Good afternoon, NTSIBBers. I hope you all are enjoying your Halloween and/or Friday afternoon. In the spirit of Halloween, we have a very special treat today: the new video from City of Women, for Beaufriend.
It’s a challenge: the first and second times I watched it, I mostly came away confused. So I sent the band some questions.
NTSIB: 1) What is the story you are telling here? and 2) The parts I found most – disquieting, I guess – are the lady dancing for the kid and the man with the bullwhip chasing the girls around. Why did you include those scenes and what are they intended to contribute to the narrative?
M. Nero Nava (vocals, rhythm guitar, video director): This video (like our band name) is an homage to Fellini’s 8 1/2. The song (Beaufriend) and the film share a theme–finding inspiration in our messy lives.
We directly parody and parrot scenes from the movie. The man with the harem (or rogues gallery of women) is also the little boy who was fascinated with the woman on the beach. She’s his first fascination. She also chases his older self in the harem/dream/fantasy sequence.
In a nutshell we have a character who has long been infatuated with with infatuation. Since an early age, when at a desolate beach he was alone with this woman. It rules his life. It’s his mate, his girlfriend/wife. It’s not so much about having several women as some source of inspiration (he even encounters a friend who has two women in his bed). It’s about wanting, and longing, and using those feelings as a source of inspiration. They carry him. Those feelings ultimately will revolt. Since they are unfulfilling. When he realizes this, that it’s all a play. He also realizes that he is alone on that beach… I don’t know. That’s my abstraction from Fellini’s movie in partnership with my song.
“Beaufriend” – City Of Women from VIV G on Vimeo.
Editors note: Fellini links, for context and contrast: 8 1/2 (original trailer), 8 1/2 (movie).
