{"id":378,"date":"2011-06-24T08:26:29","date_gmt":"2011-06-24T16:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/?p=378"},"modified":"2023-03-08T12:25:42","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T20:25:42","slug":"duranalysis-arcadia-goodbye-is-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/duranalysis-arcadia-goodbye-is-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"Duranalysis: Arcadia’s Goodbye Is Forever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sometimes it\u2019s all about Nick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My apologies in advance to Simon, who is doomed to get a little shortchanged in the praise department this time around. I\u2019d feel worse about that, but I\u2019ve already given him plenty of tongue baths\u2014strictly in the metaphorical sense, alas\u2014in earlier reviews. Simon does a fine job here, but really, Arcadia\u2019s video for \u201cGoodbye is Forever\u201d belongs to the lovely and strange Mr. Rhodes. There\u2019s nothing quite like a whopping dose of pure, uncut, pharmaceutical-grade Nick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick, as I\u2019ve mentioned before, is magical<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoodbye is Forever\u201d was directed by Marcelo Anciano, who also wrote the treatments and made the storyboards for the earlier videos Duran Duran shot with Russell Mulcahy. While Roger plays drums on the track, he doesn\u2019t appear in the video. And unlike \u201cThe Flame,\u201d there\u2019s no surprise John Taylor cameo. It\u2019s just Simon and Nick, nothing more. In this case, that\u2019s enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick and Simon sleep in ornate, high-backed chairs, which are mounted upon rollers on a long track and adorned with suns and crescent moons. Nick wakes and looks around, perplexed. He glances at his watch, which runs backwards.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Arcadia<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Oh, man, I love Nick\u2019s whole Arcadia look, with the dark suit and the gobs of eyeliner and all that crazy, gorgeous, jet-black, Jo-Polniaczek-in-later-seasons-of-Facts-of-Life<\/em>\u00a0hair. He\u2019s mesmerizing in this video, hyper-alert and dazzling and delightfully weird. All the traumatic memories of his awful \u201cPlanet Earth<\/a>\u201d hair have been expunged from my brain.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Arcadia<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In the chair behind Nick, Simon is still fast asleep. A white feather, held by white-gloved mechanical hands extending from the back of his chair, tickles his nose until he wakes.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Arcadia<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Simon has finally ditched his \u201cWild Boys\u201d-era mullet in favor of a close-cropped, freshly-brunette \u2018do, paired with a tasteful hoop earring. It\u2019s a good look for him\u2014streamlined and unfussy\u2014but he\u2019s blown out of the water by the full-tilt glamour and glory of Nick. Nick doesn\u2019t often grab the spotlight from Simon, but when he does, it\u2019s hard to wrestle it away from him.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Arcadia<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The chairs lurch forward, wheeling along the track. Nick and Simon look startled, though not especially concerned, at finding themselves suddenly in motion. They glide up an incline toward an archway, then enter into a dark chamber filled with floating timepieces, calendar pages, and heavenly bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Arcadia<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Next, the chairs rise up into the air, suspended on chains. The boys float in front of a chaotic, crazy, colorful backdrop of clockwork and tangled pipes.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Arcadia<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

What does it all mean? You\u2019ve got me. If there\u2019s more to this video than maybe a hazy theme of Time, it\u2019s gone completely over my head. Doesn\u2019t really matter\u2014the charm of this video rests largely with the gorgeous production design, not with the plot. Between the vintage clock gears and the puffs of steam and the floating celestial objects, there\u2019s almost a cool Victorian\/steampunk vibe to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon, always ready to add a fun random element to any situation, launches himself out of his chair. With the aid of some sketchy special effects, he plummets to the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Arcadia<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

He lands on an inflated mat lining the bottom of a makeshift wire cage. Nick follows his example and flops on the mat beside him. They both seem absurdly pleased with their current predicament. You\u2019re in a\u00a0cage<\/em>, boys. I don\u2019t know that you should look happy about it.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Arcadia<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Durans-in-gratuitous-bondage alert! Simon is now tied to the hands of a clock rotating above a gigantic dial, while above him, Nick is bound to a swinging pendulum. It\u2019s not quite in the same realm of kink as that scene in \u201cWild Boys<\/a>\u201d where John writhes helplessly while strapped down across the hood of a car, but I appreciate the spirit behind it nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Arcadia<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Nick seems\u00a0delighted<\/em>\u00a0about this unexpected foray into bondage. In fact, Nick seems downright chipper throughout the whole video, which is a refreshing change of pace; I adore Nick at all times, but he tends to default toward pouting and glowering whenever he\u2019s on camera. There\u2019s a brief behind-the-scenes segment on the making of this video, in which both Nick and Simon appear to be having themselves a fine old time during filming. At one point, director Anciano stands beside Nick and, while the camera rolls, gives him instructions: \u201cYou\u2019re having fun! You\u2019re having fun!\u201d In response, Nick flashes his lovely and too-rare grin. This makes me wonder: In all the fifteen or so videos Duran Duran made prior to this, did no one think to simply\u00a0tell Nick to smile<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Arcadia<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Then the boys fall through the air some more (special effects: still dubious) before finding themselves back in their chairs. The white-gloved mechanical hands pop up again for the express purpose of totally wrecking Nick\u2019s meticulous makeup job. Aw, don\u2019t mess with Nick\u2019s face! It\u2019s\u00a0pretty<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Arcadia<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

(Full points to Nick for always being the first to joke about his makeup, by the way. There\u2019s a good article about him in the\u00a0June 1985 issue of Spin\u00a0in which, upon showing up for an interview with smudged eyeliner, he quips, \u201cAlthough I\u2019m vain enough to wear it, I\u2019m not vain enough to carry it around with me to touch it up,\u201d which is sort of awesome. The same article, which features some great photos of Nick with\u00a0crazy<\/em>\u00a0black-and-blonde hair, also compares him, aptly, to an expensive kitten. \u201cExpensive kitten\u201d replaces \u201cmagical pixie\u201d as my new favorite two-word description of him.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still in their chairs, Simon and Nick roll through another entryway into a chamber filled with languid, glamorous women dressed in satin evening gowns. Nick and Simon stare at the women in baffled wonder. Visibly bored, the women can\u2019t be bothered to spare them a glance. Just a couple of Durans in magically rolling chairs. Yawn.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Arcadia<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The track next leads them in front of the face of a gigantic cuckoo clock (alternate theory: the clock is normal-sized, and Simon and Nick are just\u00a0really, really tiny<\/em>), which strikes twelve just as they pass it. Somebody involved with this video had an unhealthy fascination with clocks.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Arcadia<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A quick roll through a gauze-draped fairytale garden with softly-falling snow and urns of flowers, and then their chairs come to a halt in front of a brick wall. When Simon and Nick rise from their chairs, the wall dissolves away, revealing the outer world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boys gaze wistfully behind them, then stroll off into the sunset together, which is dreamy and poignant and even sort of romantic. Then Simon succumbs to an inexplicable urge to end the video on a jaunty note. He hops into the air and clicks his heels together. Fade to black.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Arcadia<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A lovely video, strange and melancholy yet oddly good-natured. Good stuff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes it\u2019s all about Nick. My apologies in advance to Simon, who is doomed to get a little shortchanged in the praise department this time around. I\u2019d feel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arcadia","category-duran-duran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1609,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions\/1609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}