I have taken a few opportunities to praise director Mark Romanek, not for his films, but for his music videos. Romanek has a visual style that is striking and I pointed it out when looking at his music video collection here and again when he signed on as director of The Wolfman remake (of which he is now not directing… a tear).
Romanek’s music video style only sticks with me due to one music video specifically, Madonna’s 1994 “Bedtime Story”. It’s a video that cost $5 million to make and is now in the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art along with another Romanek helmed vid, Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer”. I have watched the “Bedtime Story” video so many times I can’t even count, either online or as part of the Palm Director’s Label Series Boxed Set.
So, when watching Tarsem’s recent release The Fall I was immediately reminded of Romanek’s video when a specific scene popped up. I haven’t written a review of The Fall yet because I wanted to go back and watch Tarsem’s 2000 effort The Cell before doing so just to give me a reminder of what his style was like back then. Strangely enough, I was once again reminded of Romanek’s “Bedtime Story” video and it makes me wonder, is Tarsem as interested in this video as I am? Let’s take a look at a couple of comparisons (the teaser above is not one of them, that was just fun to make).
The above comparison is what caught my attention while watching The Fall. I mean, come on, they are almost exactly the same, just reversed in color scheme. It is one of the coolest parts of the Madonna vid outside of when she is glaring into the screen such as the teaser at the lead of this piece.
I wouldn’t have written this article if I had not seen this comparison while watching The Cell last night. I believe this is supposed to be some sort of Christian symbolism based on Metatron’s Cube, both are featured prominently in the video and the film. Coincidence? Probably. Interesting? Definitely.
Okay, this last one isn’t a major similarity, but I wanted to add one more. The thing here is that if Tarsem gained inspiration from one piece of Romanek’s video then why not some of the more less obvious pieces?
One of the largest reasons it wouldn’t surprise me if Tarsem gained some (or a lot of) inspiration from Romanek’s video is due to the commonality between Madonna’s song, the video and The Cell. In The Cell Jennifer Lopez plays a psychologist who taps into another person’s brain waves and sorts through their unconscious mind in an effort to get to the root of their problem, be it a coma or in the main storyline of the movie, to try and figure out where the serial killer does his killings after he has gone into shock.
Madonna’s “Bedtime Story” and the video represent a journey through the unconscious mind of the protagonist of the song and the strange visuals are a result of that journey. The Cell has very, very similar imagery. Outside of the one example at the beginning of this article, I don’t remember any other similarities in The Fall, but the one above was striking enough for me to think of it.
I don’t know, it’s probably nothing, but should I ever get a chance to interview Tarsem Singh it will be the first question I ask him.
Now, check out the music video for “Bedtime Story” and the trailer for The Fall. Enjoy them both as I did, and yes, that is a suggestion to see The Fall should it come to your city.
