Page - 13 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 06/02

“You Need a Big God” | 13www.jrfm.eu 2020, 6/2, 7–20 It’s All About Composition Lyrics, Images and Emotions in BIG GOD “You keep me up at night / to my messages, you do not reply” – as noted, on a first level the lyrics of “Big God” seem to address feelings of rejection and emptiness, but, when we add in the video’s dance performance14 and the choice of words and metaphors, second and third levels of meaning emerge. Even as we describe the music video closely, analyse it and gather further information to contextualise it, we realise that the emotional effect of the music video and its criticism lies in the abundance of interactions between sound, text, body and audiovisual medium – and all the explicit and implicit references to religion. A Female Jesus? Emphasising Emotions in Music Videos We can read Florence’s performance as an almost-love story gone bad. We see a woman’s emancipation from feelings of unworthiness as she gathers her shattered self, a progression visualised through the other women, who dance with her and at the end disappear – or better, reconnect – leaving a still injured but now whole and more mature person. This self-healing is not easy: “Sometimes I think it’s getting better, and then it gets much worse, is it just part of the process? Well, Jesus Christ, it hurts.” The pain our protagonist, Florence, feels is visualised by all of the women, including Florence herself in their midst, who trudge desperately through the pond on their knees until she pronounces the words “Jesus Christ, it hurts.” Then the women fall into the water as if deadly wounded. Only Florence ris- es in this moment, suggesting she has gone through the worst and now the healing can begin (fig. 4). After a struggle with the situation and, more signif- icantly, with herself, Florence frees herself from the idea that she is precious only because another person says so. Interestingly, as Florence repeats the line “Jesus Christ, it hurts”, the other women (or parts of Florence’s shattered self) are lifted up and then dangle like puppets above her head (fig. 5). While in the background we hear a distant “Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, it hurts”, we see Florence spreading her arms like wings … or like Jesus on the cross. 14 British dancer and choreographer Akram Khan worked out the choreography; the video was directed by American photographer and director Autumn de Wilde. See Reed 2018.