Criminal

1997

Artist: Fiona Apple

Director: Mark Romanek

Before A&F Quarterly sold woodsy, frolicking sex in the early 00s, Calvin Klein dominated the 90s market with slinky, heroin chic. Fiona Apple released the controversial music video for “Criminal” at nineteen and the height of the CK era; years later, the video serves as a poster child for it.

Banned 1995 Calvin Klein ad (left); Apple in “Criminal” mv (right)

Director Mark Romanek’s music video career spans three decades and a range of productions, from “Closer” to “Shake It Off.” He’s directed two films: One Hour Photo and Never Let Me Go. The latter is a personal favorite and a scenic adaptation of a haunting novel.

Apple said that “Criminal” is about ‘feeling bad for getting something so easily by using your sexuality’ (Blender). A dirty glamor glosses the video with implicit and explicit sexual images: half-naked bodies overlapping on the floor (:29), in the tub (:46), and on the bed (3:17); booze and cigarettes (:39); a suggestive stuffed animal (:14); silk lingerie peeling away (1:36); a smutty home video in the making (2:55). It’s the kind of party you’d feel FOMO for if you didn’t go and regret if you did.

The setting meets expectations and amplifies the video’s seedy ambiance. The scene develops in a basement decorated in 70s style with wood paneling, mid-century modern furniture, and shag carpet fouled by bodily fluids. There are no windows in the setting, apart from those that look into a swimming pool (1:53). Throughout the video, Apple’s pained eyes search for reprieve from the sex dungeon. At one point a fellow partygoer exposes her hiding place in a closet (1:05).

Apple among the headless

The poor lighting heightens basement’s eeriness. Unlike in “She Will Be Loved,” the darkened edges work here, though at times (1:30) the effect looks like it may have been created post-production.

Additionally, Romenek’s intentional use of redeye on Apple shatters the fourth wall with discomforting force (:24). To present-day audiences, the redeye evokes nostalgia corroborated by Apple’s camera (:01) and the tv rising from the table (2:37). MTV’s Cribs, anyone?

Though Apple interacts with a slew of scantily clad people, her face is the only one shown. This technique is often used in advertisements. By omitting the actors’ faces, Romanek presents these people as anonymous bodies, and moreover, sexual objects. The sex den is purely a physical realm. Of these headless shots, the most powerful is the Jacuzzi shot, in which Apple sings between a pair of caressing male feet (1:45).

The video not only matches the song’s lyrical content but also its musicality. Romanek opens the scenario for a beat before Apple takes a photo and the music enters, syncing cymbal crash with camera flash – a perfect visual representation. The shooting motion syncs with the music, moving in slow passes before coming to a complete stop at the end of a musical phrase.

The CGI shot of Apple squeezing a stream of liquid soap into the air (4:02) is inconsistent with the video’s prior effects but functions within the party’s drug atmosphere. The visual aptly embodies the instrumental sound it accompanies.

“I’ve got to cleanse myself of all these lies ’till I’m good enough for him”

Overall, the video’s message is murky: a feeling furthered by the present water motif (appropriate for an album titled Tidal). From her expressions it’s difficult to tell whether Apple feels remorse for participating in this sordid life or enjoys it. Here, water represents sexuality. Apple lurks in a pool (2:32), shivers in the shallows (3:56), and basks in a shared bath (1:39). The scenes demonstrate Apple’s love/hate relationship with the power of her sexuality and the toll it takes on her.

Love or hate the video, you don’t forget it.