Arcade Fire “Black Mirror” 

In this video for the Canadian indie rock band’s first US single from their second album “Neon Bible”, Black Mirror channels 1920’s cinematic surrealism, using early cinema techniques like miniatures and matte compositing. Maurice, the director and art director, collaborated with co-director Olivier Groulx on the project.  

The narrative follows a Melville-like storyline, portraying the adventures of a seafarer. The video is rich in surreal, coded and cryptic imagery, creating a paranoid and claustrophobic atmosphere that builds towards a celebratory Busby Berkeley-esque choreographed sequence, hinting at an optimistic interpretation for seemingly random tragic events. The black-and-white aesthetic of the video unfolds with a nod to 1930s sci-fi and Soviet silent film, featuring original costume design by Clayton Evans of Complex Geometries.

In an interactive version by Vincent Morisset, viewers can engage with the video by pressing numbers 1-6 on the keyboard, allowing them to mix their own version of the track. Each button pushed eliminates certain elements of the song, ranging from drums to ambient synth washes and other overdubs.