09-29-2010, 08:45 PM
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#11 (permalink)
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The Reforms
Location: Rarely, if ever, here or there, but always in transition
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Sugar Water
Directed by Michel Gondry
Music by Cibo Matto
Released on February 4, 1997
Distributed by Warner Brothers Records, Inc.
Quote:
Director Michel Gondry evoked the concept of a "visual palindrome" via his split screen narrative for Cibo Matto's "Sugar Water" clip.
Within their respective frames, Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda rise out of bed and take sugar water showers.
The women exchange a threatening note between frames before a black cat enters the picture and prophesies a vehicular accident.
Perhaps more so than any other music video ever made, "Sugar Water" demands multiple sittings in order to tease out its many ambiguities.
The palindrome structure is merely a point of departure here.
In four short minutes, Gondry both contemplates a cosmic relationship between cause and effect and the existential connection between Hatori and Honda themselves.
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Further relevant note:
Essentially “Sugar Water” is a one-take video, told on two sides of the screen...
By performing only one take, Gondry bases the video in real-time.
Yet Gondry flips you around by having the story explained both forwards
(on the left side of the screen) and backwards (on the right side).
[ II MV] + [ splitscreen.]
__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves. —Mohandas K. Gandhi
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