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A Unique Pairing
Lowenstein & INXS: a unique pairing
Lowenstein's working relationship with INXS is most interesting when discussed in light of the very transient nature of making music videos. Very rarely does a director continue to make music videos for such an elongated period, and with such frequency throughout this time. In fact, it has long been considered that making music videos is a stepping stone to feature film, or other work; that in itself, music video direction is only a transistional occupation* *.
It is even more rare for a director to work with a band as many times as Lowenstein has worked with INXS. In other cases in this industry, a director/band pairing on making only two videos would be considered a lengthy relationship. Without knowing the full details of the behind the scenes workings, without being able to access the headspace of the artists involved, one can only imagine the the two parties found a place where their (where any) artistic ideals and hopes for INXS' music videos connected. Obviously, from 1984 to the present day, they continued to inspire each other, Lowenstein believing that INXS' songs still gave him something he was inspired to visually represent, and INXS believing that Lowenstein knew best how to represent the band.
With Lowenstein's videos, INXS would certainly have no place to complain that Lowenstein's visual style was unchanging and boring. View "Listen Like Thieves", "What You Need", "Never Tear Us Apart" and "The Gift" one after the other, and you will rarely see a cliche repeated. Except of course, Michael Hutchence playing up to the camera, but there was little we could (or would have wanted to) do about that.
Lowenstein's association with INXS and Michael Hutchence led directly to his creating Dogs In Space. In 1987 he made a longform concert video of the Australian Made tour, which featured INXS, Jimmy Barnes and the Divinyls among others. He went on to work with INXS' good friends U2 on both regular music video clips and on longform music videos.
Lowenstein has also made many commercials, including an interesting assignment making an election campaign commercial for the Sandinista Government of Nicaragua.
Lowenstein's work with INXS and others on music video has kept him in the public eye thorughout his career, as well as continuing to fund his film work. In 1984 Lowenstein said "Rock clips are my main source of income. If I relied on making feature films I'd probably get an opportunity only about once every three or four years." ( Ken Brass, p.4)
He elaborated on similar sentiments around the time of release of the Full Moon, Dirty Hearts special. Gerard Knapp wrote, "'Other than using a film camera, it's such a different discipline,' Lowenstein said of shooting music videos and drama. The director of Strikebound, Dogs In Space, and most recently Say a Little Prayer would prefer to concentrate on features, 'but it's such a long time between gigs.'
'It's extremely hard to make a living doing feature films,' he said. Lowenstein found that after two years effort on Prayer, he had earned a lower weekly rate than the runner. 'And that was being writer and director.'
But Lowenstein would rather be poor than 'an assembly line director'. He's also dismayed at how previously adventurous musicians had changed their ideals. 'A band that came to me 10 years ago to make an interesting and different video now comes to me and says 'make the singer look sexy, make the girls love him'. I'm not into cosmetic surgery.'" (Gerard Knapp, p.15)
As of October 1998, Lowenstein is working on a screen adaption of John Birmingham's book, He Died With a Felafel in His Hand, already mooted to be starring Noah Taylor as "Danny".
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