26 January Is For Videos: Nine Inch Nails – The Perfect Drug

Another dreary January day today… {{{{ sigh }}}} In the late 90′s, a rash of darkly themed videos became more and more common on MTV and VH1. Among the culprits Nine Inch Nails (NIN) (brainchild of Trent Reznor) stood out. My favorite NIN video is “The Perfect Drug.” The number of archetypal references to classic art, literature, and pop cultural in this video is astounding and probably explains the reason it has become cemented into my brain. Whether the references are intentional or not, I have no idea, but would suspect they are. Here is a short list of some of the references I saw. There are probably more, so if you think of some, let me know. I’ll post those you find too.

1. The opening scene of Reznor and the three men playing old instruments reminds me of Picasso‘s Old Guitarist from his Blue Period.
2. The clips of the convex mirror are reminiscent of Jan Van Eyck‘s Arnolfini Portrait or even M.C. Escher‘s Hand with Reflecting Sphere.
3. The legs behind the large vase make me think of the legs of the Wicked Witch of the East poking out from under the Dorothy’s house in the Wizard of Oz film.
4. When Reznor partially hides behind the curtain, I think of the stark directness and simple surroundings found in the paintings of Mexican surrealist, Alfredo Castañeda.
5. The “outdoor” scenes – especially the topiaries – are very Secret Garden-ish, only darker. In high school, I was in several musicals, of which The Secret Garden was my favorite.
6. The large painting at 1:13 looks similar to the work of Gustav Klimt. (Can anyone identify that one? I don’t think it’s a Klimt.)
7. The green part of the video with the men in tophats, unidentified potions, and scenes running through the garden maze are like an an absynthe-induced binge reenactment of Alice in Wonderland.

As for the music, I especially like the outro from 3:05 to the end. Such beautiful polyphony in those many layers of sound. I love when the number of parts occurring at one given moment is greater than the number of parts your brain can process all at once. I believe this number to be somewhere around 4 parts or greater. Sorry, to give you another video with embedding blocked. That’s just the way it is.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE PERFECT DRUG BY NINE INCH NAILS