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The Spark Video |
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The Spark Video |
This video also debuted in late April on The Box, a non-cable pay-per-video channel in the U.S.
This video was also featured on MTV's Artist Cut program in May 1998, and Tori herself explains the video. You can read that here.
Click on thumbnail to see a larger image.
Kim H. describes the Spark video for us:
Especially in light of disturbing news about a stalker, i found the clip
on tori.com very creepy. I mean, it just gave me the willies to see her
like that.
So i was glad when to my great surprise the video in its entirety didn't
strike me that way at all !
In real time, as opposed to streaming video in all its choppy speeds,
and with more of it to be seen, it is much more about the subject matter
of "Spark" and not just Tori tied up in the woods.
There is a real strength about her. Somehow, even blindfolded and with
her hands tied behind her back, i didn't fear for Tori in the video.
Her strength comes thru !! :o)
It opens with the camera at ground level amid the leaves and it seems to
rush toward her mouth which is singing the opening words to Spark. Then
it widens out and we see a delicate butterfly perched on her stomach, to
me that is a definite image for pregnancy. Then the camera angle widens
out and above Tori and she is writhing on the ground seemingly in
physical pain.
It's too easy to forget that miscarriage is a physical event and carries
with it no small amount of physical pain.
I haven't seen it mentioned yet in any of the interviews, but it's a
real fact nonetheless....
We see a single boot in the open trunk (or boot, in British slang) to me
that is another pregnancy image. The car is leaking gasoline, to me
that symbolized the miscarriage itself beginning... later that image is
carried thru...
Tori struggles to her feet and leans against a tree that we later see
says "Skeeter", i couldn't help but wonder what that meant and wonder if
that might have been the nickname she had in her head for the baby...
just being honest...
Anyway Tori begins to run, as best she can with her hands tied behind
her, and eventually reaches water. By now there is a man chasing her,
his cufflinks and watch are given closeups...
Tori steps into the water, she grimaces but it's unclear if that is
because it's cold or she has stepped on something sharp. She is still
blindfolded.
Tori ducks under the water and the blindfold comes off. She makes it to
the opposite shore.
The man, who we only see from the shoulders down, reaches down and pulls
a hidden boot out from the muck. The one boot Tori had still been
wearing, when the video began. (this struck me as a definite death
image--an authority figure, a man in a suit-- symbolic of a doctor ?--
pulling something dead-looking and unrecognizable, almost, from the
ground-- muddy ground usually symbolizes fertility)
The man begins to go into the water as Tori climbs out and struggles up
an embankment trying to reach a road.
The man looks at his watch and gives up the chase. (6:58 are you sure
where my spark is)
I think this is when the gas leaking from the car is ignited by a lit
cigarette on the ground and catches fire.
Tori makes it to the road, steps in front of a car she sees coming, it
stops, there are two blank-looking blond teens inside, a boy and a girl
who look a lot alike. Kind of like Village of the Damned, the teen
years.
Tori looks inside the car, trying to make eye contact and appeal to
their humanity or something. She is at the passenger window, which is
rolled down already, and turns her back to them, offering up her tied
hands for them to free.
They just look blankly at each other and then drive on, past her.
Tori looks hurt but stoic and watches the car move on. As she watches
them go, she falls to her knees in the road.
The camera zooms in on her hands still tied behind her, there is blood
trickling down the back of one hand.
The drop of blood falls off one hand in slow motion, and lands in the
middle of one solitary green leaf.
(I think this is where the image of the leaking fluid has come full
circle. Only this time it is clear that it is blood shed and there has
been a loss here).
As the drop of blood lands in the middle of the curved green leaf the
video ends.
Many cultures believe that God is both male and female spirit in the
same being.
Since the teens in the car look almost exactly alike, except that they
are male and female, and for reasons i'll explain next, i believe they
actually symbolize God ! Or at least, a deity of some kind-- something
like the fates, anyway, some 'ghostly' being with jurisdiction over
human lives.
In Tori's accounts of the progression of the miscarriage, she relates
that the whole time she was begging for it not to happen, for it to
stop. She was trying to regain control of the situation by doing the
only thing she physically could, driving her own self to the hospital.
But as hard as she begged, in her mind the whole time, to God, to the
baby itself to stay, etc., her pleas were ignored.
In the video, Tori tries to regain control of her situation, to not be
helpless any more, by humbly offering the teens in the car, her hands
for them to free. She makes herself vulnerable, turning her back and
waiting. Not being able to see their reaction, but apparently trusting
that they will help her.
But the 'beings' (and they are pale, ghostly looking, and seem removed
from any emotional/human reaction to what they see) ignore her, regard
her plight with total indifference and impassivity, and drive ahead
(like time, like the fates) abandoning her in the road.
Then in the next image, the blood trickles down, the final symbol that
the tragedy was not averted but has been completed. That corresponds to
the real life event in this way, i think: in the real life event, Tori
begged for help but this distant being she was pleading to, judging by
the result, regarded her with indifference (in the video, the two in the
car almost look blank as to why she is even asking them ) and in the
end, abandoned her, did not seem to listen, did not help her.
In the video the teens, those eerie looking male-female being(s) (they
really do look like male and female halves of the same being), abandon
her in the road. They betray no personality or emotion. They almost
seem like ghosts. That sure seems to reflect a lot of lyrics and
interview statements from Tori as to her feelings about God.
Just a thought !
CD: So what was sort of your impression of that, uh Tori Amos ?
NGW: I loved it.
HG: Yeh. It was sad. But I liked it when she had all this water coming
on her. That was cool. And what was the bondage thing happening ?
(laughs)
CD: Well, she's been like, abducted.
NGW: Her dress was cool. It was very like, deconstruction or something.
CD: Do you like Tori Amos at all ?
NGW: I do. I really like her. I love Little Earthquakes, that album.
CD: Yeh, it's a great album.
NGW: Really good album.
(Carson Daly then changes the topic to Two Girls and a Guy)
Toriphile Chris sends his thoughts on the video:
At the beginning, tori is blindfolded and struggling to get out, as if she's trying to escape something. The knee-high boot in the trunk of the car suggests her "rock-chick" image from YKTR and her leaving that whole era behind. She can't see where she is going, nor can she find her way by touching (she's tied up). She escapes the car (where her rape occured and where the boot still is) and runs to the river where she steps in...she's got no where else to go. Could this be like the day when she labelled her envelopes with songs? Her friend suggested the piano...and then tori rises above the surface of the river - without the blindfold or ropes. (maybe in reference to "thelma and louise" feeing her as well?). The tree she passed had "Skeeter" on it (maybe the man who raped her?). Well, tori makes her break for it while a man without a face (tori's husband?) sets the car on fire, destroying the origin of tori's pain. but her pain starts again with the twins in the car deciding not to untie her. and blood runs down her hand (maybe as a christ-like figure?) These images in this video spoke out more than sinister to me. They disturbed me, brought back visions of maag, and continued to weave the past into the future, as tori always does.
Carrie M adds:
I know everbody is talking about Spark now, and I wanted to simply throw out something that everyone else probably already noticed. In the first shot of Tori's face, while she is lying on the ground, she has fangs, barely noticeable. I thought, maybe if someone missed it, they would want to take a look.
James in NY has sent the following description of the video:
I've seen the video! Its really cool! Its very moody- kinda grey day in autumn. Tori is tied up and blind-folded in the woods- lying on the ground next to a car with the trunk open. There is a shoe in the trunk to suggest she
was in it moment earlier. The car is dripping gasoline and later in the video
catches fire. She stuggles to get up- you see shots of her fingers and toes in
the dirt/leaves - then she makes her way through the woods- blind-folded the
entire time- to a stream that she enters (BLINDFOLDED!). A man whose face is
never shown is following her- kind of slowly chasing her. When she goes under
the water- she loses the blind-fold so she can finally see. She makes it to a
road on the other side. A car passes. She stops the car by blockings its path-
you see a teenaged boy in the car. She motions to have her hands untied. He
looks at a girl (she's the one driving) and she seems jealous (?) and she
drives away- leaving tori on the road- hands tied.
Details? She is wearing a light purple-ish, short dress with a mesh outer
layer that extends to the ground. The blindfold is black and lacey. There are
a few shots of animals in the woods but almost every shot is of tori- several
are extreme closeups- it actually beings with a shot that is of the lower part
of her face/shoulders- focusing on the lips- she's from left to right, not top
to bottom. There are a few long shots- tori running bye the river. When she
swims underwater her hands are tied so she swims kinda like a mermaid. The man
chasing her is wearing a dark- brownish grey suit- you see cufflinks in one
shot. The 2 teens in the car look a lot alike- facially and long blond,
straight hair.
Freedom Music Videos Limited
Director- James Brown
Duration- 4 min 7 sec
Prod- Kate Philips
Offline- Mark Aarons
Dated April 7th 98
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