Interview with Jonah

I found the different plot lines, pieced together in an abstract fashion, perhaps the most intriguing element of the entire video as it gave the song an abstract edge in conjecture with the aesthetic.

The opening shot that suggest mourning figures visiting a grave is contrasted with the plot line of the girl awakening in the forest forced me to consider the relationship between the two occurrences and the dark, almost religious nature of the song, worked perfectly with these mimicking ideas of death and renewal.

These ideas of religion and renewal were exemplified most perfectly in the apples hanging from the tree, emoting both ideas of sin and of death. The short feature of this scene made it even more powerful in my eyes as it gave me a glimpse of the theme that was running throughout while still allowing open interpretation.

The reverb of the chorus, Gabriel, was perfectly pitched against the whiteness of the dress of the young woman. Gabriel is intrinsically linked with ideas of Christianity, further reinforced by the iconographic cross that opens the video, and the purity of a woman in white lying amongst nature is emblematic of the chorus.

Perhaps the most jarring part of the music video were the clips containing the band playing live and the dark chiaroscuro nature of the lighting for the frontman was extraordinarily moving and often off-putting but in perfect unison with the darkness of the music playing behind it.

Further than this, the black and white and high contrast lighting was reminiscent of renaissance ideas of art and, most strongly, early Caravaggio frescos so this idea of religion and purity is more subtly planted in my mind as I view the video in an even less direct sense but even more powerfully.