Collide

Second in the series of videos for the music of Jon Hopkins is Collide, directed by Tom Haines. Frighteningly aggressive and fitful, the main character forms a disturbing mockery of sexualized dance. Appearing to relive a rave night gone wrong in an abandoned factory, she spasms and contorts in motions resembling the ballet ‘The Rite of Spring’ by Stravinsky, a renowned classical piece in which a young woman dances herself to death. There’s a compulsion here too, she appears to be a prisoner to death, to drink, to fuck, to dance. Is she escaping? Or is she trapped?

It’s a powerful film, seeming to draw influences from Gaspar Noé and Fincher. The song is described by Hopkins as ‘the end of the world’, it’s easy to see apocalyptic tones, the girl, a frantic Nero, dancing in that ruined industrial complex as the world burns.

Director: Tom Haines