I just saw the movie
Waking Life, a quite interesting movie about
lucidity and
dreaming and life and questions more than answers.
That is not what I am here to talk about.
Björk released the single Pagan Poetry on November 5, 2001 (it's from her album Vespertine), and the music video precedes Waking Life. It is one of the most interesting and moving bits of imagery I have ever seen. Prepared to see a movie in rotoscope, I was in something of a state of anticipation, but I wasn't expecting to be so wowed by what I first thought was a mere preview. The music video is like nothing I've ever seen before. In essence, it is taking the a video and running it through what resembles the "Contours" plugin in Paint Shop Pro (I'm sure there's a similar one in adobe). The effect is that it distorts everything from any reasonable recognition and it creates a beautiful dance of color and void. The actual video is glimpsed occasionally for the first three quarters and the second half is all video. The video is of piercing and preparation for the intricate pseudo-chains one sees on her at the end of the video. The video can be seen at http://www.bjork.com/snipsbits/video/paganpoetry/, the lyrics, as moving as the imagery, are below.
Pedalling through
The dark currents
I find
An accurate copy
A blueprint
Of the pleasure
In me
Swirling black lilies totally ripe
A secret code carved
Swirling black lilies totally ripe
A secret code carved
He offers
A handshake
Crooked
Five fingers
They form a pattern
Yet to be matched
On the surface simplicity
But the darkest pit in me
It's pagan poetry
Pagan poetry
Morsecoding signals (signals)
They pulsate (wake me up) and wake me up
(pulsate) from my hibernating
On the surface simplicity
Swirling black lilies totally ripe
But the darkest pit in me
It's pagan poetry
Swirling black lilies totally ripe
Pagan poetry
Swirling black lilies totally ripe
....
I love him, I love him
I love him, I love him
I love him, I love him
I love him, I love him
She loves him, she loves him
This time
She loves him, she loves him
I'm gonna keep it to myself
She loves him, she loves him
She loves him, she loves him
This time
I'm gonna keep me all to myself
She loves him, she loves him
And he makes me want to hand myself over
She loves him, she loves him
She loves him, she loves him
And he makes me want to hand myself over