Music Video Monday

Music Video Monday: “You Better Run” Pat Benatar

Posted on by bernardovillela

When I featured The Buggles three weeks back, what made me realize I’d omitted them was seeing a list of the first 50 music videos played when MTV debuted.

Many of the songs and videos on that list are familiar to me, but not all of them. So I wanted to explore them. “You Better Run” played seond. It was a song I was unfamiliar with, it was not amongst Benatar’s biggest songs but it’s certainly good and bears her signature.

It’s a performance-piece video, which is generally not that interesting, but there are some lap-dissolves hiding what would be jump cuts throughout; all such instances are on a head-and-shoulders shot of Pat, one right at the beginning. It’s the clearest evidence I’ve seen of tidbit I picked up in film school that la nouvelle vague influenced music video making’s first wave at the very least, giving those directors and editors a new way to shoot and cut. Enjoy!

Music Video Monday: “Psycho Killer” The Talking Heads

Posted on by bernardovillela

It’s rare to see a music video come along for a classic song that never had one, but we’ve recently enjoyed the privilege with the release of “Psycho Killer” by The Talking Heads. If a video is finally to come along for such a song, it’d better bring A-list talent with it , this video does just that. Saoirse Ronan, one of the finest actors on the planet pairs with director Mike Mills (C’mon, C’mon) to present a hypnotically edited, brilliantly performed interpretation of inner-turmoil outwardly portrayed. As the band themselves said “This video makes the song better. We LOVE what this video is NOT — it’s not literal, creepy, bloody, physically violent or obvious.” Enjoy.

Music Video Monday: Fender and Foley/Madonna

Posted on by bernardovillela

Earlier this year both the Netflix limited series Adolescence and its young star, Owen Cooper, took the world by storm. Last week, Cooper made his first appearance in a music video. You can view it here.

Unfortuntely, director James Foley died last week. He was the director of many noteworthy films such as Glengarry Glen Ross, Fear, The Chamber, the series House of Cards on Netflix as well as many collaborations with Madonna starting with music videos and then features. “Papa Don’t Preach” was the genesis of my love of staccato cuts.

“Dress You Up”

“Live to Tell”

“Papa Don’t Preach”

“True Blue”

“The Look of Love”

Music Video Monday: Sabrina Carpenter – Please Please Please

Posted on by bernardovillela

When I reintroduced Monochromatic Monday I didn’t really lay out a plan about how or when I’d bring back the themes mentioned in my Manifesto.

The good news is that I am bringing this theme back again after its revival in April. When your music video includes a title card and features a performance by a star actor like Barry Keoghan, then you’re definitely skewing toward the more cinematic side of things. There is also an introductory scene before the song begins adding to its cinematic bonafides.

You can watch it here.

Music Video Monday: Baticano – Bad Bunny

Posted on by bernardovillela

When I reintroduced Monochromatic Monday I didn’t really lay out a plan about how or when I’d bring back the themes mentioned in my Manifesto. However, when I happened to discover this music video by Bad Bunny it reminded me that I have from time to time done a Music Video Monday as well and it is worthy of such a spotlight. The reasons are clear: first, its an homage to Nosferatu. Second, Steve Buscemi is in it. Third, in what’s already an homage to Nosferatu it drops a perfectly done Dalí/Hitchcock reference. Fourth, it’s just damn good in its own right in terms of editing, blocking, cinematography, set design, and performance. 

Watch it here.

Music Video Monday: Marisa Monte – Doce Vampiro

Posted on by bernardovillela

Original Intro

The music video is spawned from short films and can be as creative if not more so than their predecessor. Far too often it does just become singing heads. I want to try and buck that trend and find ones both new and old that do something somewhat outside the box, at the very least have some sort of visual narrative. 

Updated Intro

It’s been a while since I’ve posted something in this category and it wasn’t a feature that ever became very regular and I want to try to remedy that. So for now the plan it to post this feature once monthly. 

Marisa Monte – Doce Vampiro (Live)

This is a live performance music video which makes it different from any previous selection. However, there is some visual intrigue in this video the smoke hanging in the shafts of stage-light paired with the dissolves make it play more like seafoam than smoke.

Costuming, lighting, and performance are in perfect synchronicity here in aesthetic terms. It’s also a cover of a song by the recently deceased queen of (Brazilian) Rock n’ Roll Rita Lee. Lee was an influence on Marisa Monte and many other Brazilian vocalists and artists (myself included I’ve included two versions of a poem I wrote in Lee’s memory beneath the video).

Ode a o Que Rita Trouxe

by Bernardo Villela 

I

O Barão Vermelho me trouxe

Os jardins suspendidos de Babilônia 

E me disse que ela lhes construiu.

Mas só ela, mesmo, podia trazer

Os Beatles para português 

E devolver-los ao inglês.

Só ela, obviamente, podia ser rebelde

e também ter a ternura para dar-nos le

Premiere bonheur du jour tão angelical como Françoise Hardy.

Só ela, claro, podia macumbar

Batman numa batucada tanto

indígena quanto psicodélico.  

Só ela podia cantar

lento sobre as pessoas 

na sala de jantar. 

II

“Ainda não havia para mim Rita Lee

A tua mais completa tradução”

As Caetano wrote and sang astutely.

Que me comove agora

Mais do que nunca

Vendo como Rita falava português e inglês

Entre outros idiomas.

Dizem que Pessoa

Era tão bom como poeta por causa

Da proficiência dele em inglês.

Isso pode ser porque Lee

Brincou liricamente tão facilmente

Desmontando e combinando

Palavra portuguese semelhantes que 

Outros levaram a toa. 

Era uma noção 

Assumido e sumido

(That was assumed and subsumed)

Nas mentes de muitos

(In the minds of many)

Our past years together passed by hurriedly

(Nossos anos juntos passaram apressados)

And now without your so-called rock-in-role

(E agora sem seu tal de roque enrow)

I walk rather switched off

(Ando meio desligado)

Undo may-ooh dis-league ah-doo

Ode to What Rita Brought

by Bernardo Villela

I

The Red Baron brought me

the Hanging Gardens of Babylon

And told me she built them. 

But only she, really, could bring

The Beatles into Portuguese

And then get them back into English.

Only she, obviously, could be edgy

yet tender enough to give us the day’s

first hour as angelically as Françoise Hardy. 

Only she, clearly, could macumbar 

Batman to a drumline both

indigenous and psychedelic.

Only she could sing

Slow about the people

in the dining room.

II

There is still is not for me Rita Lee,

Your complete translation

As Caetano wrote and sang astutely. 

Which speaks to me now

More than ever

As Rita spoke Portuguese and English

Among other tongues. 

It’s said that Pessoa

Was such a great poet because

Of his proficiency in English.

This might be why Lee

Played lyrically, so easily

Disassembling and combining

Similar Portuguese words that

Others took for granted. 

It was a notion

Assumed and subsumed

(Que foi assumido e sumido)

In the minds of many 

(Nas mentes de muitos)

Nossos anos juntos passaram apressados

(Our past years together passed by hurriedly)

E agora sem seu tal de roque enrow

(And now without your so-called rock-in-role)

Ando meio desligado

(I walk rather switched off)

Undo may-ooh dis-league ah-doo.

Music Video Monday: Sigur Rós – Viðrar vel til loftárása

Posted on by bernardovillela

The music video is spawned from short films and can be as creative if not more so than their predecessor. Far too often it does just become singing heads. I want to try and buck that trend and find ones both new and old that do something somewhat outside the box, at the very least have some sort of visual narrative. 

Sigur Rós – Viðrar vel til loftárása

I have featured Sigur Rós here before, and they are clearly masterful. I wanted to have another, more recent video I’ve actually seen.

This one is seamless in its perfection.

Music Video Monday: Nena’s Bilingual Balloons

Posted on by bernardovillela

Compared to some of the problems the world faces today, nuclear war induced by 99 red balloons seems innocuous. But it’s that very innocent incitement that made this anti-war anti-war anti-nuclear proliferation anthem a hit in the ’80s.

It’s worth remembering here on a Music Video Monday as it offers bilingual versions of its message (German and English) and two videos. Stepping back, even to admire heightened brooding of the 1980s (which I love) is always helpful. Enjoy!

“99 Luftballons” (Original German version)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La4Dcd1aUcE

“99 Red Balloons” (English Remake)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14IRDDnEPR4