Award-winning singer-songwriter Stromae recently tapped celebrated th1ng director Sylvain Chomet to create the music video for his song “Carmen.” The three-time Oscar nominee (The Triplets of Belleville, L'illusionniste, and The Old Lady and the Pigeons), BAFTA and César award winning director created an animated world for Stromae that delivers a powerful message about social media, in this case, Twitter. Set to the tune of Carmen’s “Habanera”, the song and video parallel the opera by relating the often-absurd behaviors of being in love with those associated with Twitter use.
The beautiful animation begins with a small bluebird perched on Stromae’s window while he’s distracted by his cell phone. As the video progresses, the bird grows and becomes more menacing, symbolizing how social media addiction detracts from our ability to enjoy our surroundings and build genuine relationships. Chomet uses his signature hand-drawn style to illustrate how perilous social media is to human interaction and, if used excessively, the detriment it causes to society as a whole. Chomet wraps up the sequence with a new bluebird on a new window of a familiar face, adding to the overall message of social media addiction.