Music videos that rip-off classic films

Definite Wicker Man vibe in Rabbit Heart:



Here's the delectable Miss Leigh in a hardcore Vertigo ripoff:



Jennifer does a great imitation of Kimmy's silly walk. :)

Meant as one long tribute to Georges Méliès.

Funny how everyone knows Méliès's imagery, but not his name.

Has any other once-prominent filmmaker disappeared so completely?

Erica Ambler wrote:

Funny how everyone knows Méliès's imagery, but not his name.

Has any other once-prominent filmmaker disappeared so completely?

Howard Hawks might in another 15-20 years... Ironically, his cross-genre versatility might hurt his legacy. Both Hitch and Ford's movies became genres onto themselves.

Lots of references in this by Ultravox. Repulsion in particular....

I'm pretty sure that A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is the most ripped-off film in music videos.

Might want to put on some earmuffs...















Says something about the visual lasting power of the classic Korova Milk Bar deep focus tracking shot.

And of course Heaven 17 took their name from Clockwork Orange.

Plus the once great Korova Records.

It'd make an interesting paper. Definitely not what Burgess intended.

Plus that piss-poor musical version that the Messiah Bono knocked out.

Burgess said it best. "Neo-wallpaper."

Another crappy band referencing Kubrick.



What, no steadicam???!!!

This one rips off references the banned 1976 French film - C'ÉTAIT UN RENDEZ-VOUS, that got its director Claude Lelouch arrested.





The difference key is, the music video lacks any of the original's sense of danger.

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse - Propaganda

Look out for Vladek Sheybal.

Very engaging. I wish Anton Corbijn had stuck to music videos.

Another Hitchcock homage, this time to Psycho.



The programmer on this was Richard James Burgess, one of the most prominent record producers of the 1980s.

I've heard that Burgess's THE ART OF RECORD PRODUCTION is pretty good. Rare for a music producer to write a book on the art form. Usually they just do ghost-written autobiographies.

Here's one from Ambler's favourite singer/song - Janalle Monae's Tightrope. The hooded figures with mirrors for faces towards the end of the video, are a reference to Maya Deren's 1943 short film MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON. A very rare example of a female avant garde director.

Sharky wrote:

Here's one from Ambler's favourite singer/song - Janalle Monae's Tightrope.

Never heard of her. Actually, Ambler's favourite singer is Karen Carpenter, but don't tell anyone. She's terribly unfashionable despite dying young, normally a prerequisite for immortality.

Er ...

Erica Ambler wrote:

Never heard of her.

That was meant to be irony. You said you listened to Tightrope in another thread, and told us you wanted your money back.

Karen Carpenter was something else. Like Janis Joplin, she died young, as has since gone out of fashion. People today are used to over-production.

Love her haunting vocals on Goodbye to Love.

Repulsion ripped off again.

Vienna by Ultravox was based on The Third Man apparently.

'The Thin Wall' has already made an appearance in this thread as yet another Repulsion ripoff. Many years ago Midge Ure spoke of making a feature film with Chris Cross. Whatever happened to that?

No idea. I've always thought Ultravox would make a great soundtrack for some film.

They've got a new album out soon. That reminds me...

Ravenstone wrote:

I've always thought Ultravox would make a great soundtrack for some film.

A Slovakian porno.

I'd buy it.

Ravenstone wrote:

They've got a new album out soon. That reminds me...

Really? I thought they split again after the lacklustre ticket sales on their last tour.