Vid rec: Charles Gunn meet Joe Gillis

[hazelk]

butterfly’s new Gunn vid set to ‘Sunset Boulevard’ from the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical sung by John Barrowman is a remarkable character study that weaves elements from the show, the movie and the series to make one exhilarating whole.

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‘Sunset Boulevard’ film or musical, behind Norma Desmond’s fading histrionics it’s all a dead guy’s story. Joe Gillis makes a Faustian bargain. Enter Charles Gunn.

It’s a show tune and the vid opens with the credits seeming to rise like the red curtain from the proscenium arch as the camera pans back but as things move into close up the dark and dirty LA street scene recalls the opening of the movie. Angel is a wonderful show for camerawork and the vid makes full use of this to track the alternating soaring and jittery tendencies in the music. Best though is the narrative structure, which echoes the movie’s use of foreshadowing and constant recursion. Joe Gillis sells his soul three times and ends having betrayed Norma, Betty, the girl he might have loved, and himself. Gunn is a more heroic character but the vid starts with his blood on the dotted line, and the romance with Fred is intercut with it being sucked into the void that swallowed her professor. Then Wolfson and Hart, bringing comfortable quarters with hidden dragons in the white room. An execution and Gunn’s attack on Knox blends into Fred’s fallen body. Still one betrayal to go. In the first verse the vid seems to show Alanna’s kidnapping as just part and parcel of the life her brother is trying to escape but it saves the worst till last and ends intercutting her dusting with the blood on his hands as he goes into the ocean drenched final battle.

Comments

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

It's brilliant isn't it. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Gunn who knew? But I feel your (ear) pain :-)