{"id":495,"date":"2012-06-08T08:04:15","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T16:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/?p=495"},"modified":"2023-03-08T06:38:17","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T14:38:17","slug":"duranalysis-arcadia-election-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/duranalysis-arcadia-election-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Duranalysis: Arcadia’s Election Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Plans were originally in place to have Ridley Scott (!) direct Arcadia\u2019s 1985 video for \u201cElection Day,\u201d but when his production schedule for\u00a0Legend\u00a0conflicted, Scott suggested Roger Christian, who\u2019d been his art director on\u00a0Alien, as a replacement. Christian, the Academy Award-winning set designer of\u00a0Star Wars<\/em>\u00a0(and the future director of, ah,\u00a0Battlefield Earth<\/em>; I haven\u2019t seen it, so I shan\u2019t judge or mock, though I may quietly snicker, just a little), established a gorgeous visual style; really, you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find a better-looking video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, I have mixed feelings about this one.  There\u2019s a passage in Rolling Stone journalist Rob Sheffield\u2019s coming-of-age memoir, Talking To Girls About Duran Duran<\/em>, in which he refers, with affection, to the band\u2019s \u201cbat-shit pretensions.\u201d  I\u2019m hesitant to give Nick and Simon too much flack here, because Duran Duran\u2019s quest to synthesize pop music and art is one of its noblest achievements, but\u2026  look, Nick envisioned this video as an homage to the films of the mid-century French surrealist Jean Cocteau.  Brace yourself for some bat-shit pretensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two versions of this video; I\u2019m going to focus on the extended cut, which is about twice as long.  Granted, most of that extra time is filled with shots of Nick and Simon shuffling around spastically like they\u2019re auditioning for Sprockets, but it also has a bit more of a cohesive narrative than the short version.  Here we go:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We open at some kind of fancy party, which is taking place in a\u2026 well, I\u2019m not really sure.  Contemporary mansion? Warehouse? Catacombs? Crumbling Gothic manor?  Could be any or all.  Simon and Nick stroll inside.  Wow.  Remember their proto-Goth Arcadia images\u2014the spiky black hair, the black clothes, the dark eyebrows and heavy eyeliner\u2014in the \u201cGoodbye is Forever\u201d video?  Now crank that up to eleven.  With his dark suit and grim countenance, Simon looks like a funereal groom trudging down the aisle, with Nick flanking him as his malevolent corpse bride.  They look glamorous and evil, like a pair of supervillains from the best Roger Moore-era James Bond film never made.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Slithery men and dead-eyed women in stiletto heels and latex micro-dresses writhe about in an overheated manner. Some guy slumps against a wall, unconscious or dead.  So, pretty much a typical evening at Chez Le Bon, circa 1985.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

The boys split up.  Simon spends most of the video dancing and nuzzling with a succession of leggy, scantily-clad beauties, leaving Nick to carry the bulk of this video\u2019s weirdness on his slim shoulders.  Nick is more than up to the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick slinks up to an artist (Tony Viramontes<\/a>) sketching on the wall\u2014he appears to be drawing an image of either Simon or Nick, but let\u2019s face it, a whole lot of people in 1985 had that hairstyle\u2014and places a black-gloved hand across the drawing.\u00a0 Undeterred, Viramontes scribbles something\u2014an earring, looks like\u2014right across Nick\u2019s palm.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Nick then skulks off, pausing at frequent intervals to pout sexily and strike stylized poses.  You know, I\u2019d have more patience with this video if everyone would stop slinking and posing and just move at a natural pace.  In the time it takes Nick to glide his way down a staircase, Simon manages to sing almost an entire verse.  While Nick slithers down the stairs, someone who could be legendary author William S. Burroughs ogles him from a nearby alcove.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Yeah.  William Burroughs appeared in an Arcadia video.  Weird, right?  Sure, there\u2019s that whole established Burroughs\/Duran Wild Boys connection, but I think the common (and probably correct) assumption is that none of the Durans had read any Burroughs before cheerfully plunging in to shoot a video based on his works.  I can\u2019t speak for everyone, but whenever I read Burroughs\u2019s feverish prose\u2014the gore, the rapes, the scat, the squick, the violence \u2014 none of it really screams \u201cDuran Duran\u201d to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(I should point out that I can\u2019t say with certainty that that\u2019s Burroughs.\u00a0 It sure\u00a0looks\u00a0like him, signature hat and all, and there\u2019s a lot of unsubstantiated anecdotal chatter\u2014hi, Wikipedia! \u2014about his appearance here, but I haven\u2019t found a trustworthy source to confirm this.\u00a0 On\u00a0the official Duran Duran website<\/a>, when asked about this video, Nick brought up some of the notables involved in it\u2014for instance, Linda Evangelista appears as one of the party guests\u2014but made no mention of Burroughs.\u00a0 Offhand, you\u2019d think he\u2019d have something to say about a cameo appearance from one of the most influential novelists of the 20th\u00a0century.\u00a0 So I\u2019m putting this only at a semi-firm \u201cprobably.\u201d\u00a0 I try to keep my facts straight, but I am by no means a Duran expert.\u00a0 As always, kids: If you\u2019re writing a thesis on the boys, please triple-check everything I say.)<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Simon is still occupied with various leggy women on the dance floor.  Nick enters a dining room filled with awkwardly-writhing people.  He exacerbates the awkwardness by doing a bizarre dance routine with his walking stick.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

The choreography, by the way, is the work of Bruno Tonioli, who is probably best known to American television audiences as one of the judges on Dancing With the Stars, but who forever holds a special place in my heart for his role as the sexy pantsless doorman whom Elton tips in glitter in the Russell Mulcahy-directed \u201cI\u2019m Still Standing\u201d video.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Man.  \u201cI\u2019m Still Standing.\u201d  Now that\u2019s a video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick plays with a crystal bluebird for a while, then loiters sexily in a hallway.  He passes a crystal to a red-haired woman, who then joins two other women at a table for a game of dice.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Lit candelabra in hand, Nick slinks along a wall embedded with stone faces.  Between the candelabra and the billowing curtains in the background, he\u2019s just a flowing white nightgown away from becoming the heroine of a creepy Gothic novel.  In the Arcadia videos, when he doesn\u2019t have a gaggle of other Durans around to dilute him, Nick\u2019s dazzling, glorious oddness comes out front and center.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Simon glowers in front of some runes.\u00a0 Due to my Nickcentric worldview, I seem to be giving Simon the short end of the stick here, which is a shame\u2014he looks fantastic, he sounds great, and he\u2019s showing lots of personality and charisma.\u00a0 It\u2019s just\u2026 great merciful Zeus, just\u00a0look\u00a0at Nick in this video.\u00a0 Much as with \u201cThe Flame<\/a>\u201d and \u201cGoodbye is Forever<\/a>,\u201d he\u2019s operating on his own astral plane of bizarre awesomeness.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Because things haven\u2019t been quite strange enough thus far\u2026  Four shirtless, muscular men with horse heads rise up from smoke-billowing trapdoors.  While the shadow of one of the man-horse hybrids looms large on the wall behind him, Nick plays toreador with a short-skirted partygoer.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

On\u00a0the Duran Duran website<\/a>, Simon and Nick point out that this man-horse business is a reference to\u00a0a scene in Cocteau\u2019s\u00a0Testament of Orpheus<\/a>.\u00a0 Totally true.\u00a0 100% accurate.\u00a0 Still, this is tickling some memory cells.\u00a0 Half-naked muscular men wearing horse heads, cavorting with attractive women in a sexualized manner\u2026\u00a0 Haven\u2019t we seen this someplace before in a Duran-related context?<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Ah, yes.\u00a0 There we go.\u00a0 The \u201cGirls on Film<\/a>\u201d video.\u00a0 Once is a Cocteau tribute; twice is a fetish.\u00a0 Okay, boys, time to \u2018fess up.\u00a0 Whose personal kink is this?\u00a0 Simon?\u00a0 Nick?\u00a0 This is yours, Nick, right?<\/p>\n\n\n

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

(Unsubstantiated \u201cElection Day\u201d rumor #2: Word has it that one of the horse-man hybrids is played by burly comedic actor Patrick Warburton, Paddy on Seinfeld and the star of the live-action Tick series.  Once again, I can find no reputable source to confirm this \u2014 hell, I didn\u2019t even find this on Wikipedia; this came straight from the mouths of YouTube commenters \u2014 but it\u2019s so delightfully random that I really hope it\u2019s true.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s still more of this video to get through, but since it mostly consists of close to three minutes of Simon and Nick bopping and gyrating in a stilted, robotic manner, I\u2019m going to wrap this up quickly and end it here.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

It\u2019s just kinder that way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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