Tove Lo and Stromae’s “Des Fleurs” Video Is As Wistful and Romantic As One Would Expect—Right Down to Its Painterly Visual Style

Not content to let their single, “Des Fleurs,” exist without a video to go with it, Tove Lo and Stromae have teamed up again to create a concept rooted in the kind of dreamy, romantic nature—thanks to being entirely rendered in an illustration format—that the sound of the single evokes. This done with help from director Melchior Leroux, who ensures that the devil is in the details from the outset of the video, which commences with paw prints walking toward a wreath of flowers just before some jauntily-moving legs (three pairs of them, in fact)—outfitted in some very particular pants—enter the frame from the right-hand side.

After the piano notes have made themselves known, Tove Lo herself appears in the form of a face on a card (with a heart suit, naturally)—giving new meaning to the term “face card.” Her image here is a sketch that begins to fill in with color before there’s another cut to her situated in the center of a flower as armies of amorous men march off to the side of her. That moment doesn’t last long before Leroux starts to pepper in the romantic entanglements of other “randos,” all of them with a decidedly “vintage” air—from the woman (India Pornon) dressed in a “sailor-style” dress who glances over at the three men peeping at her through a “doorway” of flowers to the man dressed like a toreador (Mauro Lemos) framed by a wreath and two hummingbirds as he looks longingly toward another man offering him a bouquet from down below (don’t ever say Tove Lo isn’t an ally).

The wistful imagery doesn’t let up as Leroux then offers scenes of the sailor-style dress woman walking up some steps at the beach, framed by des fleurs (of course) and a peacock feather, a dog also basking in a bouquet and the toreador man now using his red cape to attract the attention of a group of samely-dressed women twirling by him. As for the dog, it isn’t the first one that will appear in the video. Later, around the one-minute-thirty-second mark, a German shepherd will also show up with his (or, more likely, her) tongue sticking out. The presence of the dogs is perhaps Tove’s way of equalizing the playing field for which various animals (humans included) can experience “estrus,” which is the title of her forthcoming album.

And while she might have favored cats to embody this “in heat” phenomenon for the album cover, it’s apparent Tove wants to remind people that dogs have this same “recurring period of sexual receptivity” as well. In fact, estrus applies to “many female mammals.” Tove herself included. Hence, the “gagging for it” nature of such “Des Fleurs” lyrics as, “Bring your sweat to my bed tonight/Last for hours.” The carnal aura of the song is also emphasized from the very first few seconds of the video, with Tove and Leroux opting to focus on those roving paw prints (a symbol Tove has been fond of for a while now, based on her Sunshine Kitty: Paw Prints Edition album). Yet another reminder that, when it comes to horniness, humans can be just as “feral” as any dog or cat (that is, if they’re not a part of any generation after millennials).

Yet the video itself isn’t “horny” (as it probably would have been should Emerald Fennell have directed it), but surprisingly wistful and idyllic. Almost as if Tove and Stromae would like to remind that there can be no “hot sex” without at least a little bit of romance thrown into the mix, whether before, during or even after. That is, if one truly wants to get the desired “effect” from it (read: an orgasm). Especially if that “one” is a woman. For it can’t denied that women, far more than men, rely on feeling some kind of connection with the penis attached to the person that’s inside them.

Thus, it makes perfect sense for Tove to demand, “Bring me flowers” when simultaneously inviting a man into her boudoir. Stromae, however, offers only a somewhat typically aloof response in his verse (sung in French, bien sûr, but written in English here): “Flowers, flowers, flowers, flowers/Always flowers, obviously/I don’t mean to pat myself on the back/But I’m not the worst lover/Besides, if I give you one, no, it’s not because I have feelings/It’s just that I like your flower [oui, très suggestive], I’d like us to have a good time/It’s just that we’re always a bit formal/So, well, you know I like your curves, obviously/But yes, what I like is that they’re out of the ordinary, quite simply/It’s not exactly high-brow, but I’m only a man, obviously.”

So much for keeping it romantic. Nonetheless, that’s what the sound of the music itself (co-produced by Stromae, Oscar Görres and A Strut), particularly when paired with the video, is for. All yearning and burning. Evocative of stolen glances and fluttering eyelashes. But, when Tove concludes the video with the image of a bouquet tossed in front of her “altar” from the album cover, you know she’s ultimately saying “fuck romance, I just want to conjure up a fuck.” Something that listening to this particular song is sure to do, if one plays their cards right (to that point, there are a lot of cards shown in the video).