Today’s music video of the day is the fourth video to be directed by Sofia Coppola. Distinguished by the black-and-white cinematography of Lance Acord (who was also the cinematographer for Lost In Translation) and the choreography of Robin Conrad, this video may be best known for Kate Moss pole dancing but it’s atmosphere of romanticized ennui will be familiar to anyone who has seen any of Coppola’s films.
(As well, pole dancing would also be prominently featured in Coppola’s later film, Somewhere.)
As for the song, it actually has a pretty long history. It was originally written in the early 60s by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It was first recorded in 1962 by Tommy Hunt but the first performer to actually find success with the song was Dusty Springfield in 1964. It was subsequently covered by Dionne Warwick and Marcia Hines before The White Stripes released their version in 2003.
First off–thank you so much for filling in for me this week, Lisa. I was really sick. I’m glad this daily post was kept up. Also, of course Downtown Sasquatch counts. If I said no, then Lisa might revoke my Degrassi fan card. I also have to agree since there are some music videos that will tread that line as well that I have in mind for the future. Onward!
I have mentioned before about the great musical apocalypse of the late 90s. In 2001, The Strokes released their album Is This It. They had bad and good timing. The bad timing was because it was released shortly before 9/11, which meant they had to remove a song that would have gone over like a lead balloon at the time. They had good timing because it meant that the late 90s era was dying. You did had Limp Bizkit trying to get clever with their music video parody for their song My Way. You actually had Sum 41 with their music video for Still Waiting that seemed to be trying desperately to make fun of bands like The Strokes. I even remember that my local Bay Area alt rock station played along and actually aired the song like it was breaking news that the band had indeed changed their name to The Sums. It felt kind of sad. A last gasp. At least in retrospect we can enjoy some of those songs now that we are out of that era.
But we are here to talk about the notorious The White Stripes. They had actually been around prior to The Strokes’ Is This It. They released their debut album in 1999. The Hives had also released their debut as early as 1997. I can’t speak for everyone, but once The Strokes album came out, then there just seemed to be untold numbers of these garage rock revival bands. So many so that The Killers went ahead revived new wave–post-punk depending where you look–while they were at it. I’d say their music is a little bit of both. Sadly, this period got so white hot that it seemed to largely fizzle itself out by the mid-to-late 2000s. Too bad.
In 2002 The White Stripes sort of decided to team up with Michel Gondry to make this music video. According to Wikipedia, Jack wanted to work with Mark Romanek because he directed Devil’s Haircut for Beck. However, the record company screwed up and hired Michel Gondry. Jack remembered he did Deadweight for Beck, which he also liked, so he was find with Gondry.
Aside from one short part that they did with CGI, it was all done with genuine LEGO bricks that they went out and bought to make the music video. The kid at the start of the music video is Gondry’s own kid.
For me, this is right up there with the music video that was done for The Alan Parsons Project’s song Don’t Answer Me. It’s an experimental music video rather than a regular short film music video.
Sébastien Fau did the special effects on the music video. I can find one other music video credit for him where he worked as the director for what appears to be a French music video. He does have a couple of other credits on IMDb, but that’s it.
Romain Segaud worked as an animator on this music video. He did a couple more music videos as a director, but that’s all I can find as far as music videos are concerned. Beyond that, he seems to have primarily done work for French television.
Through the Shattered Lens 