From the days when MTV was mainstream, to the present day when music videos are released on various platforms including YouTube, the production, distribution, consumption and forms of expression of music videos are becoming increasingly diverse, with various media interpenetrating with each other (Gina Arnold et.al., 2017.). In this post, I will take up ANIMA (2019), a collaboration between a film director Paul Thomas Anderson and Thom Yorke that was released on Netflix, and examine the post-cinematic expression in the opening scenes of the music video, while considering the background of its distribution.

In the publicity for the release of his new album and film, this project released an advertisement for a fictional company called ANIMA Technologies, and posters and flyers with the company’s website URL and phone number were distributed in cities around the world, and this became a hot topic on social networking sites at the time (Bloom, 2019). In this way, ANIMA‘s publicity effects were enhanced as offline and online media influenced each other.

Turning to the visual expression, in an interview with himself, Paul Thomas Anderson said that the film is full of homages to silent films(Willman, 2019). This is also clear from the fact that he named the film ‘one-reeler’ (a short film equivalent to a single film in early cinema). In the early part of the music video, a dystopian worldview influenced by films such as Metropolis (1927) is developed (Willman, 2019). In the scene on the train, the eye contact between Tom York and the woman is expressed in a series of shots, and it gives the impression of some kind of melodramatic development between them.

Dystopian crowds and urban space

Shot-reverse shot between Thom and woman

However, from the perspective of narrative in Hollywood films, this work is quite lacking in that regard. The movements of the dancers in this video could be said to be symbolic, or they could be seen as showing the dynamism of physical movement itself (the choreography for ANIMA was done by Damien Jalet, a master of contemporary dance). According to Anderson, he asked Tom Yorke to move like Chaplin or Buster Keaton (Yalcinkaya, 2019). In fact, Tom Yorke moves around in a dystopian urban space in a comical and dynamic way. In this kind of space, the viewer is drawn into a fantastic world through the combination of Tom Yorke’s dance, the symbolic lyrics and singing of ‘Not the News’, and the inorganic yet three-dimensional electronic sounds.

Superman-like physicality without gravity

This video work, which crosses over various media, platforms and artistic expressions, may not strictly speaking be called a music video. However, as Vernallis states, ‘music, sound, and image can be so tightly interwoven in some segments of contemporary film that we might see them as music video sequences.’ (Vernallis, 2013, p. 209.) Because it is difficult to position this work as either a film or a music video, it may be possible to position it as a video work that has mutated into a music video in the modern era. When considering the multi-channeled music videos of the contemporary age, this work is a good example of the threshold.

・Reference

Carrol Vernallis, YouTube, Music Video, and the New Digital CinemaMusic Video’s Second Aesthetic?, Unruly Media, Oxford UP, 2013, pp. 207-233.

Chris Willman (2019, June 26). Paul Thomas Anderson on Directing Thom Yorke for ‘Anima’: ‘I Kept Saying, More Buster Keaton!’. Variety.
https://variety.com/2019/music/news/paul-thomas-anderson-interview-anima-film-thom-yorke-1203253783/

Gina Arnold, Daniel Cookney, Kirsty Fairclough, and Michael Goddard, “Introduction: The Persistence of the Music Video Form from MTV to Twenty-First-Century,” Gina Arnold et.al., eds. Social Media Music/Video:Histories, Aesthetics, Media, Bloomsbury, 2017, pp. 1-13.

Günseli Yalcinkaya (2019, June 15). Choreographer Damien Jalet on the dystopian world of Thom Yorke’s ANIMA. DAZED.
https://www.dazeddigital.com/film-tv/article/45253/1/thom-yorke-paul-thomas-anderson-anima-film-choreographer-damien-jalet-interview

Madison Bloom (2019, June 15). Thom Yorke Previews New Song Via Hotline From Mysterious Ads. Pitchfolk,
https://pitchfork.com/news/mysterious-advertisements-tease-unreleased-thom-yorke-song/

Written by Takuya Nishihashi (33777985)