Duran Duran (1983 video)
| Duran Duran | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Video by | ||||
| Released | March 1983 | |||
| Recorded | 1981–1983 | |||
| Genre | Dance, new wave | |||
| Length | 55 min | |||
| Label | PMI | |||
| Director | Russell Mulcahy, Perry Haines, Ian Emes, Godley & Creme | |||
| Producer | Duran Duran | |||
| Duran Duran chronology | ||||
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Duran Duran is a video compilation, by the band of the
Background
The planning for the "video album" had begun early in the band's career, as Duran Duran and their management realised the power of video as an artistic marketing tool.[1] Some of the videos shot during this period (1981–1983) were for songs never released as singles, including "Lonely in your Nightmare", "Night Boat" and "The Chauffeur".[1]
The release date, March 1983, was chosen to coincide with the promotion of the band's No. 1 single "Is There Something I Should Know?" and the American re-issue of their first album, Duran Duran.[1]
Future filmmaker Russell Mulcahy directed the majority of this "travelogue-style" collection of videos, featuring exotic locations and cinematic style that made Duran Duran's name as a video band. Videos for tracks such as "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Save a Prayer" were showpieces of this style.[1]
Prior to the video album's release, the "video EP" Duran Duran Video 45 came out in two versions. The first one had the "clean" or "day version" of "Girls on Film" alongside "Hungry Like The Wolf", while the other had the uncensored "night versions" of each.[1]
In February 1984, the video album Duran Duran won a
The collection was originally released with stereophonic sound on LaserDisc (the original optical disc format) and Capacitance Electronic Disc formats, as well as in the Beta Hi-Fi and VHS Hi-Fi videotape formats. It has yet to be released on DVD, although Sing Blue Silver, Duran Duran's 1984 tour documentary, and Arena, a 1985 long-form music video/concert film, both have been.[1]
The videos
"Rio" (Russell Mulcahy)
Duran Duran travelled to the island of
"Planet Earth" (Russell Mulcahy)
Fairly primitive by the band's later standards, the video was shot on a sound stage at
"Lonely in Your Nightmare" (Russell Mulcahy)
The video begins with Le Bon finding an old photograph of the aforementioned freeze-frame closing of the "Planet Earth" video on the floor of an abandoned building in London. The scene segues into a lovely yet melancholy album track containing a series of colour sections, in which a beautiful woman in a flowing dress wanders about the tropical settings of Sri Lanka, drawing the attention of various band members. Many of the scenes are shot across the Unawatuna Bay from Galle Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and of the mansion at Taprobane Island further along the southeast coast. [1] The elusive woman appears again in black-and-white scenes filmed in London, disappearing whenever the band members turn to look for her. The music for the video is the David Kershenbaum re-mix of the studio track, which contains an alternate chorus lyric in the closing section of the song.
"Careless Memories" (Perry Haines)
The video was filmed in a decorated flat and on the streets around London's Soho. The band members talk and laugh while Le Bon sings savagely to the camera. The video was re-edited for the video album, with some scenes replaced.
"My Own Way" (Russell Mulcahy)
The video was filmed in a St. Johns Wood studio that was decorated entirely in red, black and white. The band performs the fast-paced song in close-up, while flamenco dancers twirl in the background and a colourful parrot sits on the synthesisers, pecking at the keyboardist's fingers.
"Hungry Like the Wolf" (Russell Mulcahy)
The lush and cinematic video filmed in Sri Lanka was filled with shots of jungles, rivers, elephants, cafes and marketplaces evoking the exotic atmosphere of swashbuckler adventure films like Gunga Din and Raiders of the Lost Ark. The storyline reflects the lyrics "I'm on the hunt, I'm after you," with Le Bon pursuing a tiger-like woman through obstacles in the jungle, culminating in a final chase and struggle in a clearing. In the meantime, other band members hunt for Le Bon. One shot of Le Bon's head rising out of the water in slow motion (it was actually filmed backwards) is an homage to an identical shot in Apocalypse Now. Scenes were shot at the night markets of the capital city of Colombo, the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage and Yala National Park, home to much of Sri Lanka's leopard population, as reflected in the leopard-woman depicted in the video. The imagery itself is a reference to an ancient Sri Lankan legend of a demonic figure, appearing as a female leopard bent on seducing men and subsequently devouring them. A contemporary reference to this legend can be found in Sri Lankan-born author Christopher Ondaatje's book The Last Colonial. Contrary to the track's title, there are no wolves in Sri Lanka.[1]
"Night Boat" (Russell Mulcahy)
The video for the atmospheric track became a mini-horror film shot on the Caribbean island of Antigua. Brief dialogue before the music starts includes Le Bon's recitation of one of Mercutio's speeches from Romeo and Juliet. Band members gather in a small beach village as the sun sets, only to be separated and set upon by zombies one by one, until the ragged night boat arrives to carry Le Bon away. It is possible that this video is a homage to the Italian horror film Zombi 2, with settings and zombies that look very much like those in the film. This video was filmed in May 1982, a year before Michael Jackson began working on the video "Thriller", which also featured zombies.
"Girls on Film" (Godley & Creme)
The hit single was accompanied by an audacious video filmed at
- Two models in sheer black spaghetti straps to reveal a wayward nude breast. Afterward, they kiss and return to their dressing room and pour champagne on each other's cleavage.
- The next scene seems a closeup from behind of her mawashi loincloth affords a fetishistic view of her firm and shapely bare buttocks. In the confrontational tachi-ai stance, she seizes her opponent by the shoulder and flips him forward head-over-heels. He somersaultsand lands on his backside with a resounding thud and she gives the ceremonial rei salutation (i.e., a bow) and walks away victorious.
- A garter suspenders and sheer white stockings administers a full-body hot-oil massage to the humiliated male sumo wrestler on a steam-bathtable.
- A sexy blonde in a black male model who is fetishistically costumed as an equine. She later soaps his undulating semi-nude body with a wet sponge and then leads him on a leash while he cavorts behind her.
- A model wearing a blow dryerbefore rubbing ice cubes on her nipples closeup.
- A brunette model removes her water hose.[1]
"Save a Prayer" (Russell Mulcahy)
"Save a Prayer" was also filmed among the jungles, beaches, and temples of Sri Lanka. Band members sing the song while interacting with the Sri Lankan people around their tents and fishing boats on the beach, much of which is shot at Unawatuna and Talpe, on the south coast. Le Bon slow dances with, and attempts to woo, a beautiful woman who eventually leaves him. Scenes of band members atop the rock fortress of Sigiriya and among the ruins of a Buddhist temple at Polonnaruwa are intercut with images of the island and its people. The band made the ascent to the top of Sigiriya by helicopter. The fishing boats depicted are still used today, and the general scenery of the Unawatuna beach areas remains much as it did when the video first aired.[1]
"The Chauffeur" (Ian Emes)
This video is the only one on the album in which the band do not appear at all. It was filmed around
"Is There Something I Should Know?" (Russell Mulcahy)
The much-played video features colour clips of the band members in blue shirts with tucked-in white ties, interspersed with
Track listing
- "Rio" (Antigua) – 5:02
- "Planet Earth" – St John's Wood) (3:49
- "Lonely in Your Nightmare" (London and Sri Lanka) – 4:49
- "Careless Memories" (Soho) – 3:40
- "My Own Way" – St. Johns Wood) (3:33
- "Hungry Like the Wolf" (Sri Lanka) – 3:37
- "Night Boat" (Antigua) – 5:11
- "Girls on Film (Uncensored)" (Shepperton Studios) – 6:11
- "Save a Prayer" (Sri Lanka) – 6:03
- "The Chauffeur" (Uncensored) (London) – 4:57
- "Is There Something I Should Know?" (London) – 4:25