Rhetorical Devices and Concepts

Director Michel Gondry created a music video for Cibo Matto’s “Sugar Water” in 1996 that applied hyperbaton throughout the video.  Gondry presents two frames at the start of the video where the frame on the left moved forward in time and the right side moved backward.  Two unnamed females dominate each frame, one clad in blue on the left and the other in red on the right.  They each move through a series of minor events as the combined narrative of both frames leads the characters to one shared, life-changing moment which carried the emphasis of the video.

The woman in blue crashes her car into the woman in red just outside their respective apartments.  In that moment, the camera focuses on a mysterious note carried by the woman in red as she lay on the ground.  A slight reflection between the two frames shows the note reading, “You killed me.”  From that point, the women switch frames with red moving forward and blue backward through the chain of events leading to the accident.  Each frame presents a successful stand-alone narrative, as each simply switches the perspective to the alternate character.  However, the hyperbaton, through displaying both frames concurrently, emphasized the moment shared between the two women.  The note’s message equally applies to both.  The woman in blue nearly killed the other woman and now retraces her steps to the moment.  Mentally, she will never be the same due to this event.  Because she survives the fatal moment, red receives a new lease on life.  She now moves forward with her new life, blazing a new path, as she goes to her apartment after the accident.

The mysterious note reflected on the right.

Gondry, Michel, dir. “Sugar Water.” Perf. Cibo Matto. 2003. The Work of Director Michel Gondry. NY: Palm Pictures, 2003.  Also available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN9auBn6Jys&ob=av2e