It was Brian’s idea to choose this special location: “One day I found out about this festival that took place in Sardinia called Duna Jam, and it was really really small, like a hundred and fifty people with on the beach and the bands with play on the beach. I saw the location on YouTube, the sceneries are just mind-blowing! And I thought, THAT’s the place that we should film the video for Jesus’ Son.”
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| Photo credits: screenshots from the video / edit by Olga |
📹 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 - 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐎𝐟 '𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐬’ 𝐒𝐨𝐧'
https://bit.ly/3wNdSRt
The clip was directed by 𝐉𝐎𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐎𝐑. Music video commissioner John Moule brought Placebo into contact with him. By the way, John Moule has also been a commissioner for some other great Placebo videos: For What It's Worth (2009), Too Many Friends (2013), Exit Wounds (2014), Loud Like Love (2014).
𝐉𝐨𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐫 wrote the script based on the ancient traditions of Sardinia:
📢 “On this project, I was sent the track with the note that the band wanted something 'otherworldly' and set in the island of Sardinia; as Brian is a fan of the landscapes. I wrote this idea of taking the wonderful culture of Sardinia and giving it an otherworldly twist, making it feel really, really special. I had a phone call with Brian and we decided on a feel and an approach based on the idea I'd written, so it was a bit of both on this job.
[…] This culture has been going for 3000 years; it's a wonderful tradition that is still alive and part of community life in the middle of Sardinia. I've always loved cultural traditions like this as it gives you a view into how people live, how a community congregates. I wanted to give Placebo and the fans something really different and it felt like the perfect emotional flavour to bring to the track.”
(𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡, 2016)
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| Making of the video |
Besides the band playing with their feet in the sand all dressed in white the video features local traditional characters of 𝑺𝑨𝑹𝑫𝑰𝑵𝑰𝑨𝑵 𝑪𝑨𝑹𝑵𝑰𝑽𝑨𝑳.
At the beginning of the video, the voice says in Sardinian: "Custos contos, no ana ora, no ana prinzipiu e mai d'ana aere fine. Sempes, semmos istados" which means "𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒏𝒐 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆, 𝒏𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒏𝒅. 𝑾𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏." The words are there to stress how far into the past centuries the mysterious tradition goes.
The horned creatures are called "𝑩𝒐𝒆𝒔", meaning "bulls", which are part of the group "𝑩𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒆 𝑴𝒆𝒓𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒔", the typical masks of the carnival of Ottana, a village in the province of Nuoro. The "𝑩𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒆 𝑴𝒆𝒓𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒔" represent oxen and their masters.
The 𝑩𝒐𝒆𝒔 wearing wooden masks that look like an ox’s head carry a plenty of cowbells of various sizes weighing up to 40 kg across their chests. The 𝑴𝒆𝒓𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒔 - the shepherds, masters of the bulls - in their twisted, almost horrific expressional masks, carry herding sticks and whips to control their 𝑩𝒐𝒆𝒔. “𝑺𝒖 𝑴𝒆𝒓𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒆”, also known as “𝑺𝒖 𝑮𝒐𝒃𝒃𝒆𝒅𝒅𝒖” (the hunchback) has to me made as ugly and deformed as possible to be scary even to the devil and thus remove the misfortunes of life.
There are some additional characters, like 𝑺𝒖 𝑷𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒖, the wild boar, and 𝑺𝒂 𝑰𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒛𝒂𝒏𝒂, a dismal old woman, also hunchbacked, who goes around the streets of the town dressed in black. She is always busy spinning wool, and she threatens to cut the thread hanging from the distaff if she wouldn’t be offered a drink. The woolen thread represents the life of someone who’s in front of the character at the moment.
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| Screenshot from the video |
The scenes symbolize what life in a small town was in ancient times when having a yoke of oxen was almost everything, if not all that you owned and still meant being wealthy. The radical change in the way of life nowadays did not affect the tradition of the wooden masks of the "𝑩𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒆 𝑴𝒆𝒓𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒔". Therefore, during the whole period of the carnival, the streets of the town are crossed by various groups of Merdules, both organized and spontaneous, who make heavy noise with their cowbells shaking them rhythmically throughout the day until evening.
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧.
Also, there are slightly similar masks from another village in 𝑺𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒂, 𝑴𝒂𝒎𝒐𝒊𝒂𝒅𝒂. They’re called 𝑴𝒂𝒎𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰𝒔𝒔𝒐𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒔: the black-masked Mamuthones symbolize the darkness, grunting and stomping as they burst into violent pseudo seizures; while the white-masked Issohadores are the light, leading the beasts from flame to flame.
📹 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐖 📹
Director: Joe Connor
Producer: Dom Murgia
Executive producer: Colin Offland
Production company: Chief Productions
Director of Photography: James Henry
Steadicam: Claudio Merceddu
Editor: Ian McLaughlin
Production Services: Shoot Sardinia & Mommotty Film
Production Assistant: Georgie Winter
Colourist: Kai Van Beers @ MPC
Commissioner: John Moule
Director’s Agent: Alexa Haywood
Record Label: Universal Music
Copyright: Elevator Lady Ltd.
Post by Olga
#Placebo #PlaceboAnyway #PlaceboWorld #BrianMolko #StefanOlsdal #Molko #Soulmates #PlaceboHistory #BrianMolkoQuote #PlaceboSong #PlaceboSingle #JesusSon #JoeConnor #PlaceboVideo @joevconnor
