Synopsis

Shot in stark black and white, "XXL" places Mylene Farmer at the front of a speeding steam locomotive, where she sings with her arms outstretched as the train cuts through a California landscape. The footage alternates between Farmer, the engine crew, and a diverse group of passengers traveling together. The train becomes a powerful image of movement, desire, and shared destiny, while Farmer's poised yet exposed performance gives the video a striking sense of danger and liberation.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed in August 1995 in Fillmore, California, on the Fillmore and Western Railway.

• The locomotive was a genuine early-20th-century steam engine rather than a studio prop. It had previously appeared in the 1992 film "Chaplin."

• Farmer was actually secured to the front of the moving locomotive. The sequence was not created with a stationary train or obvious rear projection.

• The singer reportedly remained attached to the engine for nearly five hours in temperatures approaching 40 degrees Celsius. She burned herself twice during the shoot.

• The production required extensive safety paperwork in the United States because of the plan to film Farmer on the front of a moving train.

• Farmer's costume was designed by Thierry Mugler, whose sculptural fashion helped define the glamorous, more assertive visual image associated with her "Anamorphosee" era.

• The video was filmed over two days: one focused on Farmer and another on the passengers and other extras.

• The estimated budget is usually given as approximately 80,000 euros, although some accounts have cited a substantially higher figure.

• "XXL" premiered on French television on September 18, 1995, one day before the single's release.