Hey whats up. You may have noticed (or not) that the Video Clip of The Week took a break last Sunday because I was at sea on a leisurely cruise vacation to ports in Canada and New England. I’m back now, and have admittedly been feeling wistful about the end of summer and the return to the soul-sucking day job. Coincidentally, what I love about this clip from ’90s alternative rock darlings Saint Etienne is how much it reminds me of a travel film for the exact type of holiday I just enjoyed. Because, Lighthouses.
Speaking of the inspiration behind the video, director Esther Johnson said:
“Dive” is such a summery song, and when I first heard it I was reminded of days at the seaside, with fish & chips and milkshakes. I chose to shoot the video in Scarborough, because many of the locations and features I loved there as a child are still intact: the ice-cream parlours, the funicular railway, the (now derelict) Futurist theatre, the signs. These features also link with another of my loves as a filmmaker: French New Wave cinema of the late 1950s and 1960s. The song’s immediacy and in-the-moment-ness suggested that the video’s story should take place in a single day. The boy visits the girl from across the sea; they spend the day together; they part. The various recurring motifs were inspired partly by my own memories, partly by the New Wave, and partly by the history and iconography of Saint Etienne.”
“Dive” can be found on the band’s most recent album, Home Counties, which came out on Heavenly Recordings in June of this year. Enjoy!
