Cool Videos: Paul Thomas Anderson directs the video for Fiona Apple’s Hot Knife

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Paul Thomas Anderson is hard at work on his next potential masterpiece, INHERENT VICE, but while that comes together, he found some time to direct a music video for his ex-girlfriend Fiona Apple. If you remember, Anderson directed four Fiona Apple videos including the great cover of The Beatles’ “Across the Universe” from the soundtrack for PLEASANTVILLE. Now, they are teaming up on the video for “Hot Knife” from Apple’s latest album The Idler Wheel…

Apple and Anderson are equally quirky and odd, which may be why their relationship didn’t last, but the video for “Hot Knife” is fairly straightforward compared to their past collaborations. What makes this video distinct is the use of editing, something that has been pretty vanilla in Anderson’s recent films. Here, he uses multiple cuts and takes, double exposures, but primarily stationary cameras to provide a video that forces you to pay attention to how the multiple videos on screen and the use of color play against the song itself.

Whether a fan of Fiona Apple or not, this is a simple and yet great video that gives me hope that Paul Thomas Anderson may throw some more unique style into his next film.

INHERENT VICE, based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon, will star Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Jena Malone and Benicio Del Toro.