Maria Mochnacz
A Perfect Day Elise (PJ Harvey Music Videoclip)

THE REVIEW

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?