Music Video
This 5:23 video was directed by Laurent Boutonnat who also wrote the screenplay. This Requiem Publishing production was shot for two days in studios of Stains, France, and cost only about 30,000 euros, as some of the money was being saved for the next video, "Pourvu qu'elles soient douces". It is a tribute to Walt Disney's animated feature, Bambi. The video was the singer's favourite at the time, and was her sole one in sepia tone. It was broadcast for the first time in the television show Top 50 on Canal+ a few weeks after the single release. The scene of the drowning, shot in the same pond and with almost the same team as that for "Plus grandir", was very difficult to film because the singer was then afraid of the water. Farmer said in an interview that the sobriety of the clip was well suited to this song.
The video is singular amongst Farmer's videos of the time, as it does not have a particular storyline: At the beginning of the video, the snow falls on a black background. An owl appears on a tree while the full moon illuminates the scene. Farmer has a go on a swing, while a deer looks at her. A drop of water falls into a puddle reflecting the moon. Then dressed in a long black coat, the singer walks in the snow. Lying on the floor next to the deer, she gets up and looks at the animal. When the refrain begins, Farmer, nude and in profile view, falls back several times. Then she goes down again next to the deer and gets up with her face covered with mud. She is then in the water in which she performs a gruesome dance (this dance was also performed in "Pardonne-moi") and eventually drowns. At the end of the video, the owl flies and the snow starts again to fall.
The video could evoke the life cycle. According to journalist Caroline Bee, the "melancholy tone is accentuated by the cold colours". The "owl could refer to a double meaning: the first is the idea of wisdom and a guiding presence in the black ( the melancholy of ideas sung by the artist), but an animal that opens eyes to the harshness of life and the temporary nature of things". Magazine Top 50 gave a positive review of the video, saying it "is both simple and technically impeccable. Lights, movie camera movements, framing, everything works towards setting up on the screen the atmosphere of sadness and melancholy expressed through song."
The video for the 1997 single release was composed of images from the 1996 tour.
Read more about this topic: Ainsi Soit Je... (song)
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