Opinion Piece - Discussing the "Emotion Picture"
Let's start this week with a little experiment. I want you to sit and think what your favourite film is, or at least one of your favourites. Now think of some of your favourite scenes. I am willing to bet that at least one of those scenes has music as a crucial element of it. Quite simply, films gain much of their power from visuals but without music, they would never attain the admiration we bestow on them. That's not exactly what I'm talking about today, though you'll hopefully understand why I've asked you to think through this. Today, we are talking about short films based off of albums. Janelle Monáe referred to her film Dirty Computer as an "Emotion Picture", so that will be how I'll refer to them, just for ease. Essentially, these short films are often released alongside new albums, much like how music videos are released alongside singles, only about 30 minutes long. We're doing this today because one of my favourite examples of an Emotion Picture, Anima, turns a year old today and I wanted an excuse to talk about it. To get there, we're going to chart how artists are using this medium to create work that feels like a natural extension of the album, does something unexpected or, best of all, combines the two into something truly transcendental. I will only be talking about this with films and albums I am already familiar with so sorry, Lemonade is not being discussed, we're moving on before the Bey-hive comes for me.
We begin with the Emotion Picture that gave this genre its name: Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe. Of all the albums to be made into a feature film, this makes maybe the most sense. On its own, the album is a tale of futuristic identity, queer pride and general horniness, these are well trodden themes at this point. It also helps that Monáe is an actor in her own right, appearing in such acclaimed films as Moonlight and Hidden Figures. Therefore, of course, why didn't this exist sooner? The Emotion Picture also does something kind of brilliant in its storytelling. It is the story of Jane, a "Dirty Computer" (a word used to describe anyone who is different, in any way), who is in the process of having her mind wiped. What that means is that we get to see a bunch of music videos, whose chronology is deliberately ambiguous, where any more fantastical elements are able to be played off as hallucinations of the mind. Read it as lazy if you want, I see it as a great framing device that allows for an array of beautifully creative and unique music videos. They do all feed that wider structure too, creating a wonderful tale of liberation through self-love that is entirely in lines with the message of the album. In short, it is a perfect visual encapsulation of an album that already felt fully formed.
Moving away from that though, let's talk Kanye West. Runaway is an Emotion Picture based on the highly acclaimed Kanye album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which tells the story of a man who falls in love with a bird woman who falls from space. Now, I know what you're thinking. No, MBDTF is not a story about a man falling in love with a space bird, but both are unmistakably works from the mind of Kanye West. Public opinion on whether he is a genius or lunatic sways at a moments notice but as someone who believes in the genius path, I see kindred spirits in the projects. Both are grand, almost epic works, in which Kanye's bravado is a mask to hide his insecurities about how he handles relationships with women. The song "Runaway" (from which the picture gets its title and longest sequence) is the clear example of this, in which the chorus concludes "Baby I got a plan/ Runaway fast as you can", before going on to again detail Kanye's failings. This theme influences most of the Emotion Picture, like how the fallen woman is a phoenix. She must leave Earth and burn up to live again, or else she dies here for good. Kanye doesn't want her to leave and so she doesn't let him make the choice; our last image in the film is him, running, unsure of what his future holds. She will rise, maybe he deserves to fall. Though telling different stories, both Runaway and MBDTF initially seems like the grandiose works of an egomaniac, before unravelling to reveal vulnerability and weakness from one of the most fascinating figures in pop culture today.
I wanted to talk about Scenes from the Suburbs but didn't know where to put it, which is why this category exists. The first time I saw the Emotion Picture was about a year ago, when I really didn't enjoy Arcade Fire's The Suburbs. On my rewatch last week though, I was in a totally different place, considering the album one of my all time favourites and yet I liked Scenes about the same. For those unfamiliar, The Suburbs is an album about the misery of the suburbs, a life we strive to escape yet always find ourselves pulled back to. Interestingly though, Scenes from the Suburbs is about that but also about a dystopian police state that has taken over, seemingly based on a couple of throwaway lines from the song "The Suburbs" where the band sing about "this suburban war" and "your part of town against mine". Whenever I listen to the album, I take these to be largely metaphorical, because why would they be literal? After all, using them as metaphors to represent an inner turmoil about the world you were born into and remained chained to is a much better songwriting technique. Inherently, I have no problem with the path Scenes takes, I just think it extrapolates larger problems. When a song from the album is playing, the power of the song is able to take over but when it isn't, we're stuck with a collection of annoying characters, as you slowly start to realise that no, they're not going to play "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)". For all of that though, the Emotion Picture is able to occasionally evoke that feeling of melancholic nostalgia that is the lifeblood of the album. It isn't a clean success, but it's a bold experiment that I respect.
I'm going to get really annoying and pretentious with this category, so apologies upfront, but I think both of the Emotion Pictures I'm about to discuss are genuine works of art that combine sound and vision into something unparalleled. First, we're talking I Am Easy To Find, an album by The National that became an Emotion Picture by Mike Mills. I am actually not a fan of the album IAETF. I wish I liked it more but other than the song "Oblivions", I rarely find myself wanting to revisit it. The Emotion Picture, however, I think is one of the most resonant things I have ever seen. It uses the songs to tell the story of a life, a life portrayed at every stage by Alicia Vikander. The album is about life in much the same way as most albums are (i.e. not deliberately about that, but clearly indebted to humans existing), so to make this the focus of the film is a real jump, but a jump that pays off. Watching it again for the third time, the only real touch point I can find for it is Charlie Kaufman's immense work Synecdoche, New York. That film tells the story of a manic theatre director and his obsession with death over two hours, touching on seemingly every aspect of existence on its way to the end. In a more intimate way, IAETF does the same. In 26 minutes and 164 moments. It's the feeling of someone telling you that you and everyone you ever know is going to die, while hugging you and telling you it's going to be okay. The performance of Vikander and the on-screen titles help us along this journey, but the music, which I was previously not interested in, also cues us and does so with ruthless ease. In making this Emotion Picture, Mills took an album that I struggle through and transformed it into something I regularly revisit, as one of the most powerful experiences I have had in the last few years.
Here we are then, the reason this post exists. As an album, Anima is pretty much what you would expect from Thom Yorke, It is strange, slightly warbling and largely inaccessible to the general public. In this case, I am in the general public, the album does not do much for me. However, for its release, Yorke teamed up with Paul Thomas Anderson to create what they referred to as a "one reeler" that was subsequently released in IMAX and on Netflix. I would kill to see this Emotion Picture in IMAX. It is a strange beast, comprised of three parts, each accompanied by their own song. First we're on a train heading to "work", before shifting to a strange dance-like sequence on a shifting white platform, that itself eventually takes to the streets of Prague and Paris. Throughout, Yorke plays a Buster Keaton-esque character, bumbling through the world and trying to return a lost lunchbox to a woman he saw on the train. I love every bit of Anima but it is the "Dawn Chorus" sequence that floors me, every time. Yorke and his wife have been spat out onto the street and together, dance their way through this deserted, European land. That's pretty much it. Just ethereal dancing and spinning, set to a song I think is one of the best of the decade. The great thing about my difficulty in explaining it is that I don't have to; Anima is fifteen minutes long and on Netflix, you could go and watch it right now. I'm not even sure how to break down the thematic evolution between album and Emotion Picture. The final product is just too overwhelmingly incredible for me to analyse too much. Vague Euro-sci-fi merges with slapstick comedy, merges with interpretative dance, merges with "Dawn Chorus". As I stand right now, Anima pushes art past my critical faculties. It works on a level I cannot comprehend and that is why I think the Emotion Picture is an art form for the future. For our future. I hope.
Naturally Extending The Album
A tale of futuristic identity, queer pride and general horniness.
We begin with the Emotion Picture that gave this genre its name: Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe. Of all the albums to be made into a feature film, this makes maybe the most sense. On its own, the album is a tale of futuristic identity, queer pride and general horniness, these are well trodden themes at this point. It also helps that Monáe is an actor in her own right, appearing in such acclaimed films as Moonlight and Hidden Figures. Therefore, of course, why didn't this exist sooner? The Emotion Picture also does something kind of brilliant in its storytelling. It is the story of Jane, a "Dirty Computer" (a word used to describe anyone who is different, in any way), who is in the process of having her mind wiped. What that means is that we get to see a bunch of music videos, whose chronology is deliberately ambiguous, where any more fantastical elements are able to be played off as hallucinations of the mind. Read it as lazy if you want, I see it as a great framing device that allows for an array of beautifully creative and unique music videos. They do all feed that wider structure too, creating a wonderful tale of liberation through self-love that is entirely in lines with the message of the album. In short, it is a perfect visual encapsulation of an album that already felt fully formed.
Runaway tells the story of a man who falls in love with a bird woman who falls from space.
Moving away from that though, let's talk Kanye West. Runaway is an Emotion Picture based on the highly acclaimed Kanye album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which tells the story of a man who falls in love with a bird woman who falls from space. Now, I know what you're thinking. No, MBDTF is not a story about a man falling in love with a space bird, but both are unmistakably works from the mind of Kanye West. Public opinion on whether he is a genius or lunatic sways at a moments notice but as someone who believes in the genius path, I see kindred spirits in the projects. Both are grand, almost epic works, in which Kanye's bravado is a mask to hide his insecurities about how he handles relationships with women. The song "Runaway" (from which the picture gets its title and longest sequence) is the clear example of this, in which the chorus concludes "Baby I got a plan/ Runaway fast as you can", before going on to again detail Kanye's failings. This theme influences most of the Emotion Picture, like how the fallen woman is a phoenix. She must leave Earth and burn up to live again, or else she dies here for good. Kanye doesn't want her to leave and so she doesn't let him make the choice; our last image in the film is him, running, unsure of what his future holds. She will rise, maybe he deserves to fall. Though telling different stories, both Runaway and MBDTF initially seems like the grandiose works of an egomaniac, before unravelling to reveal vulnerability and weakness from one of the most fascinating figures in pop culture today.
Changing The Album
Scenes from the Suburbs [...] is based on a couple of throwaway lines from the song "The Suburbs".
I wanted to talk about Scenes from the Suburbs but didn't know where to put it, which is why this category exists. The first time I saw the Emotion Picture was about a year ago, when I really didn't enjoy Arcade Fire's The Suburbs. On my rewatch last week though, I was in a totally different place, considering the album one of my all time favourites and yet I liked Scenes about the same. For those unfamiliar, The Suburbs is an album about the misery of the suburbs, a life we strive to escape yet always find ourselves pulled back to. Interestingly though, Scenes from the Suburbs is about that but also about a dystopian police state that has taken over, seemingly based on a couple of throwaway lines from the song "The Suburbs" where the band sing about "this suburban war" and "your part of town against mine". Whenever I listen to the album, I take these to be largely metaphorical, because why would they be literal? After all, using them as metaphors to represent an inner turmoil about the world you were born into and remained chained to is a much better songwriting technique. Inherently, I have no problem with the path Scenes takes, I just think it extrapolates larger problems. When a song from the album is playing, the power of the song is able to take over but when it isn't, we're stuck with a collection of annoying characters, as you slowly start to realise that no, they're not going to play "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)". For all of that though, the Emotion Picture is able to occasionally evoke that feeling of melancholic nostalgia that is the lifeblood of the album. It isn't a clean success, but it's a bold experiment that I respect.
Becoming Transcendent
It's the feeling of someone telling you that you and everyone you ever know is going to die, while hugging you and telling you it's going to be okay.
I'm going to get really annoying and pretentious with this category, so apologies upfront, but I think both of the Emotion Pictures I'm about to discuss are genuine works of art that combine sound and vision into something unparalleled. First, we're talking I Am Easy To Find, an album by The National that became an Emotion Picture by Mike Mills. I am actually not a fan of the album IAETF. I wish I liked it more but other than the song "Oblivions", I rarely find myself wanting to revisit it. The Emotion Picture, however, I think is one of the most resonant things I have ever seen. It uses the songs to tell the story of a life, a life portrayed at every stage by Alicia Vikander. The album is about life in much the same way as most albums are (i.e. not deliberately about that, but clearly indebted to humans existing), so to make this the focus of the film is a real jump, but a jump that pays off. Watching it again for the third time, the only real touch point I can find for it is Charlie Kaufman's immense work Synecdoche, New York. That film tells the story of a manic theatre director and his obsession with death over two hours, touching on seemingly every aspect of existence on its way to the end. In a more intimate way, IAETF does the same. In 26 minutes and 164 moments. It's the feeling of someone telling you that you and everyone you ever know is going to die, while hugging you and telling you it's going to be okay. The performance of Vikander and the on-screen titles help us along this journey, but the music, which I was previously not interested in, also cues us and does so with ruthless ease. In making this Emotion Picture, Mills took an album that I struggle through and transformed it into something I regularly revisit, as one of the most powerful experiences I have had in the last few years.
It works on a level I cannot comprehend.
Here we are then, the reason this post exists. As an album, Anima is pretty much what you would expect from Thom Yorke, It is strange, slightly warbling and largely inaccessible to the general public. In this case, I am in the general public, the album does not do much for me. However, for its release, Yorke teamed up with Paul Thomas Anderson to create what they referred to as a "one reeler" that was subsequently released in IMAX and on Netflix. I would kill to see this Emotion Picture in IMAX. It is a strange beast, comprised of three parts, each accompanied by their own song. First we're on a train heading to "work", before shifting to a strange dance-like sequence on a shifting white platform, that itself eventually takes to the streets of Prague and Paris. Throughout, Yorke plays a Buster Keaton-esque character, bumbling through the world and trying to return a lost lunchbox to a woman he saw on the train. I love every bit of Anima but it is the "Dawn Chorus" sequence that floors me, every time. Yorke and his wife have been spat out onto the street and together, dance their way through this deserted, European land. That's pretty much it. Just ethereal dancing and spinning, set to a song I think is one of the best of the decade. The great thing about my difficulty in explaining it is that I don't have to; Anima is fifteen minutes long and on Netflix, you could go and watch it right now. I'm not even sure how to break down the thematic evolution between album and Emotion Picture. The final product is just too overwhelmingly incredible for me to analyse too much. Vague Euro-sci-fi merges with slapstick comedy, merges with interpretative dance, merges with "Dawn Chorus". As I stand right now, Anima pushes art past my critical faculties. It works on a level I cannot comprehend and that is why I think the Emotion Picture is an art form for the future. For our future. I hope.
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