Hugh Cornwell: Another Kind of Love

Jan's style of animation is very well suited to the music video format.

This is a cute little bop. It helps that the song is decent too.

Ultimately not essential viewing though, as the music detracts a little from the usual unsettling vibe of Jan's work. Not as effective as a happy uplifting thing.

While "Hugh Cornwell: Another Kind of Love" isn't a bad short film by the recognized animator Jan Svankmajer, it's safe to say I'm glad he didn't make more like it. It's not unheard of when a popular animation legend pairs up with a famous song writer to create a music video since the Brothers Quay did it a couple times, but in those shorts the music was of a mysterious quality and worked well with the surreal visuals and the style of the filmmakers. I agree completely with the other viewer: more rambunctious music like this is not at all like Svankmajer's usual style. It just isn't a good match and thankfully it was the only one he ever produced as far as I know.

It's not even that the music would have worked better with another video entirely, just that in itself it's incredibly generic and unoriginal. To fit Hugh Cornwell's song, Svankmajer's visuals have a clay woman and normal man animated in some weird room, where they make love to each-other a lot. I'll say this, it is very easy to see this is Svankmajer because of that trademark of his where the two characters combine heads when they kiss. Otherwise it is highly different from the filmmaker's other shorts because of the music...and while a music video like this is fine, it works better when the music fits the style of the animator. Svankmajer isn't about happy, he's about weird and creepy like the Quays. This is why their music videos work and his doesn't as much. But hey, the animation is still top-notch.