VERDICT:
7/10 Overstayed Welcomes

Marks the moment in my life when I realized that Ben Kingsley is a god among men.

Sexy Beast is about a British thug mobster that is given the task of convincing a former safecracker to come back and do one last job, only the said safecracker doesn’t want to do it. This upsets the British thug mobster. He then proceeds to make the safecracker’s life a living hell. It is quite entertaining.

So this is the feature debut of director Jonathan Glazer, one of those guys who started out directing some awesome music videos like this one before turning to film. It’s too bad that he hasn’t really done much worth noting since this came out because he’s got a really cool, collected style that feels kinda like a mix between Michael Mann (Collateral, Heat) and David Fincher (Se7en, The Game, Zodiac). Don’t know what he’s up to now, but dude needs to get back on the bandwagon.

Anyway, there’s a couple things about this movie that certainly do kick a fine amount of ass. Like I said, the look and feel of it, very cool and very sleek. The script is also really, really sharp, as any movie about gangsters berating gangsters should be. Kinda hard to catch everything that’s being said because of the cockney accents, but since you can more or less read a phone book with a cockney accent and it’ll sound cool, this is hardly a complaint.

Man, I don’t know why I’m beating around the bush right now. There’s really only one reason to see this movie: Ben-fucking-Kingsley. He plays the British thug mobster who’s sent in to persuade the safecracker, and I don’t know who had the great idea to cast Kingsley here, but my hat is off to that guy. I don’t think many producers would jive to the idea of letting Gandhi play the most intense and foul-mouthed scumbag bastard in the movie, but that just makes the role that much better. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’d recommend this movie to the teeth if only for Ben Kingsley. I don’t know how he didn’t snag the Oscar for this ’cause he freakin’ earned it. 

But alas, the main drawback about the script and main reason this movie didn’t quite get an 8 out of 10 is its story. Despite everything it does right, there’s just something about the story that seems pretty uninteresting whenever Kingsley isn’t on-screen. It just kind of drags after a while and can’t match the cool factor of its cast. I don’t know, I just didn’t find myself really caring about what was gonna happen next in the plot, you just end up wanting to see what Sir Ben is up to.

Alright, I’ll shut up about Ben Kingsley already, this is getting ridiculous. As a whole, Sexy Beast could have been better, but nonetheless, it’s still pretty effin awesome. Ray Winstone also plays the safecracker and the under-appreciated Ian McShane has a bit role as Kingsley’s boss, and since they’re both due to be acknowledged for how badass they are, I’m giving them the shout-out they deserve. This is one in-your-face movie filled with a gratuitous amount of swearing, but I think I’ve made it pretty damn clear as to why you should go see this: Evil Gandhi.

Crítica de Cinema – Texto publicado originalmente em A ARCA, em 21/03/2005.

No cultuado clássico Morte em Veneza (1971), do grande cineasta Luchino Visconti (1906-1976), o compositor sessentão Gustav Von Aschenbach, com a saúde debilitada, resolve passar férias em Veneza para descansar e se recuperar. Uma vez lá, encontra a ruína e a depressão ao se apaixonar cegamente por um rapaz de 14 anos chamado Tadzio que, além de encantar o músico, parece também estar correspondendo às investidas do homem. A ambigüidade do garoto funciona em Gustav como uma sessão de tortura com precisão cirúrgica, e leva o compositor a um destino trágico que… Bem, se você não viu ainda, não vou estragar tudo aqui.

Esta obra-prima absoluta do cinema italiano, inspirada no livro homônimo de Thomas Mann, marcou época por vários fatores: a ousadia de seu enredo; a lenta e minunciosa degradação física e psicológica de Aschenbach, acentuada pela aterrorizante interpretação do falecido ator Dirk Bogarde; e as magníficas seqüências gigantes, quase sem diálogos e embaladas pela angustiante música do compositor Gustav Mahler – em quem o personagem Aschenbach, diz a lenda, seria supostamente inspirado. Estas seqüências ininterruptas renderam à película o glorioso e duradouro apelido de “clássico do olhar”.

E por que falar de Morte em Veneza quando deveríamos falar de Reencarnação (Birth, 2004)? É que este novo longa-metragem, mesmo sem qualquer ligação com o primeiro, lembra bastante a fita de Visconti. Assim como Gustav Von Aschenbach, a personagem Anna, interpretada por Nicole Kidman, também sofre por amar alguém e sequer poder chegar perto desta pessoa. O alvo de adoração aqui também é um jovem – por mais que, neste caso, diga ser outra pessoa. O clima frio e soturno também se faz presente, além da ausência de diálogos. E a fita também é cheia de longas tomadas com músicas clássicas ao fundo.

A diferença (sim, existe uma!) é que o diretor de Reencarnação, Jonathan Glazer, não é Luchino Visconti. Ele apenas “acha” que é, quando na verdade está a anos-luz de ter o talento do cineasta italiano. Este mesmo talento, aliás, lhe falta na direção de atores e também na elaboração do roteiro. Glazer quer que Reencarnação seja o seu Morte em Veneza, e que cause em crítica e público o mesmo impacto que a fita italiana causou em sua época. Mas não consegue. E o que poderia se tornar um ótimo ensaio sobre sanidade, revela-se apenas uma fitinha pretensiosa e muito, mas muito cansativa, capaz de acabar com a insônia de qualquer um! Tanto que, depois de meia hora de exibição, o pessoal já não conseguia mais ficar parado na cadeira. Era um tal de “mexe pra cá” e “mexe pra lá” que vou te contar, meu…

O pior é que a idéia central tinha tudo pra render um bom trabalho. E Reencarnação até começa bem, com um belíssimo plano-seqüência de um homem correndo pelo Central Park num dia de nevasca, ao som de uma canção orquestrada que parece se encaixar perfeitamente com a cena. Depois de alguns minutos, o homem cai e morre, vítima de um infarto fulminante ou algo do gênero. E a parte boa termina aqui. Passam-se dez anos, e conhecemos Anna, viúva do homem, executiva bem-sucedida que está prestes a casar novamente, no caso com o também executivo Joseph – embora fique bem claro para nós desde o início que ficar com o cara não é bem o que a moça quer.

No dia do noivado, em um episódio que parece não ter conexão com a trama, uma amiga de Anna, Clara, corre para o mesmo Central Park e enterra a caixa de presente que levava nas mãos; em seguida, pára em alguma lojinha, compra um outro presente qualquer e segue para a festa que a família de Anna dá em seu luxuoso apê. Durante a festa, um garoto de dez anos invade o apartamento e declara a quem quiser ouvir que é a reencarnação de Sean, o marido morto. E pede a Anna que não se case com Joseph. Aos poucos, a moça, que inicialmente não acredita no menino, vê plantada a semente da dúvida, e sua paixão pelo ex-marido desperta novamente. O problema: se Sean realmente reencarnou, agora ele está no corpo de um pivete de 10 anos de idade – o que não impede que a executiva teime, contra a vontade da mãe, em manter o garoto perto de si e, quem sabe, até se envolver amorosamente com ele… Vixe!

A idéia de Reencarnação é excelente. Daria um trabalho ducaramba. Só que Glazer, diretor do bonzinho Sexy Beast, quis dar um tratamento cult e elegante demais à trama, enchendo-o dos tais planos-seqüências silenciosos e apostando alto no visual refinado. Nisso, seu roteiro – co-escrito em parceria com Milo Addica (A Última Ceia) e Jean-Claude Carrière (roteirista habitual de Luis Buñuel e Jean-Luc Godard) – esquece de cuidar do principal: os personagens. Afinal, não adianta nada construir um mosaico cuja beleza encha os olhos do espectador, se os papéis são rasos. Além, claro, da destruição do enredo e também da “reviravolta do final”, que agora parece que é lei. Toda fita agora tem que ter obrigatoriamente uma reviravolta, que saco! E a tal surpresa é mostrada de uma maneira tão confusa que mal dá pra entender; e pra ser sincero, nem é tão “surpresa” assim.

Como se não bastasse, os atores escolhidos não combinam: a Anna de Nicole Kidman é fria demais e não desperta a cumplicidade e a empatia da platéia – fator essencial para que a película dê certo, até mesmo pela situação doentia da personagem. E a atriz provou que só funciona pra valer quando é bem dirigida (o que podemos perceber com o ótimo As Horas). Seu parceiro de cena, o ator-mirim Cameron Bright (de Efeito Borboleta e O Enviado) é mais uma daquelas crianças inexpressivas e perigosas cuja atuação se resume a movimentos robóticos e diálogos recitados. Bem longe do talento de um Haley Joel Osment ou de uma Dakota Fanning da vida.

Já o ator italiano Danny Huston (que atuou em 21 Gramas e O Aviador), como Joseph, é antipático ao extremo; sinceramente, não dá pra entender o que Anna viu naquele cara! E a veterana Lauren Bacall (Dogville, Louca Obsessão), que interpreta a incrédula e aterrorizada mãe de Anna, até tenta dar dignidade ao seu papel, mas fica meio perdida. Por outro lado, a ex-lésbica Anne Heche (!), no papel da misteriosa Clara, se sai muito bem e está incrivelmente bela, com os cabelos castanhos e longos. Muito diferente daquele ser bizarro e medonho de Volcano e Seis Dias Sete Noites que conhecemos. É, mais uma pra minha listinha…

Quanto à polêmica criada em torno da ligação entre Anna e o pequeno Sean… Bem, não tem nada de mais. O máximo que rola é uma cena em que os dois compartilham a mesma banheira, nus – e ainda assim, com certa distância, sem qualquer aproximação de um com o outro e sem a câmera mostrar qualquer traço de nudez. Entretanto, a cena é tão dispensável que se tem a impressão de que está na montagem final só pra chocar. O lance acaba ficando agressivo por não se justificar. E enquanto isto, no já citado Morte em Veneza, os caras precisaram somente de um olhar ou outro pra transmitir exatamente o que sentiam, e deixar os mais “carolas” de cabelos em pé.

Enfim, se você é daqueles que precisam ver para crer, não esqueçam de levar o travesseiro, o pijama e a escova de dentes ao cinema (!), porque a impressão que se tem é a de que você só conseguirá sair da sala de projeção dali a três dias (!!). Se você sofre de insônia, então, seus problemas acabaram: é só comprar uma cópia de Reencarnação na ocasião de seu lançamento em DVD e assistir meia-horinha deitado (!?). Vejamos agora se o tal Jonathan Glazer aprendeu que, para criar um clássico do cinema, não é tão simples como ele pensa: é preciso uma ótima história, um roteiro muito bem escrito e atores tão carismáticos e interessantes quanto seus personagens. Afinal, em sua visão, foi só deixar a câmera parada na cara da Nicole Kidman por meia hora e pronto, seu filminho cult ficou pronto! Nossa, deu sono só de escrever sobre o filme…

CURIOSIDADES:

• Nicole Kidman e Lauren Bacall já trabalharam juntas em Dogville, do dinamarquês Lars Von Trier.

• A polêmica em torno das tais “cenas picantes” de Reencarnação não ajudaram nas bilheterias, já que o longa custou a bagatela de US$ 20 milhões e rendeu somente cerca de US$ 9 milhões até o momento.

• Jonathan Glazer é um experiente diretor de videoclipes. O cara já dirigiu os clipes das músicas Street Spirit (Fade Out) e o fantástico Karma Police, do Radiohead, e The Universal, do Blur.

BIRTH • EUA • 2004
Direção de Jonathan Glazer • Roteiro de Jonathan Glazer, Milo Addica e Jean-Claude Carrière
Elenco: Nicole Kidman, Cameron Bright, Danny Huston, Anne Heche, Peter Stormare, Arliss Howard, Ted Levine e Lauren Bacall.
100 min. • Distribuição: PlayArte Filmes.

In rete se ne parla già da ieri. I Dead Weather di Jack White e Alison Mosshart hanno tirato fuori il secondo singolo dal grosso e grasso Horehound dopo Treat Me Like Your Mother. Si tratta di I Cut Like A Buffalo, il cui video è stato girato da Mr. White in persona (e si vede).

E Come se non bastasse, vi proponiamo anche il video di Treat Me Like Your Mother, girato da Jonathan Glazer.

So, this blog has covered Lisa A. Lewis’s use of access signs and discovery signs in music videos, particularly those focused on female address. For discovery signs, we’ve looked at bedrooms. For access signs, we’ve looked at streets, a space argued by folks like Angela McRobbie as traditionally being considered off limits to women and girls, bending Jürgen Habermas’s theory of the public sphere to note the omission of any considerable, influential female presence.

But what about access signs that are open spaces, like fields? What do we do with them? What do we do in them, especially if we’re female and supposedly in danger if we don’t stay indoors darning our socks? If the music videos in today’s post are any indication, we might have the power to freeze time, suspending the actions of nuclear families and/or rescue squads in the process (though we might also feel weird about our music being used in the New Moon soundtrack, but such is the shaky economic state of the music industry and, perhaps as a result, the wonky nature of “indie”).

St. Vincent
“Marrow”
Actor
Directed by Terri Timely

We might also lay waste to one another, pumping each other full of lead behind a suburban neighborhood. In my version of this music video, though, the camera fixes on Alison Mosshart as she walks off into the sunset.

The Dead Weather
“Treat Me Like Your Mother”
Horehound
Directed by Jonathan Glazer

Lists are funny things.

Lists, to men, are like catnip to cats. We can’t resist them. It doesn’t matter what it is, we’ll create a list for it. It’s our anally retentive side coming into play; we like to know everything has its place. Most men I think can name their favourite albums, movies (and perhaps girlfriends) in a specific order since we’ve had every waking day to think about it.

When we forget to take the rubbish out, or wash up, it’s probably because we’re making a mental list of something (boring household chores perhaps…)

Lists are also endlessly used in television.

No doubt you will have sat through the Top 100 Singles of All Time, Your Favourite Films Ever or Top 100 Celebrity Sex Scandals – all the cheapest of TV formats and laziest of concepts, which is why they usually end up on satellite channels you’d rarely watch otherwise. They bring out the same D- and C-list celebrities (who’d turn up to the opening of a Coke can) to sit in front of a brightly-coloured animated backdrop – similar in style to a Lava Lamp – and then talk about an event/film/album/song/person the producer had reminded them about a few minutes earlier was such an important part in their life. The better celebrities may retell an amusing anecdote; most will resort to just laughing about nothing (the more they laugh, the more we’ll notice their smug faces while we’re drifting off to sleep) and talking bullshit.

“Oh yeah – haha – this one time my brother and me were – haha – were listening to this Queen song and doing that thing they do in Wayne’s World – haha – and – haha – my brother hit his head on the window of the car! Haha (remember me from that obscure show five years ago?… No?…I was great, honest…)“

However – and the producers of these shows know it – there’s something strangely addictive about them. Even if you get the most irritating celebrity most of all; stitching all the segments together with a witty thing to say before and after each advert break.

One of the worst example of this was probably David Gest (winner of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!) presenting the 100 Best Michael Jackson Songs (or something). It was an old show, repeated especially for the death of MJ. The embarrassing links provided by Mr. Gest reached their apex when he announced something along the lines of “You’ll live forever, Michael – you’re the best!”. David? I’m Embarrassed, Get Me Out Of Here!

Blogs also use this format. It’s a sure-fire way of getting people looking at your blog – people love lists remember!

So, all this being said, for the sake of both selfish amusement and the irony of my last paragraph, I’m going to resort to a list myself.

This list is (as you will have noticed from the title) regarding The Ten Best Music Videos in the World… Ever! (The title inspired by all those compilation albums from the late ’90s – in fact, they’re probably still churning them out).

The reason I’m picking music videos is that, by chance, I was watching MTV and between the irritatingly inane shows they put on, and the endless Rihanna videos, something interesting (and refreshingly pleasant on the ears) came on. Something with a wonderful hand drawn style featuring a superhero fighting squirrels and things to reach the princess in distress. The video is number one on my list (which is actually not in any particular order) and it inspired this little blog entry, so blame it for any boredom caused for this post.

It’s worth saying that I’ve been a fan of music videos ever since I got MTV2 a long time ago (in the good old days before it turned into the channel for Shit American Rock), so I know my Michel Gondry from my Chris Cunningham. There are many, many wonderful music videos around (and really, the top ten directors would have been more appropriate since so many are consistently fantastic) but leave any comments if you think I’ve missed out something really amazing.

1. Coldplay “Strawberry Swing” directed by Shynola. View on YouTube
This the first Coldplay video I’ve loved. The others have been okay, but either linked to a damn durge of a song (The Scientist) or just a bit too odd for their own good (Don’t Panic). The basic concept is that Chris Martin is a superhero on a background drawn, with chalk, on a pavement. Obviously this kind of effect could have been achieved in a computer but it seems Shynola actually hand-drew the damn thing with Chris Martin balancing/laying/hand-standing for each frame – I imagine having to wait for the artists to finish each drawing. To someone lacking patience like myself (I love animation but really, it’s boring as hell doing it frame by frame – see this fantastic Fast Show sketch) this makes Chris Martin an absolute star in my books (as if the rest of the world didn’t already consider himself one).

As for the song itself, I didn’t actually think much of it when I first listened to the album (to the point where, on seeing the video, I wondered whether it was even on an album) but now, I listen to it on an almost daily basis.

Users on YouTube obviously love it as well… “this is the most coolest video i have ever seen” is one of the more insightful comments.

It’s a rare but wonderful thing when a music video makes you like a song even more – or even to notice it at all. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it makes for a great experience. You’re able to listen to the song at any time and, even if the lyrics don’t connect specifically with you or if they are too abstract in the song to relate to anything, being reminded of the video makes it much more visual. It’s like a soundtrack album to a movie but in reverse, I’ve listened to The Shawshank Redemption soundtrack countless times, and it always evokes memories of the film (which is my favourite by the way – I’m sure I’ll do a ten ten movies as well some time…)

The talented artists behind this video are called Shynola who created the wonderful animations for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (one of the better things about the film) along with countless other videos – their best listed below, check ‘em out as they say in the States.

• Blur “Good Song” – Drawings by my favourite cartoonist, David Shrigley, animated – again, making an otherwise fairly pedestrian song come to life in what I think is the funniest music video I’ve ever seen, although I appreciate it’s not to everyone’s taste. View on YouTube

• UNKLE “Eye for an Eye” – An amazing video about cute little things running around their happy place being duped into drinking from giant nipples by an evil race of wasp things that then assimilate them all and take over their land. A thinly veiled political comment about the way the West come in, guns blazing, promising a better life and leave having destroyed everything. Well, I think that’s what it’s about anyway. It’s an amazing song and I bought the album because of this, which is lucky because it was, in my view, the best album of that year. View on YouTube

• Junior Senior “Move Your Feet” – I’m of the Commodore 64 generation, so anything with pixel graphics gets my vote, and it doesn’t get any better than this. It’s a crazy song (let’s face it – gay as cheese) and sounds like Terence and Philip from South Park singing, but it fits the video perfectly. As before, I bought the album after this, which is why I refuse to put this video in the overall Top Ten; the album is beyond terrible. View on YouTube

2. Radiohead “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” directed by Jonathan Glazer. View on YouTube
In those good old days on MTV2 that I spoke about with tear-filled nostalgic eyes earlier, this video was one of the most shown – with good reason. It’s a great song for a start. I’m not a massive Radiohead fan (I think they’re vastly overrated) but this one is tortured, weird and has a great tune.

The video ticks several boxes for me:

It’s in black and white (almost everything looks better in black and white); it has bits that are slowed down; bits that speed up; jumping nuns; locusts flying in slow motion; evil dogs; Thom Yorke looking weird; band member, Jonny Greenwood looking like a woman (many women would kill for his figure); glass smashing and someone falling over on their chair.

It’s put together with so much style that you can forgive them for what I imagine amounts to just a ‘brainstorming’ session where they thought “would would look cool slowed down in black and white”.

I’m sure there are many more videos considered better than this but this just sticks with me far more than most, I think due to its haunting nature and probably just that it’s, in my opinion, Radiohead’s best song.

The director is top of his class with a string of fantastic videos to his name. He also directed the wonderful film, Sexy Beast, which, if you haven’t seen, needs to be watched as soon as you can; Ben Kingsley should have gotten an Oscar for it. If that wasn’t enough, he’s the man behind the Guinness ad with the horses in the sea, the Sony Bravia ad with the exploding towerblocks of paint and the Levi’s ad with the emaciated boy and girl jumping through walls in order to reach space (apparently the most expensive advert ever at the time).

Other great videos by Jonathan Glazer:

• Jamiroquai “Virtual Insanity” – The irritatingly popular Jay Kay prances about with his stupid hat while the furniture moves around. Very cleverly done (albeit quite simple when you know how) and an example of a really good pop video, which is quite a rarity. View on YouTube

• UNKLE “Rabbit in Your Headlights” – A scruffy man walking down a tunnel, mumbling to himself, getting hit by cars. I’ve no idea what he’s thinking about (I read that he’s trying to work out the meaning of life) but the ending is spectacular. View on YouTube

3. Bjork “All is Full of Love” directed by Chris Cunningham. View on YouTube
This is one of the first videos (I think) released as a DVD single and it was the perfect video for the format. It’s stark and fascinating (like Bjork herself I suppose) and manages to be beautifully classy, despite the ridiculous premise (two robots, both with Bjork’s face, ‘get jiggy with it’ whilst robot arms prod them and cover them with something suspiciously milky and white).

The director, Chris Cunningham, has a something of a midas touch giving all his work a strange, sometimes scary, stylish as hell look that must be damn difficult to do.

In an ideal world, he’d direct an Alien film. Maybe one day…

Two of his other videos for you to look at (do a Google search for his others – they’re all great):

• Madonna “Frozen” – I think it’s Madonna’s best video. Not much happens, she’s a bit goth, she’s in the desert, there’s a black dog… but it’s a great song and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling seeing Madonna grown-up, sensible, and not jumping around in a leotard telling people they’re ‘motherfuckers’ and pretending to be twenty again. View on YouTube

• Aphex Twin “Windowlicker” – One of life’s great annoyances for me (proving I don’t have too many) is that music as God-awful as Aphex Twin gets to have a decent video to go with it. This video is wonderfully stylish, funny, strange, freaky and deserves mention because it highlights the ridiculous conventions set in rap videos where some idiots ogle girls in bikinis. This video is the antithesis of The Thong Song. View on YouTube

4. A-Ha “Take on Me” directed by Steve Barron View on YouTube
Given my love of animation and ’80s music, it’s no big surprise that this is in my list and I think most people of my age remember this video very vividly (even down to the “Nice Cold Ice Cold Milk” poster in the cafe that haunted my youth in the school canteen).

Looking back, the video is extremely cheesy but the animation is so well done it’s easy to forgive it. I also wish they’d resisted the temptation to shoehorn the rest of the band into the video using crappy footage of them playing their instruments against a suitably ‘comic book’ style background. (The same problems haunt videos these days as well – it’s so much better when a band’s ego-driven demand to feature in the video doesn’t get in the way).

The director was very successful during this period, working on loads of other memorable videos but none were really as innovative as Take on Me.

5. The BPA “Toe Jam” directed by Keith Schofield View on YouTube
The BPA (or Brighton Port Authority) is a Fat Boy Slim (aka Norman Cook) project and this, the first release, comes with a fantastically inventive video.

To explain it would ruin the joke of it, so just watch and smile…

6. The White Stripes “Fell in Love with a Girl” directed by Michel Gondry View on YouTube
When I was young (here he goes again with nostalgia) I loved Lego and animated little things with it as well. I imagine the director, Michel Gondry, did the same when he was growing up since this video (like most of his actually) has a whimsical quality.

It’s a video comprised solely of animated Lego blocks. People swimming, the band singing and playing their instruments, running – everything damn difficult to animate anyway, especially in Lego.

Michel Gondry has a knack for doing really complex things (‘high concept’ should be his middle name), as his other videos prove even further. He’s now mainly doing feature films (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind being one) which is a shame as I think his ideas suit a short running time much better.

More of his videos:

• Kylie Minogue “Come Into My World” – Kylie must have gotten dizzy making this video; several versions of her walk around several times in a circle. I have no idea how he co-ordinated a shoot like this but it’s wonderfully done. View on YouTube

• Massive Attack “Protection” – A great video with the camera moving into different windows of a big house. It doesn’t sound exciting and, well, it isn’t really, but it’s a great video. View on YouTube

• Bjork “Bachelorette” – Difficult to describe, this video starts with a story being told and then a theatre production based on that story played out within it. Just watch it, it’s fantastic. View on YouTube

7. Blur “Coffee & TV” directed by Hammer & Tongs View on YouTube
Like Shynola, Hammer & Tongs are another group of talented chaps that have worked on many videos and they all (well, the ones I’ve seen) tend to have a humourous slant which defines their style.

Coffee & TV is the tale of a little milk carton that goes off on a little quest to find a missing person. It’s the kind of video that appeals to everyone; it’s funny, cute and there’s even a bit of emotion in there as well for the kind of people that cry over spilt milk.

They’re now doing feature films as well. Their first, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was good, but flawed. Their latest – Son of Rambow – is supposed to be very good but I’ve not seen it yet unfortunately.

Hammer & Tongs have worked on many great videos, but two of my other favourites are below:

• REM “Imitation of Life” – Worth watching for Michael Stipe’s interesting dance moves as well as the technical cleverness involved. It’s a piece of camcorder footage that keeps running forward, then backwards for twenty seconds at a time – we zoom into parts of the video to see details. A tough one to explain, but worth watching, and it’s a nice little tune! View on Spike (I couldn’t find a version on YouTube with audio)

• Fatboy Slim “Right Here, Right Now” – Evolution squeezed into 3:30 minutes with a great social comment at the end. Well, I think it’s meant like that anyway, or it’s just that they wanted to end with the guy from the album cover. View on YouTube

8. David Bowie “Ashes to Ashes” directed by David Mallet View on YouTube
It makes no bloody sense at all, but it’s an example of a really inventive video when music videos were still very ‘new’ (it was back in 1983 – MTV had only been around a couple of years at that point. It was also was less shit than now). I think it was the most expensive video ever at the time due to its use of the fancy video effects (things we can all do on an iPhone these days with the correct app).

Director, David Mallet, directed loads of rock videos (specialising on Queen and AC/DC, strangely) but this is, I think, his most famous.

Of all these videos, it’s probably the one you’ll disagree with the most. “It looks crap”, mate, “You’re getting nostalgic and losing your sense of style.” But, there’s just something about it that I love. I’m not a big David Bowie fan particularly, but there’s something wonderful about him walking down the beach dressed like an idiot with an old woman wagging her finger at him (and telling him not to trust Major Tom).

9. Michael Jackson “Thriller” directed by John Landis View on YouTube
I include this video a little reluctantly as every damn list of “best music videos ever” has this in it, but it really has to be. I’m not a fan of musicals (I turned Chicago off after the DVD menu) but there’s something mesmerising about a really great piece of choreography.

There’s also the fact that this music video was an ‘event’. I was too young to remember it at the time but enough people have told me how they stayed up late to watch it to make me think that perhaps it was more of a big deal than we can appreciate these days. The Internet has ruined things a bit really… we don’t have ‘events’ any more, do we?

Anyway, the director’s other films include American Werewolf in London (that qualified him to make Thriller really), Trading Places and Coming to America so that makes him damn good in my book.

10. Massive Attack “Teardrop” directed by Walter Stern View on YouTube
God knows how a video comprised entirely of a foetus singing can be so good, but it really is.

The director is another fairly prolific one, working on videos for Prodigy, David Bowie, Madonna and INXS as well as another two for Massive Attack.

Another of his videos:

• Verve “Bitter Sweet Symphony” A riff on Massive Attack’s video for Unfinished Sympathy, this was the video that, thanks to Richard Ashcroft walking down the road like an arrogant bastard, helped launch Verve into the public eye when we already had arrogant bastards, Oasis. View on YouTube

So, that’s it.

You’ll have noticed that I’ve cheated a little bit by including other videos from some of the directors (making the list far more than just ten) but I don’t care, it’s my list, I can do what I want with it.

There are, however, some other videos I’ve not mentioned that I feel I should for various reasons – those are listed below. Have a look at all of them if you find the time!

Leftfield “Swords” View on YouTube
Summary: A bunch of people in cars, singing along to a chilled out track. I find it mesmerising.

Fatboy Slim “Weapon of Choice” View on YouTube
It’s Christopher Walken. Dancing. Nothing more needs to be said.

Supermen Lovers “Starlight” View on YouTube
Traditionally, 3D animation tends to be quite slick but here the animator has gone at great lengths to make the characters as ugly as possible. It’s a great little story and strangely emotional at the end!

Elbow “One Day Like This” View on YouTube
I’m including this partly because the song is wonderful but also because I think the video is so strange. It doesn’t match the lyrics at all but just focuses on one guy finding joy doing a mundane job. Beautiful.

Nizlopi “JCB” View on YouTube
A wonderfully nostalgic little song with a video to match.

Super Furry Animals “It’s Not the End of the World?” View on YouTube
Another great piece of 3D animation.

Pet Shop Boys “I’m With Stupid” View on YouTube
I’ve never been a fan of the Pet Shop Boys’ videos, but this one is great since it’s the guys from Little Britain doing a terrible (yet accurate) impression of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe.

Peter Gabriel “Sledgehammer” View on YouTube
Most ‘top video’ lists include this at a high position because it was groundbreaking (and it marked the arrival of Aardman Animation – the makers of Wallace and Gromit). It is a very clever video, and perhaps the Coldplay video I mentioned at the beginning of the list wouldn’t have existed were it not for this. Oh, and it’s about shagging, but you knew that…

Definitely not on any of my lists:

Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody” Don’t View on YouTube
Just plain awful.

I hope you liked this list and feel free to write a comment challenging me on any of my picks. I’m sure I’ve left out some great videos, so tell me and I’ll be happy to rethink any of the ones above if you prove that I’m wrong in some way.

September 15, 2009
8:00 pm screening, 10:00 pm after-party

Hammer Museum
Billy Wilder Theater
10899 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90024
310.443.7000

Source: Flux

Primer videoclip de The Dead Weather, el supergrupo formado por Jack White (The White Stripes y The Racounters), Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age) y Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs y The Greenhornes).

La pieza ha sido dirigida por el prestigioso Jonathan Glazer, responsable de vídeos tan memorables como Karmacoma de Massive Attack (1995), The Universal de Blur (1995), Street Spirit (Fade Out) de Radiohead (1996) o Virtual Insanity de Jamiroquai (1996).

En ella puede verse a unos angelicales Alison y Jack liándose a tiros con un par de ametralladoras, tal vez una forma de aliviar la presión de tanto ego presente en estos Dead Weather. En cualquier caso, el grupo lleva el sello inconfundible de Jack, lo cual es siempre una garantía, y este primer single, lejos de llegar al nivel alcanzado con Steady as she goes (Raconteurs) o con los últimos sencillos publicados con los White Stripes, está bastante bien y supone un intento (casi fallido, pero no del todo) por renovar el sonido que suelen destilar sus composiciones.

www.thedeadweather.com

So, I started reading Pop Fiction: The Song in Cinema. It’s a slim collection of essays edited by Matthew Caley and Steve Lannin that focus on individual movie scenes and song selection. The argument seems to be that the scenes in question and the songs that accompany them define or transform the movie (i.e., the movie would not be the same without these cinematic and musical moments).

In its way, this exercise reminds me of “Scenic Routes,” a new series Mike D’Angelo is doing for The Onion that focuses on a particular scene in a movie (I especially liked his first entry on the Rahad Jackson scene in Boogie Nights).

Of course, I think about this with an awareness of how music videos might factor into this discussion. There’s the necessity to acknowledge the traditional film score scholar perspective that using popular music to narrate a scene creates hollow “MTV moments,” a concept loaded with class-based derisiveness that Miguel Mera rejects in his excellent analysis of the overdose scene in Trainspotting, which employs Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day.” 

And then there’s also consideration that must paid to instances when songs that are used in movies have their own accompanying music videos. This is something I wish David Toop brought into his discussion of Massive Attack’s “Karmacoma” and how Wong Kar-Wai used a different version of the song for Fallen Angels. I haven’t seen Fallen Angels, but Jonathan Glazer’s unsettling music video for the single left an indelible impression on me. For that matter, Wong Kar-Wai left his mark on me as a music video director well before I was aware of his film work, thanks to his clip for DJ Shadow’s “Six Days.”

So, much like I do with music videos, I thought I’d post a key scene(s) in a movie that I believe aligns with the intent of this blog. Tonight, I present the “Magic Man” scene and the “Crazy On You” scene in Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, both accompanied by Heart. To borrow from Robynn Stilwell’s essay “Vinyl Communion: The Record as Ritual Object in Girls’ Rites-of-Passage Films,” these scenes consider female objectification of the male form and female sexual autonomy and subjectivity.

Discuss, discuss! Also, feel free to contribute other scene suggestions for future posts (especially if they come from movies I haven’t seen).

En 2004, le meilleur film de l’année selon les Oscars:

MILLION DOLLAR BABY

Pourquoi ça a gagné: Parce que TOUT LE MONDE aime Clint Eastwood. Parce qu’il est cool, en effet. Et plus il vieillit plus on le vénère. On se prosterne même quand il pond des grosses bouses problématiques. Parce que c’est beau. Parce que ça fait pleurer. Parce que personne ne l’a vu venir, ce film-là. Parce que Mystic River l’année précédente.

Mon choix:

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

Pourquoi: Parce que Charlie Kaufman est un génie. Parce qu’il est un intellectuel et un artiste, qui parle au cerveau et au coeur en même temps. Parce qu’il ne fait pas semblant d’être original. Parce que peu de films traitent des rapports amoureux de façon adulte. Parce que n’importe quel être doué de raison ne peut que s’émerveiller devant tant d’acuité et de poésie déjantée.

Meilleur Réalisateur:

Clint Eastwood
pour Million Dollar Baby

Pourquoi il a gagné: Voir ci-dessus.

Mon choix:

Jonathan Glazer
pour Birth

Pourquoi: Parce que voilà un film risqué. Parce qu’il n’a pas eu peur de prendre son sujet très très au sérieux. Parce qu’il sait mettre en place une atmosphère en un plan. Parce que la précision et l’assurance de sa mise en scène me font crier ‘KUBRICK!’ Parce que ce gros plan de plusieurs minutes sur le visage de Nicole Kidman. Parce qu’il a été hué a Venise ET à Deauville.

 Meilleur Acteur:

Jamie Foxx
dans Ray

Pourquoi il a gagné: Parce que BIOPIC! Personnage célèbre! Transformation physique (il porte des lunettes c’est pas rien), mimétisme (la voix! oooooh!). Parce que Ray Charles, et que tout le monde aime Ray Charles. Parce qu’il chante EXACTEMENT comme Ray Charles (sans blague cousine, c’est du play-back). Parce qu’il lui ressemble troooooozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… Réveillez moi quand c’est fini.

Mon choix:

Jim Carrey
dans Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Pourquoi: Parce qu’il arrive à rendre inoubliable un type ordinaire. Parce que sa douleur est si palpable qu’elle fait mal. Parce que malgré sa sobriété, chaque émotion s’imprime avec clarté sur son visage. Parce qu’on ne sent jamais le comique qui veut faire l’acteur sérieux. Parce que Man on the Moon et The Truman Show.

Meilleure actrice:

Hilary Swank
dans Million Dollar Baby

Pourquoi elle a gagné: Parce qu’elle joue une battante et que ça force l’admiration (cf. Rocky). Parce qu’elle joue une victime et que tout le monde a de la peine pour son personnage. Parce qu’elle meurt à la fin, et que tout le monde pleure. Parce que Clint.

Mon choix:

Kate Winslet
dans Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Pourquoi: Parce que comme je le disais ici: “Sa Clémentine Kruczynski, à l’image de ses cheveux qui changent de couleur toutes les trois scènes, est une boule de contradictions, à la fois insaisissable et lumineuse, et Kate, maintenant un équilibre miraculeux entre comédie et drame, et refusant de se plier aux canons de la comédie romantique, façonne une figure vigoureuse, incarnée et fantaisiste, rappelant plus les modèles des années 30-40 de Claudette Colbert ou Barbara Stanwyck que les ersatz édulcorés de ces dernières années.” Parce que c’est Kate Winslet. Parce que Heavenly Creatures, Raisons et Sentiments, Jude, Hamlet, Titanic, Holy Smoke, Quills, Iris…

Meilleur second rôle masculin:

Morgan Freeman
dans Million Dollar Baby

Pourquoi il a gagné: Parce que c’est Morgan Freeman, légende vivante, et qu’il n’avait toujours pas gagné, malgré trois nominations. Parce que ce rôle est une synthèse de tous ses autres rôles.

Mon Choix:

Morgan Freeman
dans Million Dollar Baby

Pourquoi: Parce qu’avec rien d’autre que sa présence, il fait du narrateur, l’observateur en retrait, le personnage le plus poignant du film. Parce que sa voix donne des frissons. Parce que personne ne l’a aussi bien filmé que Clint.

Meilleur second rôle féminin:

Cate Blanchett
dans The Aviator

Pourquoi elle a gagné: Parce qu’elle joue Katharine Hepburn, authentique star de cinéma (BIOPIC!). Parce que le mimétisme (la VOIX! C’EST K(c)ate Hepburn!) Parce que c’est Cate Blanchett, la nouvelle Meryl Streep, et que oups, elle n’a toujours pas d’Oscar parce que oups, en 98, plutôt que de la sacrer pour Elizabeth, on a trouvé ça plus judicieux d’oscariser Gwyneth Paltrow. La gêne.

Mon choix:

Cate Blanchett
dans The Aviator

Pourquoi: Parce que sa maîtrise technique est ahurissante, mais ça n’est pas son seul atout : pour réussir à incarner la femme la plus charismatique de l’histoire du cinéma, il faut avoir soi-même une dose de charisme comparable pour ne pas se ridiculiser (voir Kate Beckinsale dans le même film): ça tombe bien, Cate en a à revendre. Parce qu’elle donne un telle énergie au film que lorsqu’elle est à l’écran, plus rien d’autre n’existe.

It’s like when you splash a cake in someone’s face. But better. The last video of Jonathan Glazer.

Tunes:

Rocking horse – The Dead Weather

O Dead Weather, que reúne Jack White com a vocalista do The Kills, Alison Mosshart, lançou o disco de estréia há duas semanas e já alcançou o segundo lugar da Billboard. “Horehound“, como foi batizado, já rendeu dois singles. O primeiro, “Hang You from the Heavens“, foi lançado em março e já mostrava que quando se reúne dois dos maiores músicos do rock alternativo atual, coisa ruim não pode sair.

O segundo single saiu agora e “Treat me like your Mother” dá sequência ao trabalho genial que o quarteto está fazendo (Dean Fertita, do Queens of the Stone Age, e Jack Lawrance, do Raconteurs, completam o grupo). O clipe, dirigido pelo badalado Jonathan Glazer – que já trabalhou com o Massive Attack e com o Blur – mostra Jack e Alisson num duelo de metralhadoras, uma clara brincadeira em cima dos boatos de que eles haviam brigado durante um show em Nova Iorque:

A banda também já lançou vídeos para duas outras músicas. Uma versão ao vivo de “I Cut Like a Buffalo“, gravada no Bowery Ballroom de Nova Iorque e “Will There Be Enough Water?“, que mostra a fabricação de um disco de vinil.

LOVE THIS VIDEO! Love this song! Love “The Dead Weather” 

Video Directed by: Jonathan Glazer (fuckin genius) 

Jack ‘the white stripes’ White não se cansa de inventar criar bandas… ainda bem! Porque, assim como the Raconteurs, a última empreitada de mr. White é fodástica: the Dead Weather, composta por Dean Fertita (QOTSA, the raconteurs), Jack Lawrence (the raconteurs, the Greenhornes), Allison Mosshart (the Kills) e o próprio Jack White (dâh!).

Abaixo o vídeo de ‘Treat Me Like Your Mother’ dirigido pelo visionário controverso diretor de cinema, vídeoclipes e comerciais Jonathan Glazer.

Além de já ter dirigido clipes para várias bandas (Massive Attack, Blur, Radiohead, Jamiroquai, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds…) Glazer também dirigiu os longas: Sexy Beast com Ben Kingsley e Reencarnação com Nicole Kidman e aquele moleque que era assustador, e que estará em Lua Nova, Cameron Bright.

Vale a pena assistir também a essa entrevista bizarra da banda 1 dia antes do lançamento do álbum HOREHOUND. Depois do jump…

Mais informações sobre a banda, ver os vídeos e ouvir as músicas: Warner Bros. Records • Facebook • Youtube Channel

Jonathan Glazer, già regista dei lungometraggi Sexy Beast e Birth (con Nicole Kidman), è uno dei più grandi autori contemporanei di videoclip. Treat Me Like Your Mother apre l’album Horehound dei The Dead Weather, collettivo formato da membri dei Queens of Stone Age, White Stripes, The Kills, The Raconteurs. Protagonisti del video sono Alison Mosshart (The Kills) e Jack White (White Stripes).

directed by Jonathan Glazer

Speaking of guns, holy shit the video for JACK WHITE’s new band THE DEAD WEATHER is cool! The video is for the song “TREAT ME LIKE YOUR MOTHER” which was directed by JONATHAN GLAZER, who made some amazing videos for Radiohead and directed the film SEXY BEAST. So good!

The Dead Weather (pictured above in a David Swanson photo) have just premiered the video for their latest single, “Treat Me Like Your Mother.” The video, which was directed by Jonathan Glazer, is quite stunning and features band members Jack White and Alison Mosshart firing machine guns at each other. And the song is terrific as well.

To watch the video for “Treat Me Like Your Mother” by The Dead Weather, click below:

The Dead Weather’s debut album, Horehound, was released earlier this week. The band is a side project, and is comprised of vocalist Alison Mosshart of The Kills, drummer/vocalist Jack White of The White Stripes, guitarist Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age, and bassist Jack Lawrence of The Greenhorns. White and Lawrence are also members of another side project, The Raconteurs.

The Dead Weather will be performing live at Terminal 5 in New York City this week on Thursday and Friday nights, July 16th and 17th. I will be attending the Thursday night performance with Pat Prince, the founder of this blog. A review of the show will be forthcoming on the main Powerline A.D. site.

For additional information on The Dead Weather, go to:
http://www.thedeadweather.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/thedeadweathertv

Ummmm….Alison Mossheart might just embody rock and roll at the present moment. I tried to link The Dead Weather’s newest video (which is a FUCKING brilliant piece of work directed by Jonathan Glazer) but they would have none of that.

Keep in mind that she was in a great band called The Kills before she linked up with Jack White and his Russell Crowe mind. I think it’s time we crown a new Queen of rock (present day), Karen o…you had a good run.

THE DEAD WEATHER

THE DEAD WEATHER has posted the first video/single, “TREAT ME LIKE YOUR MOTHER”, from their debut album “HOREHOUND” which is out today (July 14th, 2009). THE DEAD WEATHER is the new project from Jack White (THE WHITE STRIPES), Alison Mosshart (THE KILLS), Dean Fertita (QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE) and Jack Lawrence (THE RACONTEURS).

“Treat Me Like Your Mother” is directed by filmmaker Jonathan Glazer (SEXY BEAST, music videos with RADIOHEAD and BLUR) and can be viewed below along with a live video that we here at THRALL WORLD thought was pretty cool as well.

More info at the bands Official Website HERE.

THE DEAD WEATHER: 'HOREHOUND' Album Cover

Remaining THE DEAD WEATHER tour dates:

07.14.2009 9:30 Club, Washington, DC
07.16.2009 Terminal 5, New York, NY
07.18.2009 House of Blues, Boston, MA
07.19.2009 Ottawa Blues Festival (Rogers Stage), Ottawa, Canada
07.21.2009 Olympia De Montreal, Montreal, Canada
07.22.2009 Kool Haus, Toronto, Canada
07.24.2009 The Fillmore, Detroit, MI
07.25.2009 The LC Pavilion, Columbus, OH
07.27.2009 First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
07.28.2009 Vic Theatre, Chicago, IL
07.29.2009 Vic Theatre, Chicago, IL
07.30.2009 War Memorial Auditorium, Nashville, TN
08.17.2009 Ogden Theatre, Denver, CO
08.18.2009 The Depot, Salt Lake City, UT
08.20.2009 Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA
08.22.2009 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, Canada
08.23.2009 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, Canada
08.25.2009 Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
08.27.2009 Glasshouse, Pomona, CA
08.29.2009 Street Scene, San Diego, CA
08.28-30.2009 Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival, San Francisco, CA
10.2-4.2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival, Austin

——-
——-

Treat Me Like Your Mother – The Dead Weather.

So Jack White and co. have worked with Jonathan Glazer (whose vastly underrated 2004 feature Birth has been undergoing a bit of a critical reappraisal the last couple years) to create a music video/short film that will be premiering soon on Cinemax (!?!?).

Odd choice of venue, but judging from the double projected trailer at the link above I am very excited.

via.

Je suis né en même temps que Thriller. Michael Jasckson a fourni la bande originale de mon enfance presque à lui tout seul. Pendant longtemps, je ne savais même pas qu’il existait d’autres chanteurs. Agé d’à peine quelques années, j’ai appris ce qu’était le mépris lorsque mon imbécile de meilleur ami m’a demandé « C’est qui Michael Jackson?». J’ai grandi en regardant ses clips, en le regardant danser comme un demi-dieu, comme tous les gamins de ma génération. Aujourd’hui, plus personne ne vendra 50 millions d’albums, parce que le disque est mort. Plus personne ne se cassera la cul à réaliser Thriller, parce que le clip est mort. Et voilà que Michael Jackson lui aussi est mort.

J’ai zappé sur MTV l’autre jour, on n’y passe plus de clips, mais des émissions de télé-réalité à toute heure. Il faudrait penser à rebaptiser la chaîne. Alors en hommage à cette forme d’art disparue, dont Michael Jackson fut le pionnier, voici un Top Ten des meilleurs réalisateurs de clips.

10. David Fincher

Titres de gloire : Englishman in New York , de Sting, ode émouvante à Quentin Crisp, qui capte mémorablement et en noir et blanc l’atmosphère de New York. Freedom 90, de Georges Michael, et son étalage de mannequins superstars. Et surtout sa collaboration avec Madonna, notamment Express Yourself, inspiré par Metropolis de Fritz Lang, et Vogue, inspiré par à peu près tout ce que faisait Hollywood dans les années 40.
Cinéma : Le premier à réussir le passage de l’autre côté. Ultra-successful et plutôt adulé mais son approche « tout dans le style» peut se révéler aussi efficace (Se7en, Zodiac), que désastreuse (Benjamin Button).

9. Jonas Akerlund

Titres de gloire : Quatre mots : Smack my Bitch Up. Si vous n’avez jamais vu ce clip de Prodigy, jetez vous dessus comme la vérole sur le bas clergé, ici. Rien de ce qu’il a fait par la suite n’est du même niveau (Canned Heat pour Jamiroquai, My Favourite Game pour les Cardigans), le meilleur étant ses réalisations pour Madonna : Ray of light et son hyperventilation rythmique et surtout le rétro funk douxième degré de Music.
Cinéma : Deux tentatives. Spun, avec Jason Schwartzman et Brittany Murphy, et The Horsemen avec Dennis Quaid et Zhang Ziyi. Je les ai pas vus. Toi non plus.

8. Anton Corbijn

Titres de gloire : A peu prés tout Depeche Mode, dont le très culte Personal Jesus. Deux autres réussites majeures : Liar de Rollins Band, et surtout Heart-Shaped Box, le plus beau clip de Nirvana.
Cinéma : Control, fantastique biopic en noir et blanc d’Ian Curtis, le leader de Joy Division, sorti en 2007, qui réduit à néant les Ray et autres vies en roses…

7. Stéphane Sédnaoui

Titres de gloire : les Red Hot Chilli Peppers tout argentés (Give it Away) ; Björk sur un camion (Big Time Sensuality) ou fluorescente (Possibly Maybe) ; Garbage face caméra (Queer) ou encore, plus récemment, Camille en mode rétro (Paris)
Cinéma : Rien. Mais il a fait un bébé à Laetitia Casta, qui s’appelle Sateen. Ce qui me fait penser qu’ils ont trop regardé Moulin-Rouge. Et qu’ils ont des problèmes d’orthographe.

6. Chris Cunningham

Titres de gloire : Aphex Twin qui terrorise des vieilles dames (Come to Daddy) ou drague des tapins en limousine de quarante mètres de long (Windowlicker). Madonna en corbeau (Frozen). Et surtout la vision incroyable de corps immergés sans eau (Only You, Portishead) et de deux sublimes robots-Björks qui font l’amour (All is full of Love)
Cinéma : On attend encore.

5. Jean-Baptiste Mondino

Titres de gloire : Ses histoires d’amour avec les Rita Mitsouko (C’est comme ça, Les Amants), Bashung (Osez Josephine, Ma petite Entreprise), et ses histoires de fesses avec Madonna (Open your heart et son peep-show, Justify My Love et son hotel de passe, premier clip censuré sur MTV, Human Nature et son SM, Don’t Tell Me et ses cow-boys), et Vanessa Paradis (Tandem et ses corps un peu trop huilés). Et le premier à montrer, avec Violently Happy, Björk  dans son habitat naturel (une cellule capitonnée).
Cinéma : Rien. Trop occupé à être un grand photographe.

4. Mark Romanek

Titre de gloire : Sublimer les plus grands.  Johnny Cash, ses rides, et ses souvenirs (Hurt), Bowie qui se balance du haut d’un immeuble (Jump They Say), Madonna et ses fantasmes les plus hallucinés (Bedtime Story) ou encore le frère et la sœur les plus célèbres de l’histoire de la pop, en duo dans le vaisseau spatial de mes rêves (Scream, Michael et Janet Jackson)
Cinéma : One Hour Photo, thriller plutôt flippant avec Robin Wiliams tout blond et tout moche.

3. Jonathan Glazer

Titres de gloire :

Amoureux de Kubrick, Glazer a mis en scène l’hotel le plus dérangé depuis l’Overlook (Karmakoma, Massive Attack) et mis un peu trop de rimmel à Damon Albarn façon Alex DeLarge (The Universal, Blur). Sinon quand il est de bonne humeur, il fait danser Jamiroquai avec son canapé (Virtual Insanity). Et quand il est mélancolique, il est le seul réal de clip qui peut prendre à la gorge: en poursuivant un gros en voiture avec Thom Yorke (Karma Police, Radiohead), ou en renversant allègrement Denis Lavant douze fois de suite dans un tunnel (Rabbit in your Headlights, UNKLE featuring Thom Yorke).
Cinéma : Sexy Beast, le film que Guy Ritchie essaie de réaliser depuis ses débuts, et surtout Birth, avec Kidman monumentale, le chef d’oeuvre le plus incompris et mal-aimé de la décennie. À quand la suite, MERDE ?????

2. Spike Jonze

Titres de gloire : Björk enceinte dans un musical où même les boîte aux lettre se prennent pour Gene Kelly (It’s Oh So Quiet). Cool. Les Beastie Boys moustachus dans un polar seventies de série Z (Sabotage). Très très cool. Des ploucs en jogging qui dansent dans la rue en se croyant dans un film de Bob Fosse (Fatboy Slim, Praise You). D’une coolerie intense. Christopher Walken qui danse seul dans un hôtel. Et s’envole.  LE TRUC LE PLUS COOL DE L’HISTOIRE DE L’HUMANITE !!! (Fatboy Slim, Weapon of Choice)
Cinéma : Deux trips de génie conçus avec Charlie Kaufman, Being John Malkovich, et Adaptation. En attendant son adaptation de Where the Wild Things Are (Max et les Maximonstres) cet hiver.

1. Michel Gondry

Titres de Gloire : Beaucoup trop d’idées de génie pour toutes les citer. En vrac : Je danse le mia d’IAM, et ses zooms successifs, Around the world de Daft Punk, qui contient la chorégraphie la plus invraisemblable de l’histoire, Star Guitar des Chemical Brothers, où chaque instrument est un élément du paysage qui défile dans la vitre d’un train, Protection de Massive Attack, qui reconstitue la vie d’un immeuble en passant de fenêtre en fenêtre. Et évidemment à peu près tous les grands clips de Björk, du premier (Human Behaviour) au plus beau (Bachelorette). Gondry renvoie à leur médiocrité tous les misérables vidéastes qui jouent aux artistes contemporains.  Si un artiste de format court mérite sa place dans un musée, c’est lui.
Cinéma : Deux trips Kaufmaniens, comme son pote Spike Jonze : Human Nature, semi-réussite (semi-échec?), et Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, le film de la décénnie, qui bénéficie d’un des meilleurs scénarios de l’histoire. Suivi de deux petits films (La Science des Rêves, Be Kind Rewind) qui confirment les ambitions modestes de Gondry sans Kaufman.

Et toi, c’est quoi tes clips préférés ?

Sabe aquele clipe super bem feito, que parece que quer dizer alguma coisa, que é cheio de significado, mas você nem sempre pega a mensagem?

Pois é, esse é exatamente o tema desse Top 3 (que não quer dizer, na verdade, os melhores, mas são alguns exemplos)

Então: Top 3 – Clipes Cabeçudos, imagem com mais conteúdo do que você pensa.

Moby – Shot in the Back of the Head (diretor: David Lynch)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7zQlsLgYhg

Radiohead – Just (diretor: Jamie Thraves):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5X7HKxpiQA

Unkle – Rabbit in your Headlights (diretor: Jonathan Glazer)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka2Bn6dmFHc

ATENÇÃO:

como foi completamente impossível colocar um link que não seja retirado, tanto do Radiohead quanto do Unkle, só é possível assistir ao clipe clicando na imagem do vídeo, que te direciona para a página do próprio Youtube (filhos da mãe que não permitem a incorporação……!)