Continuing to go “vag-deep” into the Wuthering Heights universe, Charli XCX has provided yet another visual accompaniment to one of her songs from the soundtrack album in honor of the latter’s release day (which arrived just in time for both Friday the 13th and Valentine’s Day, an apropos combination on the symbolism front indeed). And, in many ways, it feels like a continuation of the “Chains of Love” video, which offers just as much drama and theatricality despite XCX being (mostly) all on her own. Because sometimes, the most drama is created and built up within one’s own head (see also: Sex and the City’s “Drama Queens” episode).
Directed by Mitch Ryan, who mostly toggles between making music videos with ROSALÍA and Addison Rae (that is, when he’s not making them with Charli), XCX recreates some of the same solo tension that the pair established when Ryan directed “party 4 u” and “House” featuring John Cale. This begins right away as the camera focuses on Charli’s by now famously long strands of hair hanging like so many branches above a body of water. A quick cut to a cult-like circle of people (okay, so technically there are others in the video, but they’re quite background to Charli and all that she seems to be going through) gives the look an immediately “pagan” sensibility. Along with Charli’s generally “feral” appearance (at least by celebrity standards) as she lies on a hillside amid the evident carnage of the bodies her love has left in its destructive wake (and maybe some of the people on the hillside are those that were briefly flashed to in the opening scene). The automatic association being the metaphor that Catherine’s love for Heathcliff has resulted in total devastation and degradation for everyone with the misfortune of being in its path.
While posted up in the dirt, Charli delivers the opening line, “On the hillside [so of course she’s going to be on a hillside while saying it], shadows chase the dawn/Your name is carved where the wild winds have gone.” So it is that the wistfulness of such lyrics are complemented by the nature-oriented spectacle of the video, which then cuts to a scene (shot in such a way as to make the frame look tilted, a telling decision to indicate that this is a love that has set everything off-kilter in Charli-as-Catherine’s world) filled with empty white chairs—some upright, some knocked over—on the lush green grass. The kind of chairs that make it look as though they belong at a wedding reception. The overall theme, thus, screaming, “Botched nuptials!”
With XCX’s image initially superimposed over this scene, it’s as if she’s watching the would-be guests run in what appears to be terror (all dressed in decidedly 1800s-era attire). But she does not care, giving off a decidedly “numb to it all” aura as she’s soon after shown crouched in the grass among the knocked-over chairs on her own, having ostensibly driven everyone else away with the intensity of her ardor. With her unshakeable feelings of being forever haunted by someone she can no longer access (i.e., Heathcliff). And all while wearing a white dress (again, the wedding motif) that looks to be the same one she’s wearing at a certain point at the end of the “House” video (as do the woods of this environment appear to be shot in the same location—because why not make multiple videos at once, especially if the milieu is part of what visually ties everything on the Wuthering Heights Soundtrack).
Ryan then offers quick cuts to both an ornately-styled table (reminiscent of the one in “Chains of Love”) with lit candelabra on it as it sinks into the water (with the environmental decay “aesthetic” being a primary aspect of what makes the video so effective) and images of a black and white dove. Later in the video, Ryan will return to these opposing birds getting into a bit of a tussle. This being an ostensible nod to the yin and yang/opposites attract (and repel) motif that characterizes Catherine and Heathcliff’s pull (and push) toward one another. Of the kind that is liable to drive one mad if they can’t remain close (incidentally, this is also a key aspect of the premise for Together, a film that renders toxic hetero monogamy into horror as Wuthering Heights still bills it as romance).
So maybe that’s why, as everyone else in the woods seems to be running for cover from Charli’s almost supernatural passion (further heightening the decidedly Florence + the Machine qualities of this video, particularly her Dance Fever and Everybody Scream eras), she remains behind to start violently hitting the ground with a sword. And it’s a symbol that reminds one of the lyric from another song on the soundtrack, “Dying For You,” during which XCX masochistically admits, “I find the highest building just to fall on my sword.” As she slams the sword against the leafy earth beneath her, it’s shot from what amounts to the ground’s POV— thanks to another pointed directorial choice from Ryan.
And while Charli continues to lament that her lover is “always everywhere/Yeah, you’re everywhere,” one of the final scenes shows her being chased down by two men, though the one that is foregrounded has the most likely parallel to being “Heathcliff” (which would make it all the more ironic that she’s running from him after looking so keen to be with him for most of the video—such is the love-hate design of their dynamic). Either that, or they’re two men from the asylum coming to collect this “mad woman” for her total disregard for anything except being haunted.
With the final shot going back to Charli’s strands of long hair hanging down in the water, it’s an image that suggests she’s willing to drown herself literally and metaphorically in order to do what is needed to convey her devotion to this love. And oh, how she does, surely making Brontë proud—even if many don’t seem to think that Emerald Fennell has.
