Marie Antoinette: Pre-movie.
Remember all those ages ago when I posted pre-and-post-movie impressions of V for Vendetta? Well, apparently tomorrow sometime this week I'll be seeing Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. Which is an interesting film right from the start, with the story's controversial central figure still a hot topic of historical debate some 213 years after her death and the film's writer/director being herself quite controversial in the realm of cinema for her 'indie' artistic pretensions and apparently indulgent style.
Since I haven't the faintest clue where I'll end up standing far as my opinion on the movie (and Coppola's directing) goes, I'm not going to post pre-movie impressions in the same way I did with V for Vendetta, but rather go over the easily-accessible chunks of her oeuvre (read: her music videos) available on YouTube and post impressions of each. Seeing as I've never even thought about reviewing music videos before I can't promise I'll do a good job, but I will try.
Walt Mink - "Shine" (1993)
Coppola's directorial debut, and a pretty unimpressive one at that. The band is playing by a poolside, and there are a lot of hazy dreamlike images of people diving into the pool, bouncing on trampolines, swimming, playing with pool toys and in one case kissing underwater. I guess it matches the song, but just like the song it fails to really leave much of a lasting impression. Ahh, early '90s indie... How apathetic I am towards thee.
The Flaming Lips - "This Here Giraffe" (1996)
OK, so we're getting better here. Admittedly This Here Giraffe has a built-in advantage over the previous video because I actually like the song (and the band), but even on mute it's clear that Sofia's second attempt at music-video directing is a marked improvement over her first. Starting at the band's house (or at least a house made up to look like their rehearsal space), the video eventually follows the group down the street and then to the zoo to go see the titular giraffe. Simple and effective for the most part, but it isn't perfect - artsy shots of an anonymous smiling girl and the giraffe are thrown in for no good reason, and the brief glimpse of a toy giraffe spinning in circles in the air we're shown in one scene was a really bad idea plain and simple.
Air - "Playground Love" (2000)
Taken from the soundtrack to Coppola's full-length directorial debut The Virgin Suicides, the jump in quality from 1996 to 2000 shown in Playground Love is astounding. Rich dark colours replace the washed-out '90s pallete of the Walt Mink and Flaming Lips videos, the video's story actually works as a coherent whole (no random cuts to spinning toy giraffes here) and the art-school pretensions are nowhere to be found. Following what I assume is the movie's plotline shrunk down to a little over 3½ minutes, the song is sung by a piece of used gum (OK, so maybe that might count as pretentious, but I prefer 'creative') that makes its way through various scenes as it's stuck to a plate, a desk, someone's shoe and, ultimately, a piece of paper where it meets its match. It's an interesting concept and generally a fantastic video - but unfortunately the song itself is dead boring. Sets the mood for the video quite nicely, but isn't something I'd ever find myself listening to outside of that context.
Kevin Shields - "City Girl" (2003)
Another soundtrack piece, City Girl was recorded for Coppola's second feature film Lost in Translation. I've never seen the movie, but the City Girl video is absolutely beautiful. Coppola perfectly captures the overwhelming loneliness of travelling to an unfamiliar place, surrounded by unfamiliar sights and sounds that only seem to make you feel that much more alone. The song itself is pretty inconsequential, but the visuals that accompany it are perfect. 10 years after she made her first music video, you can't even tell that it's the same woman behind the camera. And in this case, that's a good thing.
The White Stripes - "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" (2003)
Black & white video of Kate Moss pole-dancing. I didn't watch it all the way through, but figured I saw enough to get the gist. That gist being that Kate Moss scares me. Not a bad song, though.
So, my initial impression from watching Sofia's music videos is that she can be a brilliant director in 3-minute stretches, but I have no idea if she's any good as a writer or as a director working with the feature-length format. Which is why I'll follow this up with a post-movie after (surprise surprise) I see the movie. Should be interesting...
Since I haven't the faintest clue where I'll end up standing far as my opinion on the movie (and Coppola's directing) goes, I'm not going to post pre-movie impressions in the same way I did with V for Vendetta, but rather go over the easily-accessible chunks of her oeuvre (read: her music videos) available on YouTube and post impressions of each. Seeing as I've never even thought about reviewing music videos before I can't promise I'll do a good job, but I will try.
Walt Mink - "Shine" (1993)
Coppola's directorial debut, and a pretty unimpressive one at that. The band is playing by a poolside, and there are a lot of hazy dreamlike images of people diving into the pool, bouncing on trampolines, swimming, playing with pool toys and in one case kissing underwater. I guess it matches the song, but just like the song it fails to really leave much of a lasting impression. Ahh, early '90s indie... How apathetic I am towards thee.
The Flaming Lips - "This Here Giraffe" (1996)
OK, so we're getting better here. Admittedly This Here Giraffe has a built-in advantage over the previous video because I actually like the song (and the band), but even on mute it's clear that Sofia's second attempt at music-video directing is a marked improvement over her first. Starting at the band's house (or at least a house made up to look like their rehearsal space), the video eventually follows the group down the street and then to the zoo to go see the titular giraffe. Simple and effective for the most part, but it isn't perfect - artsy shots of an anonymous smiling girl and the giraffe are thrown in for no good reason, and the brief glimpse of a toy giraffe spinning in circles in the air we're shown in one scene was a really bad idea plain and simple.
Air - "Playground Love" (2000)
Taken from the soundtrack to Coppola's full-length directorial debut The Virgin Suicides, the jump in quality from 1996 to 2000 shown in Playground Love is astounding. Rich dark colours replace the washed-out '90s pallete of the Walt Mink and Flaming Lips videos, the video's story actually works as a coherent whole (no random cuts to spinning toy giraffes here) and the art-school pretensions are nowhere to be found. Following what I assume is the movie's plotline shrunk down to a little over 3½ minutes, the song is sung by a piece of used gum (OK, so maybe that might count as pretentious, but I prefer 'creative') that makes its way through various scenes as it's stuck to a plate, a desk, someone's shoe and, ultimately, a piece of paper where it meets its match. It's an interesting concept and generally a fantastic video - but unfortunately the song itself is dead boring. Sets the mood for the video quite nicely, but isn't something I'd ever find myself listening to outside of that context.
Kevin Shields - "City Girl" (2003)
Another soundtrack piece, City Girl was recorded for Coppola's second feature film Lost in Translation. I've never seen the movie, but the City Girl video is absolutely beautiful. Coppola perfectly captures the overwhelming loneliness of travelling to an unfamiliar place, surrounded by unfamiliar sights and sounds that only seem to make you feel that much more alone. The song itself is pretty inconsequential, but the visuals that accompany it are perfect. 10 years after she made her first music video, you can't even tell that it's the same woman behind the camera. And in this case, that's a good thing.
The White Stripes - "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" (2003)
Black & white video of Kate Moss pole-dancing. I didn't watch it all the way through, but figured I saw enough to get the gist. That gist being that Kate Moss scares me. Not a bad song, though.
So, my initial impression from watching Sofia's music videos is that she can be a brilliant director in 3-minute stretches, but I have no idea if she's any good as a writer or as a director working with the feature-length format. Which is why I'll follow this up with a post-movie after (surprise surprise) I see the movie. Should be interesting...