Per praises director Jonas Åkerlund
Written by roxeteer on September 7, 2003 to Roxette.
STOCKHOLM - In today’s Aftonbladet Per praises the Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund. “Of all the big names we’ve worked with Jonas and Anton Corbijn are the best. It’s not always easy to work with a friend, but with Jonas it has only helped.”
Per and Jonas met for the first time in 1992. Per wanted him to direct Roxette’s “The Big L.” video, but the first video Åkerlund directed for Roxette was “Fingertips ’93” a year later.
“Both Marie and I were fans of Jonas’ wild but beautiful ideas. And after all, we were the only Swedish band with a budget to create such videos,” Per says in Aftonbladet’s interview. “He was - and is - an incredibly gifted person. Pleasant, but determined, professional, honest and just enough crazy. He has a good taste in music, a very personal taste in clothes and he’s unbelievably creative.”
Last times Per and Jonas Åkerlund worked together were when Roxette’s version of the song “Stupid” was played in Åkerlund’s movie “Spun” and when Åkerlund provided art direction for Roxette’s “Ballad Hits” and “Pop Hits” album covers.
- Aftonbladet article (in Swedish)
Other articles with the same topic
- Roxette live in Yekaterinburg: the set list (March 5, 2011)
- Samara was a smash (March 4, 2011)
- Roxette tour moves south to Samara, Russia (March 3, 2011)
- North America and Australia on the Roxette radar for later this year (March 2, 2011)
- Roxette live in Kazan: a promising start to the World Tour (March 1, 2011)
13 comments
Rich-UK said on September 7, 2003 16:52:
Yes, Åkerlund has directed some great Roxette videos e.g. “The Centre Of The Heart”, “June Afternoon” and “She Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”.
I personally much prefer his work to Corbijn’s videos (the ducks, quack...), even though his photos of various artistes are striking.
Sascha said on September 7, 2003 20:47:
Yes, Jonas does great work for Roxette. It just gets it a bit boring to see his style over and over again sometimes. Well, his latest work with Roxette wasn’t the Spun thing. It’s the TBH and TPH artwork and videos. ATAY-video was great!
roxeteer (moderator) said on September 8, 2003 04:07:
Sascha, that’s true... I’ll add it to the article.
BadMoon said on September 8, 2003 15:38:
...and what about Anyone and WICF? Great videos all by Jonas.
Yes, I like his style and Anyone is my fave rox-video! =)
CRIZ said on September 8, 2003 17:46:
I think his video-style these days is always repeating itself. Nasty insects, drug-addicte-lookalike-people looking into the camera in the same way, these people are always filmed in a dirty, or untidy dark location, mirrors are often involved, vomiting also, or same extreme colours...Really I already found myself in front of the TV recognizing a video from Jonas without knowing that it was from him. Hope he gets some new ideas for the next projects!
rosa_28 said on September 8, 2003 19:51:
For me the best work that Jonas has ever done is the “Den Ständiga Resan” Documentary for TV4 in 1992.That was really his first work with “Roxette”.
Jud (moderator) said on September 8, 2003 20:58:
I think he was better 10 years ago when he did those 2 videos for Marie, Fingertips, MF Documentary.. up to She doesn’t live here anymore... the rest.. creative? gehe bitte! As Criz says, it’s all about dark rooms/locations and same movements of the camera.. WICF, TCOTH, ATAY.. or even worse, all those repulsive eeeew images...
rox-kuryliw said on September 7, 2003 16:21:
well for me ’The center of the heart ’ is the best music video ever in my opinon. Best artwork of roxette is room service aswell for me , it screams style and roxette :) .