Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a pop-up book? This turbulent little music video about faith, paranoia and fear of air travel is guaranteed to induce motion sickness. “Pavlov’s Bell” is from Aimee Mann’s 2002 album, Lost In Space and the lyrics tell a tale of woe in flight.
We don’t really review music videos too often here at FilmThreat.com, I mean, most music videos today are completely forgettable, but this one deserves special attention for several reasons.
First, Aimee Mann is a favorite here, not only because of her amazing musical contributions to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, but because she is writing, performing and producing some of the best music today, bucking trends and sticking steadfast to her personal vision.
Two, because Evan Mather is also a FilmThreat.com favorite having made a series of bizarre animated shorts from Vert to Le Pantless Menace to his most recent to hit the festival circuit, Bodybags.
Third, because this music video stands out among the sameness seen in the medium today. The video follows a cartoon Aimee Mann aboard a flight that seems to be made out of a pop-up book — and that book flies all over the screen with the seeming intent to make one sick. Yeah, I was woozy after one viewing.
Mather’s uses a child-like style of paper cut-out drawings like those movies many first-time filmmakers made as kids using construction paper and a Super 8 camera. Mather then brings these simple drawings into 3-D and then clashes their innocence into harsh, real-life settings. The result is unsettling in all the good ways. “Pavolv’s Bell” is perhaps the best music video short I have seen in a decade and if MTV had any balls they’d show it. Otherwise, find it online and download this sucker, just have a barf bag handy.
