How about a little Muse for today’s music video of the day?
I’ve always found it ironic that this band is named Muse because I’m usually at my most productive whenever I’ve got them playing in the background. There are just certain groups that help to get me in the mood to write. The Chemicals Brothers is one. So is Jakalope. Sleigh Bells, definitely. And then there’s Muse.
Starlight is a favorite of mine. According to my BFF, I once stayed up for six days straight, listening to this song over and over again. I think she’s exaggerating but it is a song that I listen to frequently.
Starlight was directed by Paul Manor. The band is performing on the deck of the MS Ocean Chie, which Wikipedia describes as being a “handysize bulk carrier.” I have no idea what that description means, beyond the fact that the boat’s deck was big enough for Muse to perform. According to Matt Bellamy, there is a deeper symbolism behind them performing on the boat. The video is about a band that is lost at sea because, at the time, Muse felt they were “outside what’s happening in the music scene.”
Enjoy!
Europe, during World War I. The beautiful dancer, Mata Hari (Sylvia Kristel), is in love with two different soldiers, one German and one French. (The soldiers, played by Olivier Tobias and Christopher Cazenove, are also friends though they are now on opposite sides of the Great War.) Forced into the world of decadent, high class espionage by Frau Doktor (Gaye Brown), Mata Hari sleeps with everyone, shares information with both the Germans and the French, and tries to prevent more people from dying. Just as in history, Mata Hari ultimately has to face a firing squad but not before taking part in threesomes, voyeurism, and a topless sword fight.
“The family is like a drug and we’re all junkies.” So says Charley Warner (Vincent D’Onofrio), one of the many pissed off people at the center of Crooked Hearts.
The time is World War II and, for the British, the American army is “overpaid, oversexed, and over here.” David Halloran (Harrison Ford) is a pilot who has been stationed in England. With no loved ones to worry about, David has no fear of flying over occupied France and dropping bombs on the Nazis below. But then David meets an English nurse, Margaret (Lesley-Anne Down). As David falls in love, he loses his enthusiasm for the war because he now has “a reason to live.” The only problem is that Margaret is already married to Paul (Christopher Plummer), an officer in British Intelligence. When David accepts an assignment to fly a British agent into France, he is shocked when the agent turns out to be Paul. When David’s plane crashes, he and Paul have to work together to complete Paul’s mission and escape back to Britain.
Through the Shattered Lens 