One more day at the office. Harry Styles shows us in ‘American Girls’ behind the scenes of filming an action movie. If in ‘Aperture’, his previous clip, we saw how the extraordinary took over a story that took place in an environment as unfavorable for fun as a solitary and nondescript hotel (unless it has a balcony and a swimming pool), in his new video he resorts to the opposite strategy: introducing the prosaic, the everyday, the monotony, in the middle of a show full of explosions, chases and acrobatics.
Directed by James Mackel, recent Grammy winner for the video clip ‘Anxiety’, ‘American Girls’ advances through two narrative lines that constantly intersect. On the one hand, the action scenes starring the singer, filmed with all the codes of the contemporary blockbuster. And, on the other hand, the reverse of those images: the filming itself, with doubles, technicians, cables, waiting and repetitions that deactivate the illusion of danger and spectacularity. Magic and its trick.
The result is, at the same time, a tribute to the specialists and the technical team that make these impact sequences possible (at the end a nod to the logo of Amblin, Steven Spielberg’s production company, is included) and a metaphor about the condition of a star itself: behind the promise of an extraordinary life, there is often only routine, repetition and a carefully constructed set.
