A few months after the sinking of his Broadway play, The Last Ship, our favorite singing ex-cop has taken his talents to another medium. That would be French music videos, and the clip in question is “Stolen Car,” released Oct. 13.
With Mylène Farmer—a French pop star who might be the Madonna of France were Madonna not already the Madonna of France (Madônna! Madônna!)—Sting stars in this bilingual romp about grand theft auto, chunky diamond earrings and having sex with Mylène Farmer. (The latter has provided fodder for national discussion since releasing the video for her song “Libertine,” which features the first instance of full-frontal female nudity in a major music video.)
“Stolen Car” begins under the shadow of Nôtre Dame, with a bearded Sting fruitlessly fondling door handles. Then, in a flash of product placement, a Maserati Quattroporte appears. Its driver stops and hands the keys to the bedraggled singer, because what Parisian valet doesn’t look like Matt Hooper’s body double?
Sting takes off. Then, a mélange fantastique of medium-speed urban driving, mature necking and scarf-dancers in tunnels. The final shot, of the slim, older couple cuddling on the banks of the Seine, is almost too French to function.
It’s not Sting’s first dip in the automotive marketing pool. The video for “Desert Rose,” his surprise 1999 hit, featured a new Jaguar S-Type whose logos the camera seemed to always be catching. And now that we look at it, the wildly cavorting violin player featured there could be a close relation of the tunnel dancer in “Stolen Car.”
Given his Broadway bruising, it’s good to see Sting back in his comfort zone.
