videoKylie Minogue & Jessie Ware 'Kiss Of Life' by Sophie MullerSparks fly and chaos reigns when Kylie comes to Jessie Ware's restaurant, in Sophie Muller's brilliant Telenovella-style video for Kiss Of Life. Kylie plays a mysterious dinner guest, secretly a critic out to deliver the verdict on the place run by the indominable Jessie, among an outrageously larger-than-life bunch of fellow diners. The mini-dramas of the women's rivalry plays out like an '80s Latin soap opera, with further nods to early Almodovar, and a bit of silent comedy for good measure - plus a cast from a Fellini movie - shot on authentic video camera equipment from the period, for that genuine oversaturated look. Phew.Muller's latest video for Kylie is also her second collaboration with creative director and performance director Theo Adams, after the Kylie and Years & Years video for A Second To Midnight, and together they have a devised this delicious scenario in which both Kylie and Jessie play their parts - and perform the song - with suitable relish. In fact, could this be Kylie's first role in a soap since leaving Neighbours...?Adams says of collaborating on the music video with Muller: “It all happened quite organically between us both sitting at her kitchen table cackling away coming up with this fever dream of chaos!"Adams was responsible for recruiting the amazing cast of performers in the video, including nightlife royalty Princess Julia, among others. They are indeed the Theo Adams Company, and they play such a crucial role in bringing effervescent chaos to proceedings - shot in a real Italian restaurant in London's Covent Garden, the garishly maximalist Ave Mario's.As a result of the location choice, the whole video was shot overnight, when the restaurant was closed. And the shoot itself was undertaken rather like an episode of an 80s Telenovella, as Sophie Muller explains. “The video was all shot on an 80’s news camera - the ikegami 79D three-tube 1980’s colour portable - at a hair raising speed," she says. "And considering the hellishly late night/early morning hours of the shoot, everyone contributed their finest performances.”Apart from the necessary element of chaos - which was possibly quite easy to achieve - the whole kaboodle plays to the artists' strengths. The food connection works for Jessie Ware (cookery writer and podcaster as well as consummate soul singer) and the outrageously camp scenario obviously fits the Kylie iconography like a glove. But not only is this arguably the campiest video she's ever done, she looks utterly iconic in this. And she is funny. As has been pointed out elsewhere, the video is also a haute couture spectacle - with the leading ladies decked out in Saint Laurent and Valentino - and this certainly involved a larger than normal glam squad. And it culminates with a rare music video monologue from Kylie, who reads out her five-star review of the restaurant as she types it up on an old typewriter. Well, she's tapping the keys anyway...It's so good. And after this, apparently there's a Kylie collab with disco queen Gloria Gaynor to look forward to...
Promonews - 18th Nov 2021