Duran Duran formed in 1978 and achieved iconic success within a few years with their synthpop hits; Hungry life a Wolf, advice Rio, information pills Girls on film etc. They captured the mood of the 1980s perfectly; they were decadent, price sexual and uncaring. Maintaining a highly stylized image they were considered “The Pretty boys of Rock.”
The Chauffer (Blue Silver) was unlike their other singles with its acoustic driven guitar rather than the beat of an electronic keyboard. The song was originally versed by Simon Le Bon, when auditioning for a part in the group he brought a series of lyrics and poems of which “The Chauffer” would become one.
The moody music video is inspired by the works of Helmut Newton and the sadomasochistic film, The Night Porter. The film tells the story of a concentration camp survivor and a SS officer who have an ambiguous relationship, the two meet later in a hotel in which they resume their sado masochistic relationship.
The video has a distinctive noir mood, shot only in black and white No member of Duran Duran appears in the video. The video is a short story of a lingerie clad woman being driven by a man to a rendezvous in a parking garage with another hyper sexualized woman. While the two dance together the Chauffer constantly moves forward within the parking garage consuming the two women with his gaze. He stands at attention before the two, his hands behind his back, his crotch leading the way, his uniform reminiscent of SS gear. A third figure soon appears, a woman in an open top corset who is dressed like the Chauffer. She sheds her uniform to give a seductive solo dance. Her single number is interspersed with the two other women and the chauffer creating a perverse visual orgy.
The fact that this scene takes place in a parking garage is notable. Parking garages are seen as mysterious and/ or dangerous and the liminal space of the parking garage is an area where one should not be, should only pass through upon threat of violence. By enacting this scene within the parking garage the women and the chauffer perform their “dangerous and transgressive” desires within a semi-private space.
Ultimately the video is about the trafficking of desire and the travel between space, specifically within an automobile. The automobile is the sovereign good of society and for many people allows a feeling of freedom. This sense of independence, a faux feeling of mobility, is linked to the idea that to transverse physical distance allows one to escape the social relations one is in. Yet the base relations of society the relations of capital are ever present, they are the car, the highway, the landscape, the lingerie, the uniform, they are the sensual acts. Freedom is implicitly tied to the sexual act, it is part of the human psyche.
Watching the video is a constant reminder of J.G. Ballard’s “Crash,” in which the protagonists link their sexuality to car crashes. The novel’s symbolization of cars was a reference to humanity’s increasing mechanization and humanity’s capacity to swallow itself with its own creations. While there are no car crashes in the video there is the strong link between cars and sexuality, and metaphorically the meeting of lingerie clad women is a slow crash of sensuality gazed on by a male voyeur, who may have orchestrated the entirety of events.
Out on the tar plains, the glides are moving
All looking for a new place to drive
You sit beside me, so newly charming
Sweating dew drops glisten, freshing your side
And the sun drips down bedding heavy behind the front of your dress all shadowy lined
And the droning engine throbs in time with your beating heart
Way down the lane away, living for another day
The aphids swarm up in the drifting haze
Swim seagull in the sky towards that hollow western isle
My envied lady holds you fast in her gaze
And the sun drips down bedding heavy behind the front of your dress all shadowy lined
And the droning engine throbs in time with your beating heart
And the sun drips down bedding heavy behind the front of your dress all shadowy lined
And the droning engine throbs in time with your beating heart
Sing blue silver
And watching lovers part, I feel you smiling
What glass splinters lie so deep in your mind
To tear out from your eyes with a board to stiffen brooding lies
But I’ll only watch you leave me further behind
And the sun drips down bedding heavy behind the front of your dress all shadowy lined
And the droning engine throbs in time with your beating heart
And the sun drips down bedding heavy behind the front of your dress all shadowy lined
And the droning engine throbs in time with your beating heart
Sing blue silver
Sing, sing blue silver
There’s more to this kind of camouflage
More than just colour and shape
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