Justice - Stress (Video)
New video from the Justice boys. This one is for “Stress” and its a bit violent so be warned. Definitely wouldnt want to run into these guys. Directed by Romain Gavras.
Also, here is a recent interview they did with Pitchfork….
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:01 am
Big fans of these guys and i was really interested and excited to see what justice was going to do with there first non animated video. The previous two videos for D.A.N.C.E., and DVNO blew me away, so i was expecting nothing less from this. Unfortunately this one felll short. Be honest love the song, but I think they could have done so much with the concept of stress. I don’t know what they were trying to prove here, theres really no point to the video. Just a bunch of thugs runnin around causing “trouble”. Youth rebelling, anarchy, is so played out. In fact, the whole music movement was based off that-Punk Rock. We get it, fuck the police…the queen is dead blah blah .The gang members wearing Justice cross was confusing to… These guys are the ultimate bible bangers. Isn’t Justice for good. or at least, for the under-dog who is misrepresented, mistreated by anoppressive authority? I was waiting for something to tie together in the end, but nothin. But still in the end its the music that matters, and the music really conveys stress, and makes you want to break shit. Overall l loved the energy and style of the vid. I give it a total of †††of †††††cross scale. We’ll see what they come up with next…
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:30 am
Great review! I agree, it didnt end up having a real point in the end. It is a bit “stress-full” to watch which I guess is what the director was going for. Cinematography was great. Reminded me of some of Chris Cunningham’s stuff. ††â€
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Yeah, I kinda agree too - I found the new video a bit dissapointing. Although, the openingscene especially, reminded me a great deal of the move ‘La Haine’ - which deals with the problems of multicultural youth in the Banlieu of Paris. Perhaps they want to bring something like that under the attention with a video like this? Idno, perhaps I’m reading too much into it.
I did very much love the part where D.A.N.C.E. was played on the radio and they kicked it out - I enjoy that kind of self-mockery.
But for me the biggest problem with this video was that the visual stuff is SO foregrounded that the music only seems like some sort of soundtrack, while with the previous videos the music and visuals were so wonderfully connected and interwined - they really supported eachother. But, indeed, the cinematography is great! Especially the part with the fire.
About the interview - I’ve been wondering about the whole cross as a symbol thing; I’m kinda glad they just see it as a visual thing, not with a lot of symbolism or theological background. I’m not so fond of things like that getting mixed, I guess. Makes it so loaded or something.
On a more shallow note: what an adorable French accent they have.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:11 pm
I loved the video.
I like that it didn’t tie up neatly at the end. That’s absolutely what i was expecting, some sort of lesson. But really, no lesson would have been satisfactory and any lesson would have felt pretty trite and forced. The video reminded me of the movie KIDS in that way… but better.
To me the video had less to do with the anarchy or rebellion. It was more purely visceral and violent.
It also reminded me of Clockwork Orange in a way, but where I felt like Clockwork Orange was fiction and that I was naive to believe in my younger days that the world could wind up like that, this video made me think “yeh… stuff really IS like that, the world really CAN be shit and thuggish and brut-ish.” Which i Know isn’t the newest of revelations, but it’s a nice one to get from an artful piece while sitting at the comfort of behind your computer.
I actually appreciated that the visual stuff was foregrounded and that music was merely a soundtrack. At this point almost every Justice track has been done to death and Stress is no exception (it’s even been covered by a hardcore band).
I’m glad they did something totally new, another So-Me video would have been really boring (don’t get me wrong, I LOVE So-Me but… they were getting to be a bit of a cliche of themselves).
Maybe I’m looking into it to much, so, to indulge in my own shallow note: those jackets are fucking badass.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:05 pm
I liked the video a lot. It was just pure fucking carnage and evil. You have to look at the video objectively as a statement or a piece of art don’t look at it from a good / evil viewpoint.
The violence could also represent the sort of violence that’s being spread in France’s ethnic ghettos.
.02
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:01 am
Great dialog everyone! Thank you for commenting. Funny, DailyMotion took the video down because people thought it was too violent. Uploaded it again from Vimeo.
May 3rd, 2008 at 1:30 pm
those jackets really are badass. it’s funny that they talk about people overthinking cool and trendy in the interview - justice has the freshest style and sound.
May 3rd, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Stressed? Not until you’ve seen this.
Justice have released an intense video for their song Stress. I was linked to it through the Modular label’s mailout, via the comment: “Just thought we’d throw a rub n’ tug the way of our buddies Ed Banger, who’s latest vi…
May 4th, 2008 at 1:59 am
good shots // Good concept..
but bored storie ..
nothings happens at the end of video //
May 4th, 2008 at 11:14 am
ND,
1. justice are not a christian group, the cross is not intended to signify any christaian beliefs.
2. this video does not intend to put across a message of rebellion and anarchy; it is more of a social commentary of what is really happening in lower class paris…gangs like this do exist!
not trying to get at you, just clearing things up!
May 4th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Agreed jhunter87, ND was way off point.
Justice is not a Christian group at all. The cross means nothing.
The video is also not trying to say fuck the police or trying to portray anarchy or rebellion. The video is showing what youth in France are like right now and the scenes are in the movie are all things that the youth do as well as probably much worse things. I think the video might be more of a social commentary. For those that may not know; Justice is a French group so that is why they might want to bring some of these things to light.
If any of you have payed any attention to the news in the last few years you would realize there is a lot of social unrest in France, especially among low class youth. There have been numerous riots and the French youth are notorious for doing the acts portrayed in the video.
Here are a couple short summaries of some of the problems France has had in the past few years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_civil_unrest_in_France
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_civil_unrest_in_France
May 4th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
While watching it I couldnt help but flash back to this:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xodid_aphex-twin-come-to-daddy_music
May 4th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Wow what a disturbing video. I loved it.
By the way, to everyone saying that Justice are not Christians, in the Pitchfork interview on this page they say they are.
May 4th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
the whole key to the video is the french at the end.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:36 am
What is it that they say at the end? Translate?
May 5th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Yeah elysium… you’re getting it…!
Guys, the french changed a lot these past 30 years, now they’re a mix of african and other european imigrants and because of decades of traditionalists arrogance, they were never inserted into the real society.
These people have several times got wild and there have been lots of fight in the streets (do not try to compare it with the bronx, or something like that, it has nothing to do!).
These kids are in fact the result of a lack of love, education, with a total social distortion on their minds.
Try to check some things about the french revolution of May’68, maybe you’ll see the parallels, just that they ain’t blonde and beautiful anymore… not at western eyes.
May 5th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
By the way, in the end… they only say a couple of things like “son of a b*tch”, “f*ck off”, “motherf*cker”…. as you see, it’s not the key to anywhere!
May 6th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Nice interview!
May 6th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Fubiz,
Love your site! Check it often.
Cheers,
Morgan
May 7th, 2008 at 1:30 am
The end says “Do you have fun at filming this?!? Son of a bitch”
May 7th, 2008 at 5:55 am
Stupid video !
Free violence, just an expemple given to the youth. They will follow this just to “be cool”.
I hate them boys, I hate this video.
Justice is as stupid and empty and this video.
They’re just a bad low quality Ersatz of Daft Punk, less the talent ….
May they disapear soon, nobody will miss their stupid bo-bo faces.
May 24th, 2008 at 7:51 am
Hello guys, iam french, i live in paris and i grew up in suburbs.
Iam very suprised that everoby is only looking to compare this video with a movie “la haine”, etc etc…
Its just an eye of the french social desease (or curse…)
Just the reality.
Of course its not hapening everyday (or the media don’t relay it) but in north of paris for exemple there is the most criminal department in france “seine saint denis” (called here “9.3″).
when it’s saturday night, or a national day off in france with partys, for sure you will find this kind close to the hot spot of paris.
For many parisians or tourists that’s a real big stress.
10 years ago, on champ elysées it was the mess with these guys and tourists suffured a lot.
Nowadays u just have more cops that’s why u don’t see many guys like that when u visit paris (the “hot” quaters are in the north of paris)
But When some bad guys from subburbs decide to “go down” to paris, this video describe what can happen.
I remember 10 years ago in “la defense” the business place in paris, highly frequented by familys or tourists during the week end (there are cinemas, shops etc), around 250 young guys came with metal bars, baseball “stuff” , knifes, and it was a real nightmare.
This kind of young guys are only 14/15yo for most of them, they don’t go to school, their parents are new migrants and don’t talk french and can’t take care about them so they stay outside of theirs buildings all day long and do bullshits.
so this video is just a mirror of dark face of the french society and the results of our mistakes (build ghettos in the suburbs after WW2 and park the workers over here).
A big huge stress
Sorry for my crappy english, i juste wanted to give the point of view of a parisians.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:48 am
JUSTICE RULES!
Their social point of view shows us the violence that this society create, i don´t think that anyone follow the example of the video because, as we can see, it´s a disgusting true.
And these kind of things doesn´t happen only in France, in everyplace, in every city we can find this violence, so ¨Bobby¨ doesn´t think well when he said this.
We must learn with this video, and think how we can really change all this stuff.
From Argentina, Goni.
August 1st, 2008 at 2:28 am
Yet another french guy, so excuse my terrible english.
I think the video matches greatly the Stress music, it’s really a great piece of art. Been living in Paris for 5 years, grew up in the surburbs (the famous Banlieue), can’t tell this kind of things happens often.
I think Gavras produced something similar to the movie La Haine (Hate), in a sense of exaggeration to force people in the know of what may happen to them or others.
But the last words (did you love filming this, you son of a bitch?) are the most important, as they give the key idea to the whole thing: violence is the main meal for mass media today, and they film it with full kindness as if it was a show, despite real people sometimes being hurt.
August 6th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Many thanks to Gabriel and Parisunderground, it’s really helpful to have a french viewpoint to this topic. Un discours très éclairé!
Watching the video it definitely has both positive and negative aspects.
On the one hand, from what people have said, there is definitely a very true sense to the video, the violence is realistic and portrays an angry divide between the Parisian social classes.
Unfortunately i don’t believe it executes it in a particularly intelligent manner and with knife and gun crime on the rise (i’m from London and it’s become a seriously problematic issue here) I honestly don’t think it’s sending out the right message.
Ok, it’s all well and good demonstrating the violence for what it is, but it’s not exactly encouraging that they are all wearing jackets emblazoned with a crucifix on. It’s like the 12th and 13th Century English crusades!
I’m an Atheist but if i was a Christian (and i think you’ll find they are a christian group - despite their protests in the interview they still mention on their Myspace page that they are a “Christian/Club” group in terms of genre!) I would be pretty pissed off, as it doesn’t exactly promote a positive image of the church!
I think the video is intentionally provocative and works to stir debate by people like us. I think cinematographically it is well shot but it really lacks in any intelligence. It just displays mindless violence and shows no remorse for authority. If it really is a social commentary, the director could have portrayed in a more intelligent manner!
September 5th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I think it’s a very well done, jarring videos. How many music videos actually make you feel stressed when you watch them?
It seems like a statement on the displaced, frustrated minority youth of Paris. Like the previous posters from France have noted, there’s a lot of discontent in the suburbs of Paris (the Banlieus). I studied in Paris and learned about it for half a year.
Basically, Paris is the opposite of most cities in America, in that the inner city is the nice, rich, clean part, and the outer areas, or suburbs, are where the ghettos are. The darker immigrants from Africa and Arab countries are generally relegated to these outer areas and are broadly discriminated against and not given a place in French society. They are unable to get upwardly mobile jobs, and are often refused housing in the nice parts of Paris. This builds up massive frustration, especially in the youth who feel victimized by a system that privileges “true French” (white) people and allows for blatant discrimination against those of ethnic origins.
The result: a lot of senseless violence and rioting, as seen very graphically in this video. It might be off putting to Americans, but if you understand the underlying cultural strife that’s been occurring in France for quite some time, it makes sense. It’s great of Justice to depict it in such a confrontational, non-judgmental manner. It is what it is, and it’s tragic. But you don’t need a preachy video to show that.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:25 am
has no one seen a clockwork orange?!?! anyone who thinks the end doesn’t tie anything together needs to watch this movie immediately. This video is brilliant because it is subtle.