In 2018, Sufjan Stevens became an Oscar-nominated artist due to his musical contribution to 2017’s Call Me By Your Name, a film directed by Luca Guadagnino. Stevens performed at the ceremony, which he called “a horrifying Scientology end-of-year prom.” In a way it was good that Stevens didn’t win that Oscar, to not be validated by what he said he hated about America and pop culture. “I don’t want to be part of any room full of adults hemming and hawing over plastic trophies.” It seems, however, that experience didn’t taint his relationship with Guadagnino. They’ve teamed up again, along with artists Alessio Bolzoni and Celia Hempton, working on a music video for “Tell Me You Love Me,” a highlight off of Stevens’s 2020 album The Ascension.
The video features a swirl of impressionistic colors, blurring lights that span the full color spectrum, and bodies slowly writhing on the floor. At points, there are images of a lone fox walking through snow. I’m sure it symbolizes…something, but it’s still abstract and cool to watch. Guadagnino said of the video that, “The aching feeling of loving and wanting to be loved, the mystery of bodies that clash, the uncanny aspects of nature, the sublime music poetry and voice of Sufjan—all this went into this video that I am proud to have made with the collaboration of two more great artists, Alessio Bolzoni and Celia Hempton.”
Check it out below.
