Cate Blanchett Stars in a New Massive Attack Video, Which Doubles as a Short Art-House Film

Every direc­tor who casts Cate Blanchett—whether in peri­od block­busters like Eliz­a­beth or Aus­tralian indies like Lit­tle Fish­es—lets the cam­era dwell on her face for sev­er­al silent beats in almost every scene she’s in. It’s almost a way of estab­lish­ing her face as a char­ac­ter all its own, with its sharp fea­tures and con­sum­ing stare. Just above, Mas­sive Attack’s video for their new song, “The Spoils,” takes this ten­den­cy deep into the uncan­ny val­ley.

Open­ing with a shot of Blanchett’s eyes, then sev­er­al long, lin­ger­ing looks at her face in close-up and deep chiaroscuro, the video quick­ly becomes more abstract and alien as it decon­structs her beau­ty into var­i­ous kinds of arti­fice. It’s an art-house motif we’ve seen used effec­tive­ly with oth­er actress­es known for their strik­ing good looks—Scarlett Johans­son in 2013’s Under the Skin, for exam­ple, or last year’s Ex Machi­na with Ali­cia Vikan­der.

These are films that defa­mil­iar­ize their famous actress­es and dis­rupt our com­fort­ably shal­low ideas about beau­ty and gen­der. “The Spoils”—scored by a band known for their cin­e­mat­ic sound (and occa­sion­al­ly Oscar-win­ning film sound­tracks) and their polit­i­cal stances—functions beau­ti­ful­ly as a mini-exper­i­men­tal film that takes us into pro­found and unset­tling ter­ri­to­ry. This should come as no sur­prise; its direc­tor, John Hill­coat, also adapt­ed Cor­mac McCarthy’s The Road into a film from which, for all its bleak­ness, we can hard­ly look away.

Mas­sive Attack is also known for work­ing with some of the most soul­ful of UK singers, includ­ing Shara Nel­son, Tracey Thorn, Eliz­a­beth Fras­er, and Sinead O’Connor. In “The Spoils,” they col­lab­o­rate with an Amer­i­can, anoth­er name we asso­ciate with the best of hazy, atmos­pher­ic 90s chill-out music, Mazzy Star’s Hope San­doval. The results are hyp­not­ic, as in all Sandoval’s work, and lush­ly, metic­u­lous­ly pro­duced.

That said, tak­en sep­a­rate­ly, the song los­es some of the arrest­ing emo­tion­al pow­er it has accom­pa­ny­ing HIll­coat’s Twi­light Zone images. You may be put in mind of the House intro with its x‑rays and organs shroud­ed in dark­ness, scored to Mas­sive Attack’s “Teardrop.” But we can also com­pare “The Spoils” to “Teardrop”’s offi­cial video, above, anoth­er lin­ger­ing med­i­ta­tion on human iden­ti­ty and per­son­al­i­ty.

via Elec­tron­ic Beats

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Michel Gondry’s Finest Music Videos for Björk, Radio­head & More: The Last of the Music Video Gods

The New Radio­head Album is Out; Watch a Paul Thomas Ander­son-Direct­ed Music Video for One of the New Sin­gles

David Fincher’s Five Finest Music Videos: From Madon­na to Aero­smith

Josh Jones is a writer and musi­cian based in Durham, NC. Fol­low him at @jdmagness


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  • Anders says:

    “Every direc­tor who casts Cate Blanchett—whether in peri­od block­busters like Eliz­a­beth or Aus­tralian indies like Lit­tle Fishes—lets the cam­era dwell on her face for sev­er­al silent beats in almost every scene she’s in.”

    Just re-watch how Peter Jack­son used that in LOTR.

    Yes, he cheat­ed a bit by giv­ing her not one eye-glint spot, but a ring of eye-glints (Gal­adrielights).

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