This is from Annette, which made quite a splash at Cannes last week and which will be released on Prime later this year. As for Cannes, it’s got a few more days to go!
Enjoy!
Tag Archives: Sparks
Music Video of the Day: Beat The Clock by Sparks (1978, directed by Scott Millaney and Brian Grant)
The song, Beat the Clock, was named after a game show that aired, off-and-on, from 1950 to 2018. On the show, contestants would try to win prizes by completing challenges in a certain amount of time. Like the best game shows, it was simple but challenging. The show originally aired on CBS and, over the decades, switched channels several times. When the latest version of the show ended, it was airing on Universal Kids.
The video does not really have much to do with the game show. Instead, it features Sparks performing while cardboard cut-outs of the band roll down an assembly line. Interestingly, this video was made in the days before MTV, when most music videos were still strictly performance clips. At the time it was released, the video for Beat The Clock would have been unique for actually having a concept behind it.
The video was directed by Scott Millaney and Brian Grant. If Brian Grant’s name seems familiar, that’s because he went on to direct over 225 videos. He did videos for everyone from The Human League to Whitney Houston to Queen to Peter Gabriel and Duran Duran. If your band was big at some point in the 80s, there’s a good chance that Brian Grant directed a music video for you. Grant has also directed episodes for several television programs, including Dr. Who, Highlander, and The Red Shoe Diaries.
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: I Predict by Sparks (1982, dir. Doug Martin & Steve Martin)
Or is directed by David Lynch?
Back when I went through all the David Lynch music videos, I specifically mentioned this one because it is frequently credited to David Lynch. If you do a Google search, then you’ll turn up lots of reviews and lists of Lynch music videos that include it. Even Wikipedia disagrees about it. If you go to the list of David Lynch music videos, then it’ll say he directed it. However, if you go to the article written about the song and video, then you’ll find out that it wasn’t. That article cites a book called Talent Is An Asset: The Story Of Sparks by Daryl Ealesa. It says the video was directed by Doug Martin and Steve Martin in the style of Lynch. I haven’t read it yet. Regardless, I just bought it so I can provide you with an excerpt covering it:
‘I Predict’ came with a striking video that fell foul of the conservatism of MTV. Directed in the style of David Lynch by group friends, identical twins and occasional actors Doug and Steve Martin, it is crammed full of strangeness. Shot in a dimly lit bar outside LA, Ron, in drag, develops the bride theme from the album’s cover with Russell still wearing the cover’s wedding suit. And Ron is stripping. And Russell is watching. Something is clearly not right. With the attendant promotion and the video’s notoriety, ‘I Predict’ reached number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100. Sparks had finally achieved a US Top 100 single after a decade of trying.
Below is the album cover the excerpt speaks of:
The funny thing is that despite being mis-credited to David Lynch, it does have a connection to him beyond being done in his style. David Lynch made a music video for the song Thank You, Judge by his group called BlueBOB that was made up of him and Jeff Neff. At the end of that music video, you have Eli Roth and Naomi Watts laughing at Jeff Neff about to receive an anal probe. Anyone who has watched Cabin Fever (2002) and David Lynch’s work, knows that from the opening to the very end, you’d be thinking of Lynch regardless of whether you knew there was any connection between them. From the Blue Velvet (1986) style opening credits to Party Cop to the person in the rabbit suit. There’s even a thanks to him in the credits. 7 years later, director Ti West made a sequel that is basically a lover-letter to 70s and 80s exploitation films. I watched all the Cabin Fever movies recently, and something caught my eye in the credits on Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009). They used the Sparks song Eaten By The Monster Of Love, which is from the album, Angst In My Pants, that includes the song I Predict. Even without having directed this video, Lynch is still connected to it beyond the use of his style in the video.
David Lynch being credited for this in so many places doesn’t surprise me. I have a copy of Madonna: The Immaculate Collection. It’s a compilation of her early music videos. It lists Mary Lambert as the producer of Borderline–not the director.
You’d think that would be pretty definitive. In fact, there’s a reference to Star Wars in Pet Sematary II (1992)–Bruce Logan having done visual effects on Star Wars.
However, if you read the book I Want My MTV, then you get information straight from Lambert and others that she did indeed direct Borderline.
The point is that it’s easy for this stuff to get confusing, and as a result, you can end up with these kinds of situations.
Enjoy!
Horror Film Review: Sleepwalkers (dir by Mick Garris)
So, last night, I was looking for something to watch and I came across Sleepwalkers, a horror film from 1992. And you know what? I could sit here and I could get all snarky about Sleepwalkers and I could be hypercritical and all that other stuff. It’s tempting because the film was written by Stephen King and Stephen King has had so much success that it’s easy to be overly critical of anything he’s involved with.
But I’m not going to do that. Or, at least, that’s not my main objective with this review. No, with this review, I want to pay tribute to cat named Clovis.
You see, there are several humans and humanoids in Sleepwalkers. The film is about two energy vampires — Charles (Brian Krause) and his mother Mary (Alice Krige) — who have an icky incestuous relationship and who need to suck energy from virgins in order to survive. Charles, who appears to be a teenager, has selected Tanya (Madchen Amick) as his latest target. Tanya has loving parents (Lyman Ward and Cindy Pickett, who also played Ferris Bueller‘s parents) and there’s also a creepy English teacher (Glenn Shadix) who tries to blackmail Charles and ends up losing a hand as a result. There’s several police officers, one of whom is killed when a corncob is driven into his spine. And Steven King appears in an awkward cameo, along with Clive Barker and Tobe Hooper.
That’s right — there’s a lot of people in this movie but none of them made as big an impression as Sparks, the talented little kitty who plays Clovis. Seriously, check Clovis out!
You see, there’s only one thing that can kill Charles and Mary and that’s the scratch of a cat. From the minute that Charles and Mary move into their latest home, cats start to gather outside the house, meowing and just waiting for their chance to pounce. And, when it comes time for the cats to finally make their movie, who is their leader?
CLOVIS!
After Charles kills Clovis’s owner, Clovis gathers every other cat around and we watch as, in slow motion, they run through the streets of the town. That’s right — whatever else you may want to say about Sleepwalkers, this is a movie where cats finally get to kick some ass.
And who is the main ass kicker?
Little Clovis, of course!
At the end of the film, Tanya might not have many people left in her life but she’s got Clovis and, because of that, you know that everything’s going to be okay.
As for the rest of Sleepwalkers … well, it’s watchable but it still really doesn’t make a huge impression. And, to be honest, that really is the fault of the script. It’s hard to know who (out of the humans) you’re supposed to care about. Charles and Mary are pure evil and Charles has a really bad habit of speaking in lame one liners. Tanya, meanwhile, is well-played by Madchen Amick but, as written, she’s a bit of a nonentity. There is one fun scene when Tanya dances but then again, you have to wonder why movies, regardless of when they were made, always insist on making teenagers dance to songs that were written decades before they were born.
Fortunately, the film has Clovis. Not only does he save the day but he saves the movie as well!
GO CLOVIS!
Through the Shattered Lens 