Björk – Isobel
Björk – Isobel (1995)
Directed by: Michel Gondry
The music video for “Isobel” was directed by Michel Gondry, who had directed the avant-garde videos for “Human Behaviour” and “Army of Me”. It was filmed for two days in a forest in Dolgellau, near Llangollen, Wales. A “long day” of shooting also took place in Black Island Studios in London on 31 May 1995. The crew used a Mitchell S35 camera with varispeed to be able to rewind the camera and do superimpositions and masks, inspired by Georges Méliès’ work. “Model Solutions”, an English model maker crew, built the harmonium used in the video, and the art department led by Joseph Bennett brought the model planes, insects and lightbulbs. The filming process was not easy, as the day was rainy, no one was quite sure of what they were doing and Björk did not like her outfit (that’s why she wears two different outfits in the video). So as to get projections to appear inside the water organ of the video, the crew used a mirror trick and filmed it in London, as the screen for rear projections was big and needed much distance. The final music video was projected in 35mm for the crew in a cinema in London; with its varying exposures, lighting effects and monochromatic schema, it resembles an early film.
The music video for “Isobel” represents the story of the title character Björk envisioned with Sjón. It tells the story of “a wild child discovering urban culture through installations of toy fighter planes”, over lush superimposed imagery. Like in the lyrics, where Björk takes the role of narrator and protagonist, she plays two different parts in the music video: Björk is seen as the Isobel who “weaves and composes this world and this story on her organ”, and as the Isobel who inhabits this primal world. Water is the primary feature of her world, Gondry using it as a dreamy transition tool between scenes.
Isobel plays a piano that is full of pipes that fill it with water. Children play in the water, and wear masks. Isobel is later shown lying beside a river wearing a dress with lights in it. She pulls some light bulbs off her dress and plants them in the ground. The light bulbs grow and act as incubators or cocoons for toy airplanes inside them. When the airplanes grow big enough, they break out of the bulbs and fly away. At the same time, numerous skyscrapers grow out of the ground and eventually are covered in cockroaches. Isobel is also shown walking through the countryside, up a mountain, and beside a river.
The video received general acclaim from critics. The video, however, received no support from MTV, as airings for both “Isobel” and “Army of Me” had been relegated primarily to the show 120 Minutes. Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine included the video in his list of the Top 10 Björk Music Videos, describing it “surreal [and] visually striking”. Ed Gonzalez of the same publication described it as “Jean Epstein-ian kabuki horror.”
