One must give some credit to the editor of this video for Snow Patrol's massive hit "Open Your Eyes". He basically went after an almost
obscure short film directed by Claude Lelouch in 1976 ("Rendezvous"), put the song with Gary Lightbody's voice and the band playing as soundtrack,
and somehow the idea of such combination worked to a great effect.
Some memories of mine: back when the song came out I had a real contempt for it as it was awfully repetitive in an irritating manner, and it
was playing everywhere (another memory comes when Warner Channel used for the trailer of whatever season of "ER"). But when I saw the intriguing
video to promote the song, the endless continuous shot from inside of a car running through the streets of Paris without stoppping, as if there were
no traffic lights, I was conquered. I always dreamt of seeing such thing in a film (back then I didn't know too many movies and my point of similar
reference was Polanski's end credits for "Frantic", also shot in Paris), and to see places I don't know in a touristic manner. That kind of observation
is fascinating and appealing to me. Cut to a decade later and I find out that it was filmed way back in time, the editor just put the music.
Yet, it all fits. Obviously that a Parisian person will know to identify what changed in the place (if it did), but the film is in such great
quality that one thinks it was made in the 2000's. My view of the song and such images goes to the sense of longing for a special someone, the ways and
miles run to reach such person and be with her/him. So, it's because of the clip that I end up enjoying the song a lot more and that's how you
"create" something remarkable for audiences, you change perceptions and come up with something meaningful, memorable, poetic and romantic.
That
editor knew how to generate something and choosing Lelouch's film to the song was key. Without that choice, it'd be another video of a band
perfoming, or maybe some storyline that would tell the emotions right on the nose, too obvious. Here, we have a perfect combination of elements. 9/10.
