We heard the collective sigh from you, our beloved readers, when Dënver released “Revista de Gimnasia” a few weeks back, a more-than promising single off the Chilean duo’s upcoming album. I fear that now that the group has filmed the track’s video your sighs will be deafening. Alas, “Revista de Gimnasia”’s video is here for our creepy delectation.
Directed by the twisted mind of Bernardo Quesney, the video features a rhythmic gymnast and her truly lecherous coach. Those of you expecting some Eric-Taylor-style inspiration won’t get it here. Instead, the coach turns something as innocent as a brightly colored ribbon into a tool for torture, as the gymnast is bound, gagged, and choked by her Mr. Burns-like elder. He also touches her and stands behind her, a lot. So there’s that.
The video is a striking exploration of a captor/captive relationship in the context of what is a traditionally feminized, gentle sport. Quesney does a great job of transferring some of the video’s agency over to the villain’s wanting eyes and calculating grin. The gymnast is a spectacle at all times, inciting a desire for both sex and death. And once the confetti starts raining down, the menacing tone only increases, ending on a lingering image that is everything I want videos to be at all times.
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