Reel Dealer

Top Five Videos of 2003

Words: Sandy Hunter

Composing a list of the most memorable music videos of 2003 is actually not too difficult. With last year already beginning to fade into a forgettable haze, these five music promos stand out as not only entertaining trifles, but also memorable additions to the craft.

Pepe Deluxe "Girl" (Paul Malmstrom and Linus Karlsson)
It is said that Swedish advertising team Paul Malmstrom and Linus Karlsson first found film score solace in Pepe Deluxe when they used the Finnish group's music in a series of TV commercials they created for Lee Jeans. Apparently, the fit was a snug one because the writer/art director team created the awesome music video for "Girl" as one of their last acts as a creative force before leaving Minneapolis, their adopted US hometown. Since, they have gone off to New York to open the US offices of London ad agency Mother and are likely quite busy. Suffice it to say, however, that this video has it all: dancing, flashing lights, performance and the sort of poised goofiness and freaked-out casting one has come to expect of Scandinavian escapees.

The Rapture "House of Jealous Lovers" (Shynola)
There were whispers among some insiders that Shynola was getting soft, or at least "mainstreamed," until they dropped this lovingly constructed work for one of the year's biggest "alternative" singles. Essentially the story of a rampaging beast wrapped in a flawless punk rock package, "House of Jealous Lovers" is a handmade, authentic and ultimately perfect match of visuals to rock that breathed new life into a single that had been floating around the underground for a year prior to its major label release.

Klonhertz "Three Girl Rhumba" (Dougal Wilson)
We knew Dougal Wilson was not your average music video director when we saw his Benny Benasi video featuring all those oily ladies handling large power tools. But he proved himself beyond a shadow of a jackhammer when he brought his one-line concept, "a video made of paper," to life for Klonhertz. Where others would have turned to high-falutin special effects or computer animation to set the angular characters and sets involved in this video into action, Wilson, a rising filmmaking star, used less to create more.

Goldfrapp "Train" (Dawn Shadforth)
Alison Goldfrapp returned with a second album drenched in musky sexuality and suggestive electronics. Such a strong female sentiment could well have been smothered with allegory, booty or any of an array of heavy-handed filmic devices, but director Dawn Shadforth celebrates Goldfrapp and her sophisticated take on post-tart living in this sassy promo. Stripper chic pervades the film, but Shadforth spares us any "Lady Marmalade" pop porn in favor of expert burlesque performances and two frolicking females whose prancing is immensely augmented thanks to the animal heads atop their bikini clad bods.

White Stripes "Hardest Button to Button" (Michel Gondry)
Mr. Gondry rarely disappoints, and his latest collaboration with the Whites is no exception. All of those edits, each of them timed to the beat, combined with a shot-by-shot progression to a new set-up: it was almost more than we could handle. If anyone other than Michel Gondry had made this video, we would have flown off the handle in an undignified manner (we figured his director's retrospective at RESFEST was a clear indicator of our affections for his work). If you are a fan of this video, please do take pains to view Dougal Wilson's "Assassinator" video for Chikinki, which offers an alternate take on the same technique.