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Rating: Maria Mochnacz (UK): Videoclip for "A Perfect Day Elise", PJ Harvey (UK) from "Is This Desire?" (1998)
Everything seems to be seen through the keyhole... and the eyes... My eyes... those eyes.
It's a perfect day, this, for tragic twists, it's a perfect day to die: the last reflections remaining are the violent flashes that illuminate his eyes.
Rapid movements seem to lead to an inevitable conclusion: you, like a perfect sacrificial lamb, go towards your destiny without uttering a word. Around you, time sometimes crystallizes, sometimes runs so fast that it doesn't seem to have already passed. You are subjected to emotional brakes and accelerations. Even now that your essence has remained within these walls, to relive the moment of your death. Even now that the cold of this indeterminate season no longer penetrates your skin and your bones.
You remain a spectator admiring the moment: you, the images of those who were spectators, and those eyes.
It had to be a perfect day, it was, and it will remain so simultaneously, forever.
Maria Mochnacz has been collaborating with PJ Harvey for over 15 years (here a nice interview where she recounts many aspects of this collaboration) both as a photographer and videomaker: I don't know if this is the best result born from this (beautiful) friendship but it is certainly the one where images and words most harmoniously converge, and therefore it rightfully becomes my favorite (also for being taken from the album I love the most by the English artist). Just one question: how beautiful is Polly here?
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 A Perfect Day Elise (03:08)
He got lucky, got lucky one time
Hitting with the girl in room five oh nine
She turned her back on him facing the frame
Said, "Listen Joe don't you come here again"
White sun scattered all over the sea
He could think of nothing but her name Elise
God is the sweat running down his back
The water soaked her blonde hair black
It's a perfect day
A perfect day, Elise
He got burned by the sun
(He's a lucky man)
His face so pale and his hands so worn
(And the sky)
Let himself in room five oh nine
(As she turned away)
Said a prayer, pulled the trigger and cried
(Tell me why)
It's a perfect day
A perfect day, Elise
Ah oh, It's a perfect day
A perfect day, Elise
03 Sweeter Than Anything (03:11)
In photographs
I've seen him laugh
Hand overboard
Sun on his back
Summer was here
I remember it well
How he stood in the shade
How we both kissed and fail
How can this be
There's nothing left here
How can this be
There's nothing left here
So sad our, so sad our
So sad our, so sad our
So sad our, so sad our
Our memory, hey
Now he talks in his sleep
Says I've never known peace
And I don't know him now
He's a stranger to me
How can this be
There's nothing left here
How can this be
There's nothing left here
We were never more than a dream
Brief as summer or spring
Sweeter than anything
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