I love Regina Spektor’s videos — they’re always well-considered visually, and create intimate, beautiful spaces. This one’s no exception; it is a visual ode to the collected works of René Magritte, an artist whose work compliments the message of her song well.

Well I know my death will not come
Til I breathe all the air out my lungs
Til my final tune is sung
It all is fleeting
Yeah, but all is good
And my love is my whole being
And I’ve shared what I could
If you give a little love
You can get a little love of your own
Don’t break his heart

Well my heart is bigger than the earth
And my life is what gave it love first
Well life is not all that it’s worth
’cause life is fleeting
Yeah, but I love you
And my love surrounds you like an aether
In everything that you do
But if you give a little love
You can get a little love of your own
Don’t break his heart

Well if you are what you love
And you do what you love
I will always be the sun and moon to you
And if you share with your heart
Yeah you give with your heart
What you share with the world is what it keeps of you.

- Noah and the Whale

Have you ever heard of “The Fall”? No, I didn’t really either, until I was pointed towards it by a friend of mine who was an indie-movie and indie-music buff. Tarsem Singh, director of the incredibly creepy “The Cell,” has done it again: he’s created a work whose visual power will overwhelm you.

I am a sucker for visually intense movies in the first place, but the “The Fall” has something which “The Cell” didn’t, which is: an appealing story. The little kid is cute, Lee Pace is cute, and bedtime stories are timeless, no matter what They Say.

The movie tugs ever-so-slightly on the heartstrings, but not uncomfortably, mostly because the grimness of the story-within-a-story is there to play against the treacle. (This is generally the opposite of how these things work.)

At any rate, this whole post was particularly inspired by the discovery that Tarsem Singh was behind one of my favorite music videos of all time (it was an, “OH, THAT’S why I like it!” moment of sorts) — REM’s “Losing My Religion.”

Which brings me to stage two: review of this video. I’ve always loved the song, but my appreciation of the video has only grown over time. In an era of booty-shakin’ useless videos, the ones which contain an attempt at artistry, symbolism, or any sort of storyline always strike my fancy best of all. This one combines all of the aforementioned ingredients into a frenzy of artistic symbolism based primarily on religious art, and carefully encapsulated in worlds assigned with the three primary colors. The whole video plays as a biography of the stages of faith:

Yellow: Faith, religion, Caravaggio; the Bible (or some weighty Book) appears prominently. St. Thomas sticks a finger in Jesus’ side. Water falls, and the Dutch Masters seem like they might be nearby, because everything is filmed near an open window, with flames, long tables, dripping water. Georges de La Tour would be proud, and Vermeer would wish they’d moved the lights slightly more to the left.

Blue: I do not know the intended purpose, but I have assumed “Gauguin,” mostly from the juxtaposition of the yellows on the blues, but also because of the poses and the presence of Hindu influences. St. Andrew makes an appearance, but the theme is: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

Red: Communism. According to Wikipedia, inspired by the films of Andrei Tarkovsky. I’ve never heard of him or seen his films, but the “red” scenes in the video all remind me of serious Communist propaganda art: behold, industry! The youth! With hammers! Working metal! And, red! It isn’t about religion anymore, it’s about politics; the individual is obliterated to make way for the work-driven masses, an army of Marthas.

Religion no longer plays an important role, except as the primary inspiration for what all three universes have been reaching towards: a pair of wings. In the Yellow world, the man wearing the wings is an elderly, father-of-Icarus figure who has strapped on a pair of bird’s wings which in the last frame highlight the Bible. In the Blue world, the wings are more stylistic and carefully sculpted, while in the Red word, the wings are partially made of metal and engine.

Put another way, it artistically encapsulates the religious and political collision of Western and Eastern cultures, and has as a coda the fallout of poor Russia, which was caught in the middle.

Take a look for yourself and let me know how wrong I am.