Faraway, So Close, Video Analysis & Meret Becker Corrections!

It has been on my mind to check my names, because I wasn't 100% about the name of the Art Director for the Killer's "Mr. Brightside" (as I read on another site it was a different name) and I felt I got something wrong about the U2 video by Wim Wenders, "Faraway, So Close". I thought the singer in the video was "Natassa Kinksy" or whatever (I just butchered her name) but Kinksy was the woman in the video who was sitting down. The singer is Meret Becker. That's the one I really like. I looked up Kinksy though and she WAS gorgeous. However, I liked the soul and feeling emanating from Becker, in the Wender's video for U2.

Seriously, if anyone inpires me to get into film, it's Wenders. It's not always perfect, but there's so much...I don't want to get into descriptions right now. It's just panoramic beauty. I like his angles in filming. And the timing of his editing is wonderful...Ozu I see, but it's modern and moving fast.

I would love to work for Wenders. I would even pick up his trash and clean.

UPDATE: I am obsessed with this video today. I have been watching it all day, and tonight, I've replayed it at least 30 times or more and then skimmed to specific parts and watched segments as well, in addition. Everytime I see it I get a deeper reading from it.

There is this part, to be more descriptive, right after Bono sings, "With satellite television, you can go..." and it's after he's jumped from the angel statue to the bench by the woman. Well, the rest of the verse is "...you can go anywhere" but when it hits "anywhere", the editing goes to trapeze artists rolling up, and the music at the same time, the guitar is going up melodically or climbing rather, and then it levels and rolls out, just as the film direction levels out visually and takes the looker through the streets, at ground level. Right after that it goes to the part I like where Meret is singing with Bono on the side and I like the duality here. Very nice, and then nice posturing and emotion when she's on her own after singing with him. The music and the art just work so well together.

I love the beginning. It's like the prologue to a great novel. You know it's going to be good all the way through. The part where the movement is swaying as the woman's head nods, and then the music box played by the older man and then by the younger man, or angel. U2 music starts up.

The images of the men, musician angels, behind the younger band members...playing with the younger men, I love this. Sort of a father-son image. Mentor of course, and angel is the point, but I really think this works well. Then the part where I like Meret's singing and in the corner the young drummer is singing along. He's not just playing the drums. He's singing ..."Belfast and Berlin" with his head side to side as the drum are up and down. Just beautiful.

I like the older man who is playing the drums with the younger guy, and then who is jumping off of the angel statue. He's also in the beginning of the movie, on the bus. I'll have to watch this again to pick up more.

Love Merets hair and outfit. Top to bottom. The fuzzy sweater and wide leg pants with her hair and jewelry. It's perfect for her style and this video. I can see why Spielberg cast her in "Munich" (which I haven't seen yet).

The other part I like is the treatment of the younger blond guy playing guitar. You never see his face. He's sort of hidden from view throughout the video. But there's this cool part after Bono sings about "dressed up like a car crash" and the camera is going through a yard with old car parts lying around and around the corner and you can see, through the crack in the door, this guitarist who is bent over, and I think it's that he's dropped his pick, or maybe he's checking something, and then he sits upright to play...I just like that shot.

Lots of counter-movement in the video. When Bono jumps down from the angel statue, first he goes up, and then down, and when he lands on the bench, the female angel's head goes up. In the end, Bono is walking the opposite direction of the traffic. There's a message...in the movement.

Aha! It's counter-balance. Back/forth, up/down, young/old, Faraway/So Close

Wow, now that I've got it, it's all over the place. Black/white; light/dark; high/low; and in the song, throughout the song there are contrasts vampire/victim; demons/spirits, and on.

The older man in the beginning passes on the music box to an angel when he stops winding the box and gets a faraway look in his eyes. When he stops playing, the angel starts the box up. Later, coaches and guides the younger musician.

Oh! and the angel statue is immobile but cast with its dress flapping in the wind, and yet it doesn't move. But Bono is standing on the angel's shoulder, reverse of angel on my shoulder, and his coat tails are literally flapping in the wind and he is the live representation of the static.

After the first shot of Bono on the shoulder of the angel statue, the next angel (from Bono's band) is depicted putting his hand on the same side shoulder of the dark haired guitarist. The same side shoulder Bono used to stand on the statue. Then there is the drummer's angel looking over the younger's shoulder, but his hand on the opposite side, but looking over same side shoulder.

What's also very cool is how Meret, the female singer, at first is only singing or repeating what Bono sings to her first (or mouths to her). Until the end...it changes. He is guiding the singer, as the angel representing fronting singers. On the bus in the beginning though, he also sits next to the teen with his Ipod and headphones on, and turns on the visual for him, giving him not just music but pointing out the visual art. The two senses, visual and audio represented strongly here, in a partnership. Different yet similiar.

In the beginning of the video, the bus is going forward but Bono looks back. Turns his head and looks back.

Towards the end, finally, both the singer and Bono sing "stay" at the same time instead of separately, and then they are back to back but entwined and sing it out loud again, the climax, "stay" and then it shows Bono speaking to the student singer in a sort of "you've got it" body language, or "i've got to go" (I think this is it, or both) and she nods, and then she's on her own. Oh wait, I looked at it again. This is interesting. At first, Bono is singing the words first and the woman singer is repeating them. But then, right before they sing together, at the same time, SHE sings ahead of him and he repeats after her, and then his expression changes and then it's when they both sing at the same time. Then, it goes to the woman angel and when she casts her eyes and head downward, Bono stands up, reversing the movement of how they first met in the video.

I wish I knew what the conversations in German, in the beginning, are about. If anyone knows German, let me know what they're saying. I'm curious

I think I miss analyzing literature. Or anything in general. This was fun. I'll analyze the music side of things in this video in a little bit. Need a break from my tailbone.

I just checked out a live performance at Fleetwater, Boston, MA. It's really good, acoustic with just 2 voices and guitar. I didn't realize Bono's voice was THAT good live. It was almost better. Some of the quirks get "airbrushed" out in recordings now and then. It was performed in 2001.

NEXT DAY: I watched it again this morning. Wim uses a lot of asymetry/symmetry. I can't remember how to spell symmetry! Anyway, on viewing today I am still most impressed by the section where the trapeze artists start and then it ends after the camera travels through the street--the visual is absolutely perfect for the actual music. I could watch it over and over. And
Meret Becker--I hope we see more of her. She really has an interesting spirit or feel about her.

I want to know what those people are saying in German!

I think I need to see Wings of Desire and then Faraway, So Close. I've heard Wings of Desire is really good. I've seen The American Friend and this is what hooked me on Wenders.