Video Information

Information

  • Member: TaranT
  • Studio: Studio Tarantella
  • Title: Portraiture
  • Premiered: 2003-05-16
  • Categories:
  • Song:
    • Alizee L'Alize
  • Anime:
  • Participation:
  • Comments: CD: Gourmandises by Alizée, Polydor (2000)

    Awards: Best Romantic, Anime North 2003

    **************
    NOTE: this is a French song with French lyrics. And...there is no (intentional) lyric sync.

    There are two ways to view this video. The first - and this is the way I look at it - is to see the pink-haired character ("Utena") as a guy. I chose the footage to avoid all views of this character as a girl - although the illusion is not 100% throughout the video. The plot can then be seen as this character proposing to Anthy who is caught up in her own dream of true love. In the middle section I try to hint at the uncertainty of commitment (that "C" word) that both of them have to face when their dreams come true.

    The other way to watch "Portraiture" is to see Utena as the young woman she was written to be. In this case you're back in the sexually ambivalent, somewhat lesbian world-view of the original movie. Which is not necessarily a bad thing storywise. This video simply gives another side story to the original. A little odd, perhaps, but no more strange than the movie itself.

    The title, "Portraiture", is something I chose for several reasons. One, it's a French word, but also an English word, and it's a little more interesting than simply saying "portrait". It kind of goes along with the song's lyrics which are a self-portrait of the singer (loosely speaking, that is, since I don't read French all that well). Thirdly, the title describes the editing style I used, particularly the scenes where movement freezes on a still "portrait" of one of the two characters. Finally, the video's plotline is essentially a portrayal of Anthy.

    I originally started this video with a song by Mylene Farmer called "C'est Une Belle Journée". It's a nice song, but after hearing "L'Alizé" three or four times, I decided to switch for some reason, maybe no reason at all. It was a risk since I had no idea where I was going with it. Things just developed into what you see here. And I didn't really abandon Mylene Farmer since she and her partner wrote this song, too.

    If you're interested in knowing more about the singer, Alizée, here is her Web site: http://www.moi-alizee.com/

    **************
    About the lyrics...
    I finally found an English translation of this song tonight (6/1/03). Unfortunately, the translator has not given out his or her name, so I can only point to the Web page as the source: http://www.geocities.com/myalizee/index.htm.

    All the winds sweep away the evils of
    my heart and me, I am like the wind,
    the spirit at a thousand miles an hour,
    I undoubtedly judge too quickly, it's
    ok, it's worse with this age agitating
    me so much, I grow love as well

    It is with the love of the wind that I
    love to wander, me I am like the
    wind, I embrace a whole army, of
    dreams and cornflowers, to plunge
    myself inside, I know what I know, if I
    cry all the time

    Then say, stop, to tell me that the
    wind has turned, it's not true... please
    stop, to say that adolescence is when
    one doesn't know because, me I
    found my love, it's a small success
    with my love it's light like the trade
    winds, me I say that the love is drunk
    to the dregs and all it wants is Alizée
    always...

    As the wind carries the evils of the
    heart in a hurricane whirling at a
    thousand miles an hour I am in no
    doubt that it's ok for him, that's what
    I am, with the doors of my life I
    grow love as well

    It is with the four winds that I like to
    be placed, me I am like the wind, I
    carry my secrets in the Garden of
    Eden, lengthened inside, I know that
    this hymn will live forever

    Then say, stop...

    It's ok...

    *** END of lyrics ***

Opinions (6)

  • Orig
  • Visual
  • Sound
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  • Lip
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  • Re-View
  • Overall
  • 8.50
  • 9.25
  • 10.00
  • 9.50
  • 8.75
  • 9.25
  • 9.25
  • 9.00

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