Rabbit in Your Headlights (music video)

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Denis Lavant in the "Rabbit in your headlights" video

The promotional video for "Rabbit in Your Headlights" by the British electronic duo UNKLE premiered in November 1998 and was directed by Jonathan Glazer. The song "Rabbit in Your Headlights", featuring Radiohead's Thom Yorke on guest vocals, is on the album Psyence Fiction. The critically acclaimed video won the MVPA's Best International Video of the Year Award in 1999. In 2006, Stylus Magazine ranked it number one on their list of the Top 100 Music Videos of All Time. It is anthologised on the DVD Directors Label, Vol. 5: The Work of Director Jonathan Glazer.

[edit] Description

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The video uses a technique which Glazer would later use for the "A Song for the Lovers" video, being shot in real-time and allowing the diegetic sounds produced by objects and characters to be audible above the music. It differs from that video in that the music itself is extra-diegetic.

It stars Denis Lavant as a middle-aged man wearing a heavy parka and walking along the middle of the road in a busy car tunnel. He appears to be out of his mind, mumbling and shouting incoherencies, only occasionally including intelligible words such as "Cristo" and "shimmer!" Some of the cars honk at him and swerve out of his way. All of a sudden a car hits him from the side, and he is left on the ground. The car continues its course without stopping or slowing down. After a while, the man stands up and starts walking again as if nothing had happened. Then another car hits him; this time the hit occurs straight on and sends him flying a couple of feet. A passing motorist watches with contempt as the man rolls in the street. The man gets up again. A car swerves by and slows down alongside the man. The driver and a passenger, played by UNKLE's James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy, try to talk to him, asking where is he going. The man pays no attention and continues walking and talking to himself. The driver soon tires of this and drives away. Another car hits the man, and he gets up almost instantly. The madness which this man is apparently suffering from gets more acute as he grabs his face and moves erratically. More accidents occur, some cars honk, some cars swerve out of the way — but none stop.

The man removes his parka and throws it on the ground. He is wearing nothing underneath, and we see his chest covered with bruises and cuts. Then, as the song's beat stops, leaving just a piano playing, the man stops as well. He smiles and opens his arms in a crucifix-like position. A car is coming his way and makes no intention of stopping. The car hits the man, but instead of the man being thrown into the ground again, the car is destroyed upon impact.