Terence Donovan On Directing The Addicted To Love Music Video
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Terence Donovan (1936-1996)
In 1996, just a few weeks before he died, famous fashion photographer and film director Terence Donovan said: "When I did my 900th interview about that Robert Palmer video Addicted To Love, someone asked me where I got the idea from and I said, 'I did something rather odd... I thought of it!' It seems to be a rather old fashioned thing to do".
The original letter of intent for the 1986 music video reveals exactly what he had in mind with his own words.
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"This film should have a throbbing satanic quality, raw but saturated in the unyielding quality that really sensational women possess. This will be a performance video for I believe that this music is so strong and tight, that to allow the viewer off the hook for a second would be unwise. Also it must be structured in such a way that any 20 seconds of the film would be just as powerful, for it is an unassailable fact that programme editors dip in and out of videos with scant regard or taste. This can be combated by making them virtually hungry for the material.
I would simply dress a group of international models in Azzedine Alaia dresses. This designer at the moment produces clothes that make men become quite irrational and women seem to admire him. He understands the linear engineering of a woman's body unlike any other designer.
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The Addicted To Love music video: "A throbbing satanic quality"
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"I would ask you to visualise a group of female musicians, dressed in a simple but stunning way. I will organise an absolutely glamorous make up artiste. The hair should be slicked flat and shiny. I promise you a band unlike any you have seen before. The camera will be close and will sidel over these repositories of sensuality (to paraphrase Churchill). For the instrument close up I will use a female musician's hand appropriately made up. I think it would be very dynamic to assemble the band briefly, then evaporate. It would generate a great deal of visual internal energy".
Terence Donovan
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Robert Palmer photographed by Terence Donovan for the Heavy Nova album cover (1988)