Paranoid Android
Directed by Magnus Carlsson |
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The video for "Paranoid Android"
features Robin, an animated character, created by Magnus Carlsson, a Swedish cartoonist
who stars Robin in his own 5-minute episodes of "Robin." Radiohead discovered Robin
on Channel 4 and asked Magnus to do a video for them with Robin in it.
Magnus' first choice after listening to Ok Computer was 'No Surprises', but afterwards
he was happy it turned out to be 'Paranoid Android'. Carlsson said, "when I first
got the song I spent a whole day listening to it in my office. I have a window where
I see a bridge with lots of streetlights. I tried not to listen to the lyrics, and
after spending eight hours looking at the bridge, I started sorting out something.
Later I got a fax from Thom where he explained the song, and the viewpoints matched."
Thom said, "Robin is great. He is so much more then that kid who showers with the
cap on. In him I see the totally innocents. Defiance his bad habits and the tuff,
big city he lives in, he is soft and gentle. And what ever happens he never loses
his temper. Nothing affects him. He gets bossed and makes stupid things. People convince
him to swallow things and dance naked. Next morning he wakes up anyway and feels rather
okay and has forgotten last night. I wish I could be like that. Just forget. Never
really bother. It never works in the real world. When we record can I live like that.
Just get drunk till I forget. And when I get to the real world, there is nuclear weapon,
unhappy love, people who don't recycle their cans. Everything that can't leave me
alone, and things that always are going to disturb me. " Magnus also said, "I can
understand that Thom identifies himself with Robin. He is rather an international
figure. Me and Thom understand each other. We have never met, the connection is mostly
by fax. Anyway I created the plastic Hollywood-world for Robin as Thom wanted the
figure for "Paranoid Android" to move in." (from follow
me around)
Review by Karen Hands:
This animated video was made by the creator of the Robin cartoon, Magnus Carlsson.
Robin and his friend get up to many antics. They pay a woman to flash at them, buy
a fish from a pet shop (where to two mice/rats are having fun), go to a dodgy bar
where Radiohead are being 'entertained' by a man with a head coming out of his stomach,
and Robin is escorted from the top of a lamp post by an angel in a helicopter! Meanwhile,
at the bottom of the lamp post, a political figure dressed only in a codpiece covered
in spikes and a mask, is trying to cut the lamp post down. The political figure eventually
cuts both his arms and legs off and is taken away by some mermaids that are in the
river his parts fall in. In America, being the strange place that it is, the violence
of the man cutting himself to pieces is allowed to be shown, but the topless mermaids
had to be covered up. To get the idea for the video, Carlsson locked himself in his
apartment all day and listened to Paranoid Android all day. A bit extreme I think,
but it resulted in a mighty video that reflects the greatness of the six and a half
minute epic. |
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