1987 - Salut (France)*  (Translation below)
"The Cure Clip Made In Cote D'Azur"
Interview; 4 pages

The Cure’s Video

" Nostalgic of the cocktails, the cicadas and the South sun, The Cure is back on the French Riviera where they are shooting, in the shadow of the olive trees, their last video “Catch”. Salut! suggests you a preview. "

The Cure have just finished shooting their new video, “Catch”, one of the many titles of their new album “Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me” which was already a gold disc before its release. And it’s a double please, double like lips, double like eyes, which they recorded in Miraval, in a monastery reconverted in a recording studio, in the South of the France.

But let’s reassure the purists (curists?) who haven’t got over the “pop” and coppery to the paroxysm video “Why Can’t I Be You”. Robert “tragic face” Smith becomes Robert “the Teddy Bear” Smith, smiling and claiming his joy of life (really!) by doing a clown-like dance worthy of the Five Stars and other dance bands (of the Saturday night) music. “Catch” will surprise all of those who await a new video in the style of “In Between Days”, “Close To Me” or the previously quoted “Why Can’t I Be You”.

(What’s written beside the pictures of the first page: Robert Smith has recently discovered himself a passion for photography. At any moment, snip-snap, and he immortalises the scene.)

The song is different from all of what Smith and his band have accustomed us. “Catch”: vocal ballad with some orchestration impregnated of the atmosphere and light of the South. By forcing ourselves a little, we could imagine the “Imaginary Boys” playing with cicadas which beat the measure under fields of vines as far as the eye can see.

The video is a walk in a garden, a lonely walk for each cure member who strolls in a flowering labyrinth, guided by sunrays of Provence, wandering from a corner of the garden or the house to another, without ever meeting each other.

Poetry and aestheticism are on the agenda for Smith who announces: «We want to make a flattering video, kind of, we have never shot a video were we looked physically well, natural and relaxed…»

This video was realised without any script, nothing about the shooting was planned because The Cure members were entirely confident in the instinctive genius of Tim Pope, their appointed director since their very first video “Let’s Go To Bed”. It’s the simplicity of Pope that Smith and his acolytes liked and he became their mirror.

«Before meeting Tim, tells Smith, we were really frustrated about the promotion of the band. I’ve discovered him in a Soft Cell video (former band of Marc Almond of the Some Bizarre label) that he directed. The night that we met, we talked of all and nothing for hours. Tim is a very instinctive person and, moreover, he feels our songs the same way that we do. It is exceptional. Before shooting each video, we discuss together of the main idea, of the feelings that we want it to express, but when the shooting begins, we blindly obey. He has all our confidence. I see our collaboration as a perfect association.»

(Under the pictures of the second page: Make-up session: «My make-up isn’t there to make me seductive, it’s more of a theatrical make-up, a clown make-up. It changes my personality when I wear it. Without it, I could not face a camera.»)

Tim Pope has also directed his first full-length film on The Cure in concert at Orange. «A very singular movie, as Robert describes it, with special effects as in “In Between Days”, it’s a strange movie, as original as “Rambo Bridge” the movie of Jimi Hendrix.»

But let’s bet that The Cure/Pope collaboration won’t stop here, Robert Smith confirmed the rumour that says he’s interested in cinema: «I would really like to write a scenario or the dialogues of a movie, a kind of documentary with a big part left for improvisation, but for now, it’s only a project. Anyway, I could never be an actor, I could never interpret a part, another character. The movie environment disconcerts me a little bit, the people are so fascinated by celebrity, I just can’t understand it. We’ve been to Cannes, during the festival, to do some promotion. It was horrible, we quickly returned to the shooting of “Catch”.»

The shooting took place entirely on the French Riviera, in a magnificent villa surrounding the well-known Bay of Angels that The Cure has discovered while walking. They immediately decided that the video would be shot there, in this gorgeous house belonging to the great artist, Gisèle Paul-Tissier, who just gave that propriety to the Harpa Foundation to create a music museum. In which we will certainly find traces of the passage of The Cure.

 Thanks to (Charline CN) for TRANSLATING.