Once both romantically and creatively involved, it’s been over a decade since director Paul Thomas Anderson and singer/songwriter Fiona Apple have teamed up. Having paired on four videos in the ’90s — “Across The Universe,” “Fast As You Can,” “Limp,” “Paper Bag” — the duo still remained friends as their lives has moved on, and now they’ve reteamed for a brand new, pretty excellent video.
“Hot Knife” is the mesmerizing album closer on Apple’s latest, impressively named album The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, and Anderson wisely focuses on the song’s key strength: the vocals. A feat of singing and multi-tracking, the tune is layered and propelled by Apple’s voice and Anderson utilizes some simple split screen effects to underscore her performance. A nice concept that serves both the song and artist well. It should be noted that Anderson has been taking his time with this one — Apple mentioned to Interview Magazine back in June of 2012 that he had been working on it before he went off to shoot “The Master.”
Check it out below. The Idler Wheel… is in stores, and PTA is currently hard at work on “Inherent Vice.” [Pitchfork]