Mylène Farmer: California (1996 Music Video) User Reviews

Abel Ferrara has gained more respect from me on this one. BRAVVOO!

[deadperson5 · 18 October 2003]

This is one of the most impressive music videos I've ever seen. It is absolutely excellent, and it reminded me of many films I've seen ( and loved) that were directed by Lynch, Egoyan as well as Ferrara's quite good gangster thriller "King Of New York". The absolutely stunning French solo artist Mylene Farmer is on top of her form as BOTH a singer and an actress. In this beautiful yet realistic picture she is portrayed as a rich woman turned hooker, who goes to California to earn her living. There is a lot of intelligent aspect in this excellent music video and it is directed in such a way that you would be able to both get erotically intrigued by Farmer's character AND be able to sympathize with her simultaneously. Very much like with Isabella Rosselini from David Lynch's brilliant "Blue Velvet".

As for the song, well, in my opinion, it is the best song to deal with a topic of prostitution ever. There's probably none other like it. Mylene Farmer has a TRULY impressive voice that will take you to a new dimension. She is quite probably the greatest French female solo artist of the last 20 years. I love her and you would as well if you've got good taste in music.

As to Mr Ferrara, I apologise if you've read my previous posts that give you sanctions. I've changed my mind. With this excellent video ( though I kind of don't want to compare it to your MOVIES, as they're just different THINGS), you gained more respect from myself. Plus, I'm now more interested in most of your works. Well Done!

melancholy and violence

[asox · 10/10 · 3 December 2005]

In this music video we participate in two parallel worlds which are inseparably connected to each other. The outside is different but the inside is the same. We notice marriage as a constitution of sexual (and emotional) exploitation and economic dependence which is determining for all relations. But we don't see it that clearly at the rich couple, they are affectionately. The pimp and the prostitute are violent trash, they are the dark site of our civilized society. But they are what the rich couple really is. Both women realize that when they are glancing at each other. They are in shock and want to do something but the men hold them from it. What is starting harmlessly is ending up in a tragedy, because the rich woman is not willing to take it, to accept the truth and that is for me the mendacious and blocked double moral of the entire mankind.

The captured pictures are so overwhelming that you tend to forget the lyrics. The music and the soft voice of Mylène Farmer are guiding you to a gentle but also very violent world, typical for Mylène Farmer. She sounds like just another pop-singer but that is just masquerade! In fact she is a wolf in a sheep fur.

The lyrics of "California" are about that Mylène has to leave (France) whether she wants or not to find herself again. There is no alternative, she has to leave everything behind. Love is not explicitly mentioned but she refers to a well known poem (Le Pont Mirabeau from Guillaume Apollinaire) which is about love floating away like water and at the same time you are still standing at the same place and haven't learned anything. So Mylène is leaving with bad feelings and without any joy, not knowing what life in L.A. will bring. Her first impressions are just visual and overwhelming, suggesting her a perfect material world for all her heart desires. And there she wants to find herself? Impossible. Slowly she is realizing that this is not a dream world, she is getting a punishing note. And now everything becomes surreal and she wants to be at the "L.A.-perfect-world-trip" again. But there is only melancholy: I am the ice in the water. Melancholy and the awful truth: The violence in life and the inseparably connection between wealth and poverty, the civilized world and it's trash.

She combines the good and bad experiences in the chorus:

It is sexy the sky of California; Under my skin, I have L.A. in overdose; So sexy the spleen of a road movie; Retrospective my life appears distorted

Mylène Farmer is a really talented and incredible woman and since 20 years a singer/actress. If you experienced her once, you will forget everything else you ever heard before.

Generic 90s song and music video

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 22 July 2016]

This is "California", a five-minute music video for Mylène Farmer's song with the same name. It came out 20 years ago when Farmer was in her mid-30s. I cannot say how this looked compared to other French music videos from back then as I don't know enough, but to me it looked pretty American. The tone of Farmer's voice is something I will always like because it's so different, but I still feel that overall, despite the inclusion of famous filmmaker Abel Ferrara actor and Giancarlo Esposito long before "Breaking Bad", that this was a very generic 1990s song and music video. There is nothing really memorable to see or hear in here and I clearly prefer other works from the artist that is Mylène Farmer. Not recommended.

clear

[malena_pulchra · 13 May 2003]

This is one of the most "meaningful" videos I've seen. There are the excellent love/erotic scenes, there is the music, and there is the philosophical aspect... Every nuance of emotion is depicted quite skillfully and realistically. Mylene Farmer is a very good actress and thinker and it's a shame she is often regarded as merely a pop singer.