Page - 17 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 06/02

“You Need a Big God” | 17www.jrfm.eu 2020, 6/2, 7–20 of Florence under the female puppets with her arms spread out (fig. 6), as if she is hanging on a cross. At the end, when we see Florence finding a way through her pain, we may assume that she has found her “big god”, who can replenish her. She needs to love herself before she can love and be loved. The lines “You need a big god / big enough to hold your love / You need a big god / big enough to fill you up” can be read not only as a spiritual longing for a sense of life and a feeling of being complete, but also as individual insight: she has so much to give and wants to receive an equal love, and the faithful “receive” if they are open and ready to let another “see the true you”. In the music video for “Big God” we see the women’s bodies move beneath the almost transparent fabric, and we see Florence touch herself with a naïve, but still erotic fascination. This con- text makes evident the ambiguity of the line “big enough to fill you up” – is a spiritual or physical hunger to be satisfied, or is she singing of a woman’s sexual hunger or longing, which she dares to pronounce and at the end feeds by touching her own body. She has overcome her longing for a transcendent or physical other who completes her, and she has emancipated herself met- aphorically from a patriarchal system that sees women as passive receivers and not as agents. Director Autumn de Wilde based the composition of the dancing women on a painting by Francisco de Goya called Vuelo de brujas (Witches Flight, 1797/98, oil on canvas), seeking to show the strength of wom- en by referring to imagery of witches – strong, unconventional women with knowledge and often persecuted by (male) authorities.16 When Florence sings at the end, “Shower your affection / let it rain on me / And pull down the mountain / drag your cities to the sea” and softly touches her own body, we realise that she needs no man or god at all, for she is able to satisfy herself physically and mentally. Her new confidence is based on her new strength which grew during the process of healing the trauma of being abandoned. She needs no other person, no god, to feel safe and strong. The reference to Psalm 46:2, “Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea” (KJV),17 can thus be understood in terms of self-empowerment. And, remain- ing in this biblical context, her self confidence has grown until it is strong enough to metaphorically move mountains: “Jesus answered and said unto 16 For more information about the production of the music video by de Wildes, see Lanigan 2018, and the analysis The Pop Song Professor 2018. 17 See also Matt. 17:20.