Music Video: The spooky story behind Sharon van Etten's new video

Date
10 April 2014

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Beautiful video here from the mystic Brooklyn siren that is Sharon van Etten. It was directed by Michael Palmieri whose impressive back-catalogue of music videos includes the likes of The Strokes, Belle and Sebastian, Foo Fighters and Beck. In this video for Sharon he’s taken her song title Taking Chances quite literally, setting her in a spiritual environment surrounded by smoking cups, plants, and classical, illustrated tarot cards. “When I first heard the song the lyrics immediately made me think about the opening sequence to the great Agnes Varda film Cleo from 5 to 7, one of my favorites,” Michael says of the video.

He then sent her a sketch of his ideas to which he heard nothing back, only to get a text from Sharon herself later on asking if he had somehow seen the album artwork before his preliminary sketches. “I didn’t understand what the big deal was. Finally they sent me a photograph that’s a big component of the album artwork, it’s this beautiful aged picture of Agnes Varda standing in front of a bazilion reels of 16mm film. This image of one of my filmmaking heroes has been hanging on Sharon’s wall wherever she’s lived for years and years to the point where it’s all tattered and weather-worn.” Uh, what? Now that is spooky.

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Sharon van Etten: Taking Chances

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Sharon van Etten: Taking Chances

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Sharon van Etten: Taking Chances

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Sharon van Etten: Taking Chances

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Sharon van Etten: Taking Chances

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About the Author

Liv Siddall

Liv joined It’s Nice That as an intern in 2011 and worked across online, print and events, and was latterly Features Editor before leaving in May 2015.

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