Production The video, directed by
Laurent Boutonnat, was shot for five days in April 1987 in
La Chapelle-en-Vercors,
France. This Polydor production cost about 450,000 francs (70,000 euros) and lasts 11:30, which was then the more expensive video of all time The video, whose scene takes place in the snowy
steppes, was inspired by the story "
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in a
Russian version, during the revolution of October 1917, as evidenced by the archival images used throughout the video. It features Tristana (played by Farmer), Rasoukine (played by sculptor Vladimir Ivtchenko), a
tsarina (played by Sophie Tellier, a dancer, who had also featured as Farmer's enemy in "
Libertine"), a
monk, seven
dwarfs, several soldiers, horses, birds and wolves. Sophie Tellier actively took part in the recruitment and rehearsal of the dancers featuring in the video, and confessed to being quite surprised by the power of the special effects used when she saw the video for the first time. Initially, the furniture of the dwarfs' house was not designed on the right scale, which upset the designer Emmanuel Sorin and made Farmer laugh. Dangerous wolves used in the video were actually disguised
huskies, which belonged to Christian and Gaétan, Boutonnat's friends, who owned a farm in
Normandy. the scene in which Tristana is falling on a snowy slope refers to the fall of a cradle in
the stairs in the 1925
silent film The Battleship Potemkin. The video, in its production as well as in its theme, It is dedicated to Max Gautier, Farmer's father, who died a few months earlier. and eventually broadcast for the first time on 6 May 1987 at Cinéma Normandie on the
Champs-Élysées. However, given its unusual length, television channels were reluctant to broadcast it, and thereby Boutonnat decided to release a video album entitled
Les Clips that contained the first four videos of Farmer. == Critical reception ==