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Friendly Fire, Part Two
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After listening to the music and watching the accompanying videos from Sean Lennon's second full length Friendly Fire, it's easy to tell that he is an artist who values the creative process and takes genuine pride in the work he puts out. Monday night was the official screening of his film Friendly Fire at the Egyptian Theater, where he described watching the film to an enthusiastic audience made up of much of the cast and crew as "really fucking fun."
Considering both the music and film are about Sean's real life relationship struggles (his ex-girlfriend Bijou Phillips cheated on him with his best friend who died in a motorcycle accident before Sean reconciled with him), he seemed to be in high spirits, most likely thankful that all the drama resulted in something great.
The film Friendly Fire is a compilation of videos accompanying the album Friendly Fire, and is just as good, if not better, than the album itself. Directed by Michele Civetta, these short vignettes all add a visual effect to Sean's music, getting across more of a message than simply the words and instrumentation written. It begins with "Dead Meat, and ends with "Falling Out Of Love," both set in what seems to be nineteenth century Spain, complete with sword fighting, a masterminded card game, and classically beautiful women. "Spectacle," on the other hand, takes place at a roller skating championship in 1982, while "Would I Be the One" is a psychedelic journey into a fantasy land inhabited by colorful winged creatures and six-eyed aliens.
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While a majority of the videos are visually unique from each other, each telling a separate story, the theme remains the same; the failure of love and betrayal of friendship is most obviously illustrated in the story linking songs "Friendly Fire" and "On Again Off Again," both which most accurately portray Sean and Bijou's real life trauma. And whether it's a character played by Asia Argento, Devon Aoki, Lindsay Lohan, or Bijou Phillips herself, Sean never gets the girl.
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