The music video for James Blake's "Retrograde" tells the story of a female protagonist revisiting her past. Throughout the video, she is shown isolated and alone as she rides her motorcycle through empty fields and a deserted house. Scenes are shot from her point of view to convey her fear and uncertainty about returning to her past. As the video progresses, signs of deterioration like a falling comet represent the crumbling of her past. By the end, the protagonist has lost her sanity and her surroundings are destroyed, reflecting the themes of isolation and loss in the song.

1. RETROGRADE
JAMES BLAKE
Retrograde means to go back to a position or in time. The lyrics tell a story of the female
protagonist growing up in isolation, in the video she’s revisiting her past which seems to be
frozen in time. Throughout the video many close ups and extreme close ups are used of
the protagonist as she is the focus in this narrative plus this exaggerates her solidarity.
By Siobhan Chareka

2. CAMERA WORK, EDITING & MISE-EN-SCENE
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The video opens with an ariel shot of a comet falling
to earth. There is a shot reverse shot between the
comet throughout the video the only person aware of
this is the female protagonist this presents her reality
of change which only she is aware of. The reaction
shot draws attention to her eyes which could be seen
as her being fearful of what to come. The audience is
aware of this fear as a comet has connotations of
destruction.
•
The video follows Goodwin’s convention of illustration
through costume and location. Her isolation is
emphasized as she is riding a motorbike which is a
vehicle that accommodates one person only plus
there are no other vehicles on the long winding road
which runs through empty green fields. This isolation
is further exaggerated in positioning as she takes up
less than a third of the frame in this shot.
•
As the protagonist’s journey progress’ the
surroundings increase as she’s now riding the
motorcycle through houses, plus her size in the
frame has also increased. This shows how she’s
returning to an area she is familiar with however she
still remains in isolation.

3. CAMERA WORK, EDITING & MISE-EN-SCENE
•
Between 00:58 and 1:21 we no longer see the
protagonist’s movement instead scenes are now from
the point of view of the protagonist through a mixture
of extreme close ups and wide shots. These shots
show the new location of a house the protagonist was
once familiar with, the audience are aware of her
uncertainty as her movements are very slow and
cautious. This effect would’ve probably been created
through editing as filming at such a slow speed would
be time consuming.
•
Randomly scattered across the house is falling matter
from the comet, this represents the crumbling of the
girl’s past. The house seems dirty, low-lit and
abandoned plus the sofas have covers on them which
connotes that whoever lives there is moving out.
•
For the first time in the video we see the artist.
Andrew Goodwin’s theory would label this shot a meat
shot which is a tool of marketization.

4. CAMERA WORK, EDITING & MISE-EN-SCENE
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The protagonist is shown to be startled in a reaction shot
as she enters a new room. This is because her presence
has frozen time. Here the audience sees more off the
degrading comet and people we know are her friends
also frozen, the lyrics are directly illustrating what the
audience sees in the video “And your friends are gone.
And your friends won't come”
•
There is one scene of disjuncture throughout the video
where we see a young female dancing shown in a wide
shot unusually, she’s the only person conscious but she
does not communicate with the protagonist, reaffirming
isolation. Furthermore the protagonist’s costume is still all
black and her helmet remains, this use of mise-en-scene
casts her away from the others as they are all in similar
costume.
•
This video is has many special effects and one noticeable
effect is the gradual disappearance of the protagonist’s
face behind the motorcycle helmet. This effect reflects the
lyrics as Blake repeatedly asks the protagonist to “show
me [him] where you fit” this is a rhetorical command as
the lady fits in no where as not even her friends
recognise her, hence her face disappearing.

5. CAMERA WORK, EDITING & MISE-EN-SCENE
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•
•
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Once again there’s a brief meat shot of James Blake which
gradually fades into another scene. The use of these meat
shots could be just to act as a bridge between scenes
rather than a tool of marketization.
The next scenes are outside, there’s a low angle shot with
a tree dominating the frame suddenly the comet shoots
past showing how it’s getting closer to earth.
A match cut is used as the protagonist at the door in a wide
shot. She’s dancing strangely, her moves seem limbless
she and she follows the movement of the comet,
something was running away from is now controlling her.
Plus her behaviour reflects the lyrics as the line “You’re
alone now” is repeated four times.
The protagonist seems to be in a haze as she’s spinning
around the living room uncontrollably followed by close ups
of her “friends”. The protagonist’s loss of sanity and her
past matches the loop of the chorus. The video ends with
the garden in patches of fire, from this the audience would
assume the comet landed and destroyed everything.

6. MUSIC VIDEO THEORIES: GOODWIN VS MULVEY
“Retrograde” follows Goodwin’s theory as there is a clear relationship
between the visuals and the lyrics. This is evident through camera shots for
example the wide shot of the protagonist riding alone in empty fields to her
placing in frames as she’s always shot alone. Plus mise-en-scene connotes
the message of the lyrics through costume which separates her from
everybody else, the lighting remains dull throughout the video with very little
lighting which shows there is no escape or hope for the protagonist (the
only bright source comes from the comet which is there to destruct).
Meat shots are used several times however I think they are not used to
Goodwin’s purpose as they act as a bridge between two scenes plus Blake
never directly looks at the camera. The editing is cut to beat as it always
matched the different paces of the song for example when the song’s pace
increased at 2:35 the rate by which the scenes changed increased also.
The video has no aspects that follows Laura Mulvey’s theory, it may star a
female however there was no male gaze nor voyeurism throughout.