Martin Rossiter On 'Is It Over?'
(XFM)


“We have a mutual friend, Gene and Irvine Welsh, whose name is Bob. 
And he introduced us to each other basically. Irvine fell in love with 
the songs and he had this plan for a 15, 20 minute ‘Wuthering Heights’
-esque, ‘Blair Witch Project’-ish short  ffilm. A lot of it’s in Irvine’s 
head, which is a fairly vast place, and the video itself for ‘Is It Over?’ 
is the dream sequence from that film".

“We hit it off ‘cause he’s a big hearted fella - he lacks cynicism and his 
work lacks irony. In a way, he’s terribly un-British which is one of the 
things I like about him and, in our own little way, I think we are too. 
There’s just a big-hearted feel to us, and I think he fell in love with 
that".

“You have to see the whole thing to really get it, and the whole thing 
isn’t finished yet. It’s due to be completed at the end of December. 
I think for Irvine it was more just one of those magical intangible 
things you sometimes feel, there’s that magic and I think he viewed the 
video in that sense. I think he almost detached his brain and let his 
heart lead".

“As far as the whole film’s concerned, obviously there’s a plot and 
there’s a script, which we’ve been involved in. I don’t really want to 
give too much away in case it changes too radically and I look like a 
fool! As a basic synopsis, it would be fair to say that it’s quite a 
baroque, romantic drama. And in the film we ourselves, the band, 
represent some kind of escape, I suppose is the best way of putting it".

“I think it fits the song, emotionally. It’s beautifully shot, you shut 
your eyes and it’s quite cinematic, the song, it sweeps and it pans and 
it’s grand and it’s not afraid of being a little bit pompous. I think 
it’s quite an important record and I think it’s quite an important piece 
of film. It’s an emotional interpretation rather than a literary one".


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