INXS classics reimagined for Seven Sins short film
A new short film by US director Amy Tinkham called Original Sin – The Seven Sins comes with a soundtrack that reimagines 13 INXS classics.
This was one of the projects that INXS mentor Christopher Murphy was working on around the time of his death earlier this year.
Tinkham said the project was meant to be a live show, and one day it will be “with all the acting and dancing, but on a bigger scale”.
Murphy told her at the outset to “take the catalogue and make a show out of it, and let the music tell you what to do”.
For the director, London Grammar’s piano ballad shade of ‘Devil Inside’ was the starting point.
INXS themselves had from the beginning shape-shifted their songs on B-sides but Original Sin – The Seven Sins digs not only into the visuals and light/shade in the music, but takes it into the sway of dance and choreographed routines.
The film is itself an adaption of Italian writer Dante Alighieri’s 14th century poem Inferno and the spiritual journey via the Seven Sins of Purgatory — pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust.
It is seen through the eyes of broken-hearted Jane who starts her quest while isolated during last year’s pandemic, to reach hope and identity.
Jane is played by actress/dancer Autumn Miller who shot to fame as the dancer in Imagine Dragons’ ‘Bad Liar’ video.
Sharing the expedition is Trevor Jackson, a musician and actor (Superfly, Grown-ish, American Crime); and ballet prodigy Fabrice Calmels, who entered the Paris Opera Ballet at age 11 and plays Angel.
Tinkham said many of the scenes were shot in one take.
“To tell the artists to go for it, rip things up in one take, was fun and off the cuff.”
Soundtracking Jane’s quest includes an ethereal ‘Suicide Blonde’ from Australian chanteuse George Alice, a French language ‘Mystify’ from electropop singer Loane, a dancefloor ‘Mediate’ courtesy of Tricky, an electro-soul ballad ‘Need You Tonight’ from Trevor Jackson, Michael Hutchence’s sultry cover of Eric Burdon & War’s 1970 ‘Spill The Wine’, and Sweden’s Ida Redig on ‘Taste It’ and ‘Kill The Pain’.
The use of young talent from all over the world could see these INXS hits rediscovered by a younger post-streaming audience, suggested INXS’ Kirk Pengilly.
“Some of these songs are over 30 years old and we performed them up to 2,000 times. So you can only hear them that way.
“So to have someone take that song, pull it apart and put them back together in a different way is inspiring, it’s fantastic. I was blown away by the whole project.”
What would Michael Hutchence think of Original Sin – The Seven Sins and its soundtrack?
“He’d have loved it,” Pengilly said. “He was always pushing for us to go into different reactions and explore new sounds and new landscapes.
“The whole remix thing, Michael very much championed that. He’d be super-proud of it.”
Original Sin – The Seven Sins will only be available for 48 hours from July 17 on the Veep platform, with tickets available here.
The soundtrack is out through Petrol/ UMe on July 16.
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