The Artist Explains: Sandra Hüller - 'The One'
We talk to Sandra Hüller and director Nanouk Leopold about collaborating together for Hüller’s intriguing music video, ‘The One’.
Where was the video filmed?
Nanouk: The video was filmed on location in an old rectory in Overschie, a small town near Rotterdam.
How does the video connect with the song?
Sandra: The song is about getting along with a betrayal, even be empowered by it in the end. The video shows a woman alone in a room trying to adjust to it, seeing how it works and what her place in it could be. The video was shot way before the song came out, yet the song was written long before Nanouk and i met in 2009, i think. So , in some strange way, video and song were connected, without knowing it.
Nanouk: The scene is part of an installation, a work in progress, so it was shot with other intentions. But when Daan and I were looking for ideas for the video for this particular song we kept thinking of the material we had already shot with Sandra. There is something strangely heroic and funny about the way the character in this scene is trying to find its place and posture in the empty room. And this feeling of bending the situation to your hand, taking back control was a feeling that was also very present in the song. Being in a difficult spot doesn’t mean you have to surrender to the feelings that one might expect to accompany such a situation. If you allow yourself to be turned upside down you might find something beautiful in return.
Do you have any behind the scenes stories you could share with us?
Nanouk: Sandra is some kind of yogi person who is really in control of her body. And we both like to work in an intuitive way, playing around with the objects in the room and being in the moment. So we improvised a lot. But there was a moment where Sandra is balancing with a chair on her head, a cloth over her face, trying to get on top of another chair and when I was spotting the material I heard myself shriek and then a second later I hear myself stop the take with the same shrieking sound…
Can you tell us about the ideas/themes/imagery used?
Nanouk: I like the way the room is not a real room, it is more like an abstract place. And it helps us to come into the mood to sort of translate what is happening, literally, being turned upside down, into a more metaphorical way of looking at life, just let it happen, don’t panic, go with the flow, see where it takes you and take a pause when needed. Somehow strangely accurate in these Corona days. Anyway, I also like the plant in the corner of the room, it is so ugly, I think it is funny. It’s like a silent spectator in the room.
Is there a message the video is trying to convey?
Sandra: I’m no friend of messages through videos, in the best case i imagine everyone to connect to it in his/her own way.
Nanouk : I agree.
Interview by Karla Harris