Strange Currencies
From Videoville
artist: R.E.M.
director: Mark Romanek
label: Warner Bros.
year: 09.29.94
treatment
dark night rain slicked streets abandoned buildings, alleys, and warehouses an old unmarked police car (chevy impala or malibu) primer gray big chrome side-mounted police light
the car is parked in an empty alley doors flung wide like dark wings the brights are on pointed at r.e.m. as they play with great passion they are set up against a shiny black wall a ribbed metal garage door they are lit by the headlights too bright at the waist nuclear guitars their faces in shadow a strange and lonely sight
we also see them drive peter, bill, mike, and michael a small photo of a girl is taped to the dashboard
the car cruises slowly like a predator or a ship at sea
the searchlight scans the streets it illuminates too bright crevices, doorways, walls, buildings, windows
michael peers out through the rear window through beads of rain singing (only sometimes)
passing people mostly kids lost, strange, wide-eyed like nocturnal animals
a kid grabs onto the rear bumper rolls along on a skateboard then peels off into the night another girl (not “the one”) climbs onto the hood she rides along in the spotlight glare for half a block
a man squeegees the rain from the windshield eerily reflected in the searchlight glow
they drive on beginning to lose hope
the searchlight finds more lonely people: a man alone in a small diner a hooker some lost businessman a guy in a phone booth the florescent donut above him pulses like a heartbeat of light
they roll along parallel to a boy running furiously, joyously
leaping ballet-like punching the air, like a shadow boxer
then, at a corner he turns off and is engulfed by the night
they pass another empty doorway
from inside the searchlight glares and silhouettes a girl in a vestibule
the car moves on as before
we see the girl from the picture as she emerges from the darkened doorway the one that they just passed
she is beautiful, odd, soulful
she watches the car with the searchlight with the four men inside drive away into the first hint of dawn
it rolls away over dirty puddles on beams of light like a ufo they never find her
© mark romanek / satellite films | 09.29.94
