In mid-December, that used to be the time of the Jesus cover stories in the weekly magazines, until a new attraction was added a few years ago: the crazy one Space Race of the supermarket chains for the most-clicked Christmas commercial. The famous Edeka grandpa, who faked his death to bring the failed brood home for the festival, will face competition in 2021 from the melancholy Penny-Markt youngsters, from the sadly Aldi-Süd bus driver and from the Rewe family, which is only because of that Sitting so cheerfully crowded at the table because she couldn’t have known anything about Omikron when she was shooting.
We don’t care at all whether anyone in the concept meeting asked what these films actually have to do with the brands they advertise for, but unfortunately it would still be interesting. Mainly because a copy of a new phenomenon has now emerged that has achieved this distinction: the Christmas music video for a song that has nothing to do with Christmas. And suddenly somehow it stops.
On the official website of George Harrison, who died 20 years ago a clip was released on Wednesday, which is declared as the music video for Harrison’s biggest solo hit “My Sweet Lord” from 1970, but is a real little novella with music and dialogue. Directed by Lance Bangs, who is known only for a few pop clips and his work on the series “Jackass”.
And because the ending is so brilliant, we won’t give it away
The plot in the seven-minute “My Sweet Lord”: An elegant, unspecified secret service sends an agent on a mission. You are supposed to find an even more mysterious something that is up there with the help of light scanners that look like curling irons. The two search a Los Angeles bathed in Sofia-Coppola late-afternoon colors, a bookstore and a packed cinema until the headquarters even send reinforcements. What sounds crazy on paper develops a strange, wonderful pull when you watch it. And because the ending is so brilliant, we don’t reveal it.
It is the first time that there is a video for the 51-year-old song, write the Harrison estate administrator. The motivation for the “My Sweet Lord” film, however, seems to be completely different: it is also essentially a commercial. In the summer a new special edition of Harrison’s famous album “All Things Must Pass” was released (see SZ of August 7th), which was placed discreetly but clearly visible in some places in the new video. The record company and heirs apparently want to recommend the CD box again for the Christmas business, and from this point of view this video is also part of a festive campaign. With two key differences to Edeka mode: It really breathes the soul of its product. And it makes its point in a way that actually makes your heart glow during Advent if you don’t defend yourself too strongly.
It’s not just a pop culture universe that is being built here
Director Bangs has well-known guest stars appear on every corner. Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars”, plays the duty officer, later “Mad Men” lead actor Jon Hamm reports from the headquarters via tablet. Jeff Lynne from ELO beckons from the roadside, Ringo Starr and sit in the cinema EaglesGuitarist Joe Walsh munching on popcorn that comedian Weird Al Yankovic sells at the counter, and then Harrison’s widow Olivia and son Dhani can be seen in short scenes. Most of the people here have a biographical link to the deceased hero, who himself only appears on the screen in the cinema: as a good-natured ghost who peeks out from among the tulips in his garden. It is not only a pop culture universe that is being established here, but also a familiar one.
But what is the thing that the secret service is looking for? It’s probably somewhere in the song that underlines the pictures. Harrison wrote “My Sweet Lord” in 1969 as a kind of pantheistic hymn of praise, and even if you are allergic to religions: This video in which the agents find happiness neither in books nor in nature, but in the midst of the funny crowd, sitting in the cinema whistling a Harrison documentary with “Hallelujah” and “Hare Krishna” – it makes you believe for a moment in the humanistic value of the Christmas message. If we’re supposed to buy a CD box for it, okay, sweet lord, we’ll just buy it.