his co-writers won an Oscar for it.
Credit: imdb.com
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