Shia LaBeouf, former Disney Channel star turned Transformers action hero, seems to have grown out of that awkward phase he went through for so many years. And to prove it, he’s getting naked.
LaBeouf takes it all off in a new video for Icelandic band Sigur Ros, which was made on a $10,000 budget by the winner of the band’s Mystery Film Experiment contest. The winner, Alma Har’el, chose one song from the band’s new album–“Fjögur Píanó”–and made a video with no instructions or input from the band. What came out was a crazy mix of violence, butterflies, and genitalia. Sounds like a winner to me, so I checked it out, and I have to say, there’s something oddly hypnotic about it. I can see why Sigur Ros chose the video to play as a backdrop to their song, which has no lyrics and is all about the piano. It’s a sort of sad commentary on our addictions and how destructive we are with one another, and ourselves. I’m not normally a fan of this kind of filmmaking, but I rather enjoyed the sheer weirdness of it, and LaBeouf’s adroit attempt at being outside his comfort zone.
Har’el says the video is about addiction, and the death of something beautiful that comes very fast. It’s heavy on symbolism and almost looks more like a dream sequence than anything with a narrative. The director also says that the nude scenes weren’t part of her original vision, but rather something that just came about over the 5-day shoot; she kept them in because they were organic, and because it just didn’t matter in the moment that she was filming a major U.S. star completely in the buff.
“That’s the difference between working within a corporate system and something that artistically takes you places you wouldn’t expect,” she said. “To me, it’s erotic, but it’s not selling anything.”
The video is below for your viewing enjoyment, but there’s nudity and interpretive dance involved, so if either of those offend your sensibilities, avert your eyes. NSFW, obviously.
