Directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, the “Daydreaming” music video further explores the human experience through the distortion of realities, all separated by doors.
The video features Thom Yorke passing through the myriad physical settings one may expect to traverse in life: an underground warehouse, a hotel hallway, a living room, a school, a foyer, a hospital, a kitchen, a laundromat, a convenience store; across a dimly-lit basement corridor, and more. The video speeds up as Yorke passes through more and more of these doors, making a conscious decision as to which one he chooses every time, but never seeming certain of the outcome of his elected choice.
Here’s a video essay exploring the many hidden secrets in Paul Thomas Anderson’s new Radiohead music video: “Daydreaming.”
Isn’t that the constant uncertainty we have in life? One never knows with full assurance the consequences of one’s actions. Yorke does not know the worlds he’ll find behind any of the doors, but he has to make choices, leaving his comfort zone as he continuously opens a door and steps through, opens a door and steps through. Life is a series of decisions that we make and have to live with. What a simple thought.
Yorke’s journey eventually finds him wandering, seemingly aimlessly, through a dark and snowy tundra. He finds a cave glowing with the light from a fire within, and ventures inside. Cozying up to the fire, Yorke lays down his head in exhaustion. The music fades as Yorke stares into the fire, and eventually only his voice remains. He repeats a whispered mantra with his final breathes as sleep takes hold: When reversed and sped up, the audio appears to say “half of my life.”
Source: Atwood Magazine.
Video Source: Radiohead: The Secrets Of Daydreaming
