Camille Dauteuille and Clément Dozier - aka AB/CD/CD - return to music videos with a real bobby dazzler for indie vet Tim Burgess's Empathy For The Devil.And as the songtitle suggests, this provides an intriguing twist on our usual take on The Horned One, in an ambitious narrative featuring Charlie Cattrall as a mischievous but surprisingly mortal Beelzebub.This particular Devil, somehow called up to Earth by a bride on her wedding day, and causing a right royal ruckus at her party, is an attention seeker with some underlying behavioural issues. Burgess provides a watchful eye over him, as we find out about the unhappiness behind his naughtiness, and his true role is revealed. This devil is a whipping boy for human frustration and frailty - and Burgess is able to show him sympathy, and possibly empathy too.Produced and shot in Belgium, photographed by DoP Sander Vandenbroucke (in 1.666 ratio), this freewheeling comic fantasy works really well with the jaunty folk-rock of Empathy Of The Devil. And with their background in conceptual, visual effects-based work, it also serves notice that AB/CD/CD have come of age as exciting storytellers.
David Knight - 14th Feb 2020