Sound And Vision: Amanda Kramer
In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week: Amanda Kramer's music videos for Magdalena Bay.
Amanda Kramer's films never clicked for me. They should be right up my alley, being camp comedy drama's about the search for queer identities, within a provocative framework. But there is something about their stilted delivery and stagey, flat mise-en-scene that alienates me. Please, Baby, Please, especially, works well for me on paper, but in execution is one of the more grating films I've seen recently. Andrea Riseborough isn't just chewing the scenery, she is masticating wildly while doing so, open mouth, saliva showing.
My favorite album from last year was Magdalena Bay's Imaginal Disk. I also loved the music videos, which were a blend of vaporwave and surrealism, throwing everything and the kitchen sink together in a flattening, stagey way. The album itself, about the search for one's identity through a lens of pop culture, was profound pop, blending everything from disco and prog rock in a way that felt seamless. It shouldn't have surprised me that Amanda Kramer directed the videos for this album, but it did. Why? Because everything that works well about Imaginal Disk is stuff that is present in Amanda Kramer's work already: the stilted delivery, the pop culture blend of influences, the camp, the self-searching.
Why is it that what doesn't work in her films works for me here? I'm not sure, but I think that it might be the Magdalena Bay flavor that makes every ingredient stick in a different way. The band has made many music videos, with many directors, in many different styles. But they all feel quintessentially Magdalena Bay, influenced by internet culture, low-brow camp and high-brow surrealism, with a vaporwave 90's sheen. Whereas Amanda Kramer in her films seems inspired by older, loftier camp forebears, Magdalena Bay are nineties kids at heart.
Still, it is not hard to see why the filmmaker and the band found each other, and the formula works. The first music video for Image (below) is the most Magdalena Bay-like video of the trifecta, using the flattening effects and .gif-style overlays that were already present in a video like Top Dog. The hand-crafted costumes also feel very much like an idea of the band.
But the haunting quality of the final scenes, truly unnerving, feel like Amanda Kramer taking reign, and the second video for Death & Romance (also below) feels more like her influence. Here we get a slower story, where a protagonist reminiscent of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz learns about an alter-ego in a space-ship. It's all about self-reflection and the Junguan mirror image, through a Golden Age of Hollywood and 50's sci fi-horror lens. It is the kind of video that Amanda Kramer knocks out of the park.
The final video of That's My Floor(finally below) blends the two videos, stylistically. Back are the hand-crafted costumes, even incorporating a claymation intermezzo, but also present are the high-brow references to everything from feminist surrealist Leonora Carrington to biblically accurate angels. The gonzo quality of the visuals feels like the bands doing, but what the visuals do depict feels like Kramer's influence. The merging of the two minds works well. It is the best thing Amanda Kramer has ever done, and it reaches the feverish frenzy of the band's usual stylistic mish-mash. It does not disappoint.
