Tuesday 22 June 2010

Fever

To celebrate yesterday's Summer solstice, here’s one of my favourite M videos.

With Fever, Madonna explored new grounds in her art and, along with French photographer / director Stéphane Sednaoui, delivered us a futuristic ode to sensuality.

Dita was gone, but a new - and equally - mysterious character came into life. Like a deity from a distant galaxy, she appeared in many different forms, from a silver sphinx to a pink-haired seductress, from a Hindu goddess to a flower-woman.

Sednaoui’s special effects - a first in M’s video repertoire, at the time - created the perfect atmosphere to the sizzling aesthetic.

Like everything else from the Erotica period, this was avant-garde at the highest level - and this is why the majority couldn’t get it. Amazingly, this was considered the one of M’s least favourite videos, even by the fans...

I was 15 when I watched it for the first time and was totally blown away. Even today, I watch it with the same sense of wonderment and intrigue. The red-tongue scene is one of the best video openers ever.

What a lovely way to burn…







Fever
Director: Stéphane Sednaoui
Producer: Line Postmyr
Director of Photography: Darius Khondji
Editor: Olivier Gajan
Production Company: Propaganda Films
Wardrobe design: Jean-Paul Gaultier
Shot on April 10–11, 1993 at Greenwich Studios in Miami, Florida.
Premiere: May 11, 1993 on MTV.

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