Sound And Vision: Leos Carax
In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week we look at New Order's Crystal (unused version), directed by Leos Carax.
Context for this music video is mostly missing. Seemingly made as a lark by Leos Carax, this music video for New Order's Crystal showcases his dog and cat 'violently' playing with each other, while there are insert shots of Leos Carax's home-decor. In the end a title card stating the total budget drives home the facetious nature of the music video. The question is, and remains in what capacity it was made. Was this an official pitch to the producers of New Order? Was it rejected? Was it ever sent in on an official capacity? And how is Leos Carax connected to this track and New Order? That the music video gets a credit on IMDB doesn't necessarily mean we are dealing with a legitimate alternate video. I've seen erroneous credits many times over during my research for Sound and Vision. In this case I could verify it is directed by Leos Carax for sure, but it is not very clear in what context.
What is interesting to me though, is to examine what's here and how it ties into some of Carax later work. New Order's Crystal once seemed like a one-off, a forgotten lark in an oeuvre of much larger and ambitious pieces like Pola X and Holy Motors. It isn't. Last year, Carax made It's Not Me. It's an ode to Godard's Histoire(s) de Cinema, looking through the history of the world through a cinematic lens. Like Godard's work, it combines the hyperpersonal and autobiographical with the grandiose and historical. Like Godard, intertitles and archival footage are interjected with personal ephemera and videodiaristic interjections.
Not only does It's Not Me grapple with the legacy of cinema in the wake of historical atrocities, like Histoire(s) de Cinema, it grapples with the legacy of Godard and his influence on Carax. And lastly, it collapses all kinds of aspects of the work of Carax into itself. In its final scenes, the "Modern Love"-sequence of Mauvais Sang, is re-interpreted by Baby Anette from Anette. It's Carax self-examining. And here, suddenly, New Order's Crystal clicks into his oeuvre.
Like It's Not Me's more autobiographical interjections, Crystal is not so much a joke of a video, even though it's clearly irreverent. But it is also an early example of using home video as a means of commercial internet culture. This was before the early days of YouTube, and Carax already has a meta-textual aspect to the video, showing the footage he shot being played on a computer, being shot again. It's early internet culture, combined with home video footage. It's Carax playing around, like It's Not Me is him playing around with Godard's legacy. And while It's Not Me might be the most personal and autobiographical piece of work that Carax has made, there is a precedent in Crystal, the very first time that Carax gave us a glimpse into his home-life. It is easy to dismiss both of these as follies, as self-indulgent minor entries in the oeuvre of an all-time great filmmaker.
But it is exactly the lightweight nature of Crystal, and the self-indulgent nature of It's Not Me, that makes them feel essential pieces in understanding Carax. His work has always been hyperpersonal. Holy Motors Monsieur Oscar is indeed an extension of Carax himself, and in It's Not Me we find out that the ever-returning Monsieur Merde also has some personal qualities for Carax. Having several pieces of his home-life show up in his work, even if it's humorous in nature, grounds the high-flying fancies of works like Anette and Holy Motors as the work of someone who is always somewhat autobiographical, even if it doesn't seem like it. Both Crystal and It's Not Me are hyperpersonal counterweights that ground the oeuvre of Carax into something tangibly human, rather than just over-the-top surrealistic gonzo-works.
