Róisín Murphy 'Evil Eyes' by Róisín Murphy

Following on from her impressive directing debut with the video for Exploitation, where she created and played a fading-star persona inspired by the actresses she loves, like Gina Rowlands and Catherine Deneuve, Róisín Murphy has now directed a startlingly good video for Evil Eyes, the next single from her first album in seven years, and created another character of intriguing depth.

Again, Róisín plays a woman who clearly has a past, and is finding it difficult to deal with the everyday present. She's a mother who's unpredictable behaviour suggests a touch of madness - perhaps more than a touch – existing within a hyperreal, surrealized domestic environment. And not only does she give a riveting performance, but its directed with real visual flair. 

No doubt she's learned a thing or two along the way, making videos with the likes of Dawn Shadforth, Hammer & Tongs, and others. And she's clearly getting great support from her production team, led by executive producer Phil Tidy. But on the basis of this she has the makings of a really good director in her own right. 

ROISIN MURPHY:

"In the video this character I have created goes mad. Of course female hysteria is a cinematic cliché of massive proportions and I was able to find multitudes of references, particularly in Scandinavian films.

"I find it interesting to create videos that don't try to look like pop videos at all."

"Nothing about the visual aesthetic is 'rock and roll' and yet there is plenty of rebellion going on. I find it interesting to create videos that don't try to look like pop videos at all.

"Hopefully this will be a mysterious and disorientating experience for the viewer as we are not dealing in anything too concrete here, just ambiguity laced with black humour."