Synopsis

A woman is pulled into a disturbing dream world where reality, memory, and fantasy constantly overlap. She is dragged through dark woods, drifts along a river in a small boat, and witnesses her own funeral, while hypnotic figures and sensual tableaux appear around her. The video unfolds like a fever dream rather than a conventional narrative, moving through ominous, erotic, and surreal images before building toward an extravagant, hallucinatory climax inspired by classic cinema and psychological nightmares.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was released in December 2010 to accompany "Invisible Light," the third and final single from the album "Night Work."

• The song's album version runs for more than six minutes, while the single edit used for the video was shortened to roughly four minutes.

• Sir Ian McKellen contributes spoken-word vocals to the song. In the video, his voice is associated with a hypnotist portrayed by another actor.

• The visual concept draws on the unsettling dream sequences of "Rosemary's Baby" and "Belle de Jour," while also incorporating imagery associated with Elizabeth Taylor's portrayal of Cleopatra.

• The production was shot on 16mm film, giving the images a grainy, tactile texture rather than a polished digital appearance.

• Computer-generated geometric graphics were projected onto the performers and sets during filming. The visual effects team described the look as psycho-geometric and computer-graphics driven.

• The production used a relatively modest budget, but the filmmakers compensated with an unusually dense collection of costumes, sets, effects, and surreal inserts.

• The creative team organized the film around four visual themes, each with its own group of subconscious images, allowing the video to function as a loose dream narrative instead of a strictly linear story.

• "Invisible Light" won Best Art Direction and Design in a Video at the 2011 UK Music Video Awards.