External perfection ain't worth shit when you're hollow inside. And meticulous, fabricated art often can't come close to what the natural world can just do by doing what it does.
Just some of the themes in this latest stunner of a video from director AG Rojas for Florence + The Machine.
There's an organic and stately stillness to this new Florence + The Machine video that forces you to wait with bated breath as it develops roots and comes to artistic life.
"Delilah" may feel like the final chapter in the current Odyssey between director Vincent Haycock and Florence Welsh — ending where we began back in "What Kind Of Man" — but it's one of their most impressive clips yet. The setting is a seedy LA hotel where temptations and evil abound, but so does rebirth, as Florence gets imbued with a spirit that leads her above and beyond all that danger.
Vincent Haycock, director: "We filmed ‘Queen of Peace’ and ‘Long & Lost’ in Scotland, one of my favorite places I’ve ever been to or filmed. The coast of Scotland is breathtaking, beautiful and harsh, an aesthetic mix that both Florence and I have been very interested in during the making of these videos. The Scottish people are amazing and especially the town of Easdale, the small island that we lived on and filmed. We shot in the winter and it was cold, brutal and endlessly inspiring, which I think really helped the story of Florence’s struggle with her family, the younger innocence vs. the feuding violence of the men around her, etc. The end of the video was done in a single take, at the very last seconds of light during a stormy barge ride on a freezing sea. The effort and focus on both the actors and crew was so amazing, Florence delivers one of my favorite moments to date and it’s one of my proudest technical and narrative accomplishments."
A lot of things in this single-shot video are restrained compared to Flo's previous one. But this may be the calm before the storm. Director Vincent Haycock views the ongoing narrative as an interpretation of Dante's The Divine Comedy — he calls this clip "the first circle of Hell." If this is truly the start of a swarm of clips from this artist/director pairing, we may be in for a memorable journey.
I don't want to spoil this one for you. And I don't say that as way to get around having to explain this complex exploration of love, distrust, tragedy and rebirth.
Let's just say Florence Welch and director Vince Haycock know that in order to shock, you have to be honest and fearless. And this video is both of those, and a whole lot more.
How big, how blue, how beautiful, and how simply effective this refined tease to the new Florence + The Machine. A sensual, catharctic dance that could hold its own in any classic amphiteather.
