New German Cinema, the solo project of Fear of Men’s Jessica Weiss, announces her debut album Pain Will Polish Me, out 27 March via Felte. Alongside the announcement, she shares lead single ‘My Mistake’ featuring guest vocals from Merchandise’s Carson Cox.
‘My Mistake’ is an alluring first look into Pain Will Polish Me, saturated in dark devotion. The accompanying video is the opening sequence to the dark-pop cinematic world of New German Cinema.
“The video sets the emotional tone for the record, suspended between eroticism and nightmare. It draws on cropped mirror framing – a favourite device of Douglas Sirk used to explore themes of emotional and physical entrapment and characters’ inner psychological conflicts – moments of dissociation, and the television as a symbol of alienation, inspired by my perennial inspiration, RW Fassbinder.”
Jessica Weiss
Video director Luke Bather shares insight into the process:
“Our initial starting point was, predictably, the New German Cinema movement. However, when we discussed the themes of the song in more depth, the video evolved into its own beast. Sex, death, repressed desire, and good old-fashioned Catholic Guilt all loom large in the video through a series of performance vignettes inspired by everything from the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder through to the paintings of Francis Bacon and everything in between. Adding to this, we have the spectre of Carson haunting the video as a ghostly analogue broadcast interspersed with archival footage of Berlin in the 1970s; an inescapable reminder of the past and a nod to the original New German Cinema movement.”
Upcoming live dates:
28 February – London, UK @ Sebright Arms
15 April – Brighton, UK @ The Folklore Rooms
Find New German Cinema on Instagram | Bandcamp