I want to have a discussion about this music video.

[LostInAnomie]

VAST - Pretty When You Cry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOZ6ptqcbUc

I've been trying to figure it out for a long time, but for some reason I don't think we're really supposed to be able to piece it all together. I think part of it is supposed to be the twisted recollection of a mad man's a crime he committed. There's a lot of complex symbols and images in there though.

Not to mention the girl in the video is GORGEOUS.

[Ohio Joe]

1. Alright... That was more then a little disturbing

I have no idea what they were intending but they should probably get help.

[LostInAnomie]

2. It is pretty messed up, isn't it.

[Dr. Strange]

3. That's like saying the Grand Canyon is some hole.

:scared:

[LostInAnomie]

4. That video is like 12 years old.

I remember watching it when I was in high school and I've been trying to figure it out since.

Good song though.

[rug]

5. Speaking of weird songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXr0XUXbRWU

[mix]

6. that was great, thanks...gorgeous

upon reflection it is disturbing

[LostInAnomie]

7. Well, I do like to think I'm semi attractive.

Oh, you were talking about the video. It does have some amazing cinematography for a 12 year of video from a relatively unknown artist. I think that girl is breathtaking too.

[jobycom]

8. I would say....

That the man is disturbed and having delusions about the girl, starting off with what he would like to do to her, but then transforming into his deeper fears of women (maybe mommy in there somewhere, but certainly a sense that he's afraid of adult women whom he sees as hags, and that he sees the adult in the child so that even his lust after the child can't be pure), then a romp through a Hansel and Gretel cabin where he's the hag (if you want deeper meaning, maybe he's afraid of aging and of the responsibility of being an adult, and that's why he fears adult women, too) and the children he has victimized seek revenge on him. He's beheaded (therefore helpless), where he confronts first his fantasy, then the reality of his fears (where he's sliced up or at least fears being sliced up, maybe castrated with giant scissors by the young girl who has the power over him), then maybe all the children coming out to pull him down. It doesn't mean he's committed crimes against all of them, necessarily, only that he feels guilty for what he's felt about them--he's violated their innocence in his mind if not reality, and they punish him for it.

In the end, despite the nightmare quality, he enjoys the whole delusion of desire and deserved punishment for the desire, like Humbert Humbert. So he smiles, and the girl is oblivious to anything he's thought or felt.

That's just from one viewing, though, so it's just a first impression. Goes along with the song, too, which seems to be about regretting hurting a woman but enjoying hurting her, too. That itself is so much a latent part of our literature that the song may be more a criticism of modern cultural attitudes towards women and romance than a sick admission. If that makes sense.

[LostInAnomie]

9. I took the older woman to be an expression of a madonna/whore complex.

Where after the virginal girl was "deflowered" in his mind she became a used up hag. The switching views of her are him struggling to hold two thoughts about a person at the same time.

My view is that he probably raped, killed and dismembered her in the woods. I think what was see happening to the doll is what he did to the girl. We aren't going to see that though because it is his fantasized recollection. The more surreal and horrific images we see could be his repressed memories forcing themselves to the surface.

The scene from Hansel & Gretel have a striking resemblance to the movie "Don't Look Now" where a father is pursuing what he thinks to be his deceased daughter (who is wearing a red hood like the girl in the video). When he finally catches her at the end of the movie it turns out to be a grotesque looking midget that stabs him to death. I'm not sure how this connects to the overall arch of the story, but there are some very big similarities.

[Dr. Strange]

10. An interview with Jon Crosby

About the song, not the video.

When you were writing "Pretty When You Cry" did you have a particular bad relationship in mind?

Yes...

Because it's a very sadistic, cruel song which shows how manipulative and fucked up relationships can be.

It's about how people hurt each other in relationships. No matter how good of a person you can be, a bad relationship can turn your whole thing around. What happened was, I was in a relationship with a girl I remember, I went over to her apartment and I told her, 'I just can't be your friend anymore or talk to you, because you're crazy and it has to end.' Then I was driving away and six cop cars pulled up behind me with their guns out. It turns out she told the police I'd tried to smother her to death with a pillow. I got arrested for assault with deadly weapon... I thought I was going to be in jail for 15 years.

Is the song a revenge fantasy or something?

No, no, it was just about how the relationship got. We were just awful . I would always try and say things to hurt her feelings and she did that to try and get back at me. The whole thing, sitting in a jail cell, showed me the darkness that I was in, and how bad it had gotten. What made it so awful was that I really loved her and she loved me, but I couldn't be with her because she was actually mentally imbalanced. A lot of people say "All women are," (Laughs) but she was clinically crazy. I didn't know because I was so young. After that whole incident, I tried to forgive her... but was just way over the line. After something like that happens, you're not feeling that kind. It's a harsh song, I guess.

http://www.ink19.com/issues_F/98_06/ink_spots/vast_nf.html