Video: Justice - "Stress" by Romain Gavras

Comment

Comment by Philippe on May 6, 2010 at 7:28am

Yes, I agree - the video doesn't really show the oppression and more focuses on the reaction. But this is what "Stress" is all about precisely : hardcore. The authors basically haven't the least intention of intellectualizing their standpoint - that's why they prefer to put the stress rather on straightforwardness and punk-ish radicalism. Yet I understand that one may find meaningless the message delivered here - especially when you're not quite familiar with the whole social and political context in France. But believe me, any French living over here in this country does know for sure the causes of oppression, so that there's absolutely no need of displaying them in a video (economic crisis, unemployment, the middle class getting poorer and poorer - not to mention that filthy issue launched by the French government about our "national identity"... In other words, which citizen really deserves to be called a true-blue French ? Is it the Catholic ? The Muslim ? The Whites ? The Blacks ? The Arabs ?... How's for a thoroughly demagogic and disgusting interrogation ?). "Stress" in the end may just add more fuel to the fire (true, indeed), but that's exactly what the video is aiming at : awaken a people brainwashed by too much real TV and political inertia.

Comment by PolarVibez on May 5, 2010 at 5:47pm

True, I may not actually know what's going on over there but what you're saying about the climate for oppressed urban folk in France is not so farfethced for me to believe. We deal with plenty of the same issues here even in the Obama age. Still, if it's as bad as you say, the video dosen't really show the oppresion it more so focuses on the reaction and I don't really see how that helps. It could be a cautionary mesaage to the establisment there or it could be counterproductive, just adding more fuel to the fire.

Comment by Philippe on May 5, 2010 at 7:54am

"Just controversy for the sake of shock value" - well, it's quite obvious the video was first designed that way. And one may also disregard Justice for being a pair of Parisian bourgeois hipsters as well... Yet the same cannot be said of Romain Gavras. Because he does not belong at all to the trendy French electronica scene, but comes straight from the urban street culture. Once you know that, it's pretty hard to dis Gavras and then tell the buddy depicts black youth with corny stereotypes.
I also have the impression that most Americans do not seem to know what's really going on today in France regarding youth and society. The social segregation over here has never been so serious at the moment - with the police harassing the youth in urban areas, and the latter fighting back by assaulting buses and the whole public city transport. Not to mention the riots happening every now and then in the most derelict places of the country. So as a French living in a big city right here in France, I may assure you that the video does not completely fake the reality.

Comment by PolarVibez on May 4, 2010 at 7:44pm

I have mixed feelings about this one. Black or "urban" youth are already viewed as a threat or menace. Beyond this admitedly wellshot and engrossing film what was the point of the exploitation of these youth and further perputation of an existing stereotype? You mean to tell me that Justice could find no other means of artistically visulizing this track? This shit ain't nothing but misguided swagga jackin' on the part of the bourgeois. Instad of Justice themselves runnin' around actin badass they have these guys wear jackets with their logo and have them run around causin chaos. The message is clear: "our music and image is supposed to be just as rebellious and credible as these out of control "urban" street punks." But Justice or Garvais don't have to deal with the reprecussuions of these stereotypes on a daily basis. There was more of a point to the M.I.A. clip but this is pretty meaningless. There's nothing punk about what these guys are doing in this video. Like it was said earlier the point of anarchy is more in line with opposing an oprresive regime. Laws are erased for the sake of the people not so the said people can be randomly violated and destroyed further. This is just contoversy for the sake of shock value.

Comment by Philippe on May 4, 2010 at 6:54am

First, when I was a teenager at school, I was taught during history classes of the true originators of anarchy in Europe (Proudhon, Bakounine, etc.) - so that I was aware the movement simply meant more than just chaos and disorder. Second, I'm sorry, but for the music business, urban is always black...

Comment by Shannon Rakai Caldwell on May 3, 2010 at 2:06pm

I'm sorry but, when did anarchy go to school and become an ideology? and second of all, urban is not always black...okay.

Comment by Philippe on May 3, 2010 at 11:47am

Yeah right, teen angst, wasted energy used on violence, deep feelings of frustration... Yet, the way these young people are behaving remains far beyond anarchy - because anarchy deals with a clear-cut political standpoint at first, and these black kids apparently don't seem to care about any kind of ideology...
What's really cool in fact is how Justice and director Romain Gavras conceived their video. In France usually, when you see black people in a musical clip, it's always for the rap thing, period. But "Stress", on the other hand, focuses on a sheer hip hop motif (the inner city environment) in order to confront it with some furious electronica... Smart, very smart indeed.

Comment by Daniel Ridgeway on May 2, 2010 at 9:20pm

It's like the modern-day Clockwork Orange, but with black people. I love it.

Comment by Shannon Rakai Caldwell on May 2, 2010 at 3:16am

not to "stomp on" the other comments but, i think the overarching "point" is to focus on anarchy...yes, it is violence but, it has a lot of energy that is being wasted...these young men, with crosses on their backs, feel frustrated in their confinement, whether that be their skin or their situation and tha causes anarchy when not put to use...that energy could have gone in the opposite direction and they could have been "upstanding" young men but...what has happened? they feel sacrificed to the machine and so they are fighting back...through anarchy. anarchy is anti-civil AND anti-complacent...

Comment by Philippe on May 1, 2010 at 9:19am

Sorry Hitch, but this video does not criticize French youth at all - because the content here is clearly political at first. I was born and raised in France, and I can tell you that the relationships between this country and his youth have always been complicated (if not complex, whatever the period or time in history)... France is such a beautiful place, unfortunately ruled by the same old bunch of close-minded conservative assholes.

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