• Français
• German

Here at ÉCU we haven’t shied away from bringing you awesome music
videos that also tread that very thin (and much discussed) line between
art and erotica. After ‘Baby Baby Baby’ and ‘Bombay’, a video that
pushed the boundaries even further caught our eye: The new Handsome
Furs video for  ‘What About Us’, directed by Scott Coffey.

Warning: Extremely NSFW. Seriously, unless you work
in the porn industry, or your boss is a liberal naturist, wait til you
get home to watch the following clip.

Scott Coffey is a very interesting guy, and has worked with people
like Robert Zemeckis and David Lynch (he had a role in Mulholland
Drive). After starting in Broadway, he moved onto to TV and films, and
then turned his hand to directing, including 4 music videos.

His latest video, ‘What about Us’ by Handsome Furs, is a pretty
strange head trip full of nudity, night vision, great dance moves and
outdoor sex.

Coffey defends his direction of the video thus:

I think the record is dripping in empathy and questioning freedom and feeling, said Coffey.
We’re a nation of prudes conversely wallowing in pornography. I wanted
to make the diametric opposite of porn. What is that? Intimacy…Real
feeling. We live in a world where that seems transgressive now, added
Coffey.

So according to Coffrey his video is a reflection of the strong
emotional substance in the Handsome Furs record, and instead of a fake,
staged video he is representing the music with a thoughtful intimacy,
that may shock us, but at least it’s real (he claims).

The video is well directed, cleverly shot, with some nice surreal
influences and a dark, moody atmosphere that suits the record well.
Furthermore, I can appreciate how its intentions are to deepen the
argument surrounding censorship. However in typical fashion there are
far more glimpses of naked women than of men (a constant problem that
covers the entire length and breadth of the music industry, this isn’t
just restricted to awful gangster rap videos) and is it really
showcasing anything we haven’t seen before? Is ‘Indie’ female nudity and
sexual promiscuity somewhere different to any other kind?

I’ll leave it up to you to decide, and please, as I already said, wait til you get to the privacy of your own home.

Watch the video:

Handsome Furs - "What About Us" from stereogum on Vimeo.