Sunday, July 12, 2009

Dead Weather video on Cinemax last night

The short Dead Weather movie Treat Me Like Your Mother debuted on Cinemax last night.

I liked it. I didn't expect to like it. I was a bit miffed at the whole concept. Also, I'd seen a spoiler for it (which turned out not to be true) that I thought had ruined it for me. But I liked it. Maybe because I have revenge fantasies too, and this is a great big one. We sometimes say two people in a toxic relationship are sniping at each other. This couple are in an all-out firefight.

The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother




Heh.

There's a copy here and one of the commenters, Ryan, hits the nail on the head, I think.
Their raw attitude towards each other, along with them singing the words, work together to tell you a story that you don’t even need to see. You get it. Shit went horribly wrong and they are pissed. And now they jumped into this fantasy where they literally shoot each other until one dies. And that cigarette break was literally that: a break. Some time for her to realize she probably will die, and us to take a breath. This is Jack’s characters dream, most likely, since he’s the one that walks away. That’s right, characters. Minimalist it may be, they acted, and without pretentiousness.
I think they both walk away, and I think it'll happen again for both of them. Neither one scored a victory.

It may sound odd to say, but I liked the way they've taken care in firing in rhythm, rather than just on full auto, at least at first. A musical director normally fits the sound to the action; it must have been difficult to fit action to a pre-existing song. I love the way the sun glints through the bullet holes as the combatants finish up. The break for a cigarette is a sublime moment.

I wonder if they left the brass in the field? If it weren't thousands of miles away it might be nice to go an pick some up as a souvenir.

According to The Inspiration Room, the credits are as follows:

Credits
Treat Me Like Your Mother was shot by director Jonathan Glazer via
Academy Films, London, and Hello!, Los Angeles, with director of photography Max Malkin, executive producers Liz Kessler and Sheira Rees- Davies, managing directors Lizzie Gower and Line Postmyr, producer Rachel Curl, production designer Jeremy Hindle. The Dead Weather video marks the beginning of a reciprocal arrangement between Los Angeles-based HELLO! and London-based Academy Films.
Video commissioner was Dilly Gent.
Editor was Paul Watts at
The Quarry, London, with assistant editor Anne Perri. Visual effects were developed at One of Us Ltd, Stranger and Smoke&Mirrors by producers Rachel Penfold (One of US); Belinda Grew (Smoke & Mirrors); Paul O’Beirne (Smoke & Mirrors); Leigh Warner (Smoke & Mirrors), colorist Mark Horrobin, and VFX line producer Chaya Feiner. Sound was mixed by Johnnie Burns at Wave Studios, London.
The Dead Weather is Alison Mosshart, Jack White, Jack Lawrence and Dean Fertita.

I'll bet Dilly Gent wasn't born with that name.

2 comments:

Duncan said...

Hi. Thanks for the link back to The Inspiration Room. Can you see if you can fix up the link to The Quarry - would be good if it was theinspirationroom.com/daily/tag/the-quarry

Lyle Hopwood said...

Fixed. (The original was a cut and paste job, so it must have worked for you at some point.) I also found another copy of the video since that had expired too!

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