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Watch Cate Blanchett’s Face Melt in John Hillcoat’s Music Video for Massive Attack’s “The Spoils”

Blanchett’s famously steely face becomes unrecognizable in the video for the trip-hop band’s new song.

Watch Cate Blanchett's Face Melt in John Hillcoat's Music Video for Massive Attack's The Spoils

Director John Hillcoat, best known for his genre-driven films The Proposition, which was written by Nick Cave, and The Road, has enlisted two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett for his music video for Massive Attack’s “The Spoils,” the title track from the U.K. trip-hop pioneers’ new EP. The clip opens with a stark close-up of the Carol star donning minimal makeup; as the image slowly degrades, so does Blanchett’s famously steely face, first morphing into a plaster cast of her head before gradually turning into a mask with hollow eyes and a wig on top. Ultimately, the actress’s face is unrecognizable, as guest vocalist Hope Sandoval (of Mazzy Star fame) sings, “I somehow slowly love you/I wanna keep you the same.” By the video’s end, Blanchett has become a digitally rendered bust made of porous rock, eventually so eroded that any trace of her visage has vanished.

YouTube video

The Spoils is the follow-up to January’s Ritual Spirit EP. Massive Attack is performing live throughout Europe this summer. Their landmark debut, Blue Lines, was released 25 years ago this week.

Sal Cinquemani

Sal Cinquemani is the co-founder and co-editor of Slant Magazine. His writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Billboard, The Village Voice, and others. He is also an award-winning screenwriter/director and festival programmer.

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