I Touch a Red Button (David Lynch, 2011, USA)

American post-punk group Interpol enlisted filmmaker David Lynch to create an accompanying video for their 2011 Coachella show. Lynch was to make a film accompanying the single "Lights" from the band's fourth studio album - Interpol (2010). A driving and dark track that builds anthemically throughout with a driving drum beat, "Lights" is certainly one of the band's best songs. However, Lynch's film is not the actual music video for the song. The music video was directed by Charlie White. 

Lynch's film begins with a title card "I touch a red button". The wavering camera shows an animation of a figure, round and with a long nose and stick-figure arms, touching a red button. He appears to be gliding through white and black space. The figure continuously touches the red button. His face is quite disturbing, and soon we are brought to a closeup of his face. His mouth of decayed teeth is animated as well as his nose. Then we cut to a close-up of the figure's hand touching the red button. The camera returns to the figure. While the animation is on a loop, it seems that the camera is zooming in and out of the image, creating a disorienting effect.

The animation is somehow hypnotic and quite consistent with Lynch's work on his animated project Dumbland. The style is quite minimalistic, although the constant shaking of the camera is bound to give some viewers headaches. Lynch and Interpol have recently teamed up for an NFT, so apparently, the collaboration was a success. Overall, I Touch a Red Button or I Touch a Red Button Man is a relatively minor work by Lynch, but worth seeking out for those interested in Interpol or David Lynch's filmography. We have only seen Lynch's surreal video for NIN's "Came Back Haunted."

6/10