Kasper Häggström's channels some 20th century greats - Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, Tony Hancock - in a masterclass of comic absurdity and stark relatability for Squid, graced by a wonderful performance by Charlotte Ritchie.To explain the storyline of the video for The Blades could be regarded as an unnecessary spoiler. But suffice to say that a credible conceit - when a boy unspools hundreds of tickets from a waiting room ticket dispenser and departs the scene with them in his backpack - is the jumping off point for a brilliant, entirely unspoken performance from Ritchie, caught in the Kafka-eque twisted logic of the institution in which she enters.As well as Häggström's superb direction of the actors - Tamsin Heatley is also marvellous as an indomitable bureaucrat - and deadpan visual comedy, the viewer is also challenged to find something darker lurking underneath. What is it about the entrance/exit to the building that keeps drawing Ritchie's and the camera's eye? And once she leaves her purgatory, is this the same world as before she went in?Kasper Häggström at his brilliant best. Indeed, even with the great work for Kelly Lee Owens, Radiohead and others, this actually may be his very best video.
David Knight - 6 days ago