Bathtime in Clerkenwell (2003)

The question of the day is should a music video be considered a short film?

The question occurred to me when I was watching Alex Budovsky's animated film of Bathtime in Clerkenwell for the 500th time. The reason it came up is that most people came across the movie, then fell in love with the music and then tracked down the Real Tuesday Weld album it comes from (I Lucifer). The notion of would you consider it a promotional film or just a film haunted me.

While technically the videos are short films, for the purpose of this discussion I would argue that any film that is trying to do more than just present the band in concert is a short film worth at least covering. Would I actually do so here at Unseen? Probably not. The film would have to do something extraordinary for me to do so.

Bathtime does something extraordinary. Its glorious monochromatic animation marries beautifully with the song to become something greater. I mean what sort of Looney Tune inspired madness has caused these birds to sing such a peppy song while being bounced around all over the place. I have no idea. All I know is I love the images and I love the music.

An aside here the I, Lucifer album is inspired by a novel of the same name. The album is just a wonderful take on a novel with some killer songs of which Bathtime is only one. (I should point out that there are differences between the various releases of the Album (UK and US) and Clerkenwell (Single, CD and film)

I've placed a You Tube link of the film above, but I warn you not to play it unless you want it burned forever in your brain.