Idolator’s Tribute-Video Treasury Wonders, “What The Hell Are We Doing Here?”

kater | November 15, 2007 2:35 am
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“Musical Video of the movie becoming jane, with the song of radiohead creep. I hope you like it!” And with that, the universe was sucked through a gaping black hole located at the mathematical center of of YouTube, only to come out the other end as a never-ending tribute video to humanity set to “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

For all my apocalyptic talk, I must say that this might be one of my favorite tribute videos of all time. It’s aesthetically competent and thematically ingenious. After all, what’s creepier than exploiting, romanticizing, and entirely fictionalizing the tragic love life of a widely- dmired author to profit off the romance-starved pseudo-literary adolescents (and adolescent-minded adults) of the world? But all that aside, really absorb this video. It raises some interesting questions: How did we get to this point in our culture? Does this mean Christ is coming again? Was Jane Austen a creep? (Probably.)

From a purely audio/visual perspective, it’s kind of brilliant. This person has found the perfect visual accompaniment for “Creep.” Look closely: There’s a lot of sad gray in the color palette, and the intermittent shaky, Alfonso Cuarón-esque camera work is dead on for the quavery vocals and guitars. This is especially prominent in the culminating carriage scene at the end of the video, which might be the single greatest image/music match-up I’ve ever seen.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this video, though, is how it captures the spirit of Jane Austen herself, rather than the overwrought, blatantly fictionalized movie adaptation of her life to which it is paying tribute. Because you know Jane Austen would have been a Radiohead fan. Side note: How much do you think she would have paid for In Rainbows?

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