Pagan Poetry
Directed by Nick Knight
Starring Bjork
“pagan”
Remember all the controversy over some of Madonna’s videos? What exactly was the problem with “What It Feels Like For a Girl”? If people had kittens over that, wait until they get a look at Bjork’s new video, “Pagan Poetry.” Of course, it has zero chance of being shown unaltered on MTV. The video starts as a mix of abstract animation and close up footage of Bjork. Pretty standard stuff. But what was that? Was that a shot of a needle stringing pearls onto someone’s skin? And a bit later, a close up of a woman’s nipple being pierced? As the song gets into its heart, Bjork appears on screen corseted, topless, with pierced nipples and pearls sewn into her flesh, which creates a striking and even shocking visage. As the song ends with the plaintive wail of “she loves him,” the video ends with an even more unnerving image of Bjork’s back pierced with large rings and laced like the laces of a corset. For all of the startling imagery, “Pagan Poetry” fits the song very nicely. This video really has no chance to be seen on MTV, but may see a video release. For now it’s showing at some Landmark Cinema theaters and is peppered around the Internet, most notably at her Web site.
