Trawling through my 2008 playlist, I re-stumbled across this utterly brilliant video for The Last Shadow Puppets‘ The Age of the Understatement. Videos don’t get much grander than this: sweeping shots of Mother Russia, towering iconic onion-domed Moscow architecture, ice-rinks, Orthodox priests, a rousing chorus of Russian soldiers… and Alex Turner (yannow, that chap from the Arctic Monkeys) and Miles Kane riding Soviet tanks.

And what a thundering tune! Beats Muse’s Knight of Cydonia right outta the water.

The clip was directed by Frenchman Romain Gavras (son of filmmaker Costa Gavras, but clearly a damn good director in his own right). Romain also shot Simian Mobile Disco’s I Believe and Justice’s Stress, and is a cofounder of the collective Kourtrajmé .

At last we have the visuals! And they’re totally apt: dark, stormy, dramatic, and featuring Poseidon-esque ghouly giant band members towering out of crashing waves and craggycliffs scaring the living cr*p out their diminutive sailing counterparts. Watch it on Babelgum.

Take a gander at the making-of too, and you’ll recognise the director as Richard Ayoade (AKA Marurice Moss from The IT Crowd – the credits of which were done by my fave animation gurus, Shynola, who just did the new Coldplay vid):

Ayoade is a talented guy: as well as being a stand-up comedian, he also directed the Monkeys’ clip for Fluorescant Adolescant, plus the 2007 Arctic Monkeys Live at the Apollo DVD, The Last Shadow Puppets clips for Standing Next To Me and My Mistakes Were Made For You, Vampire Weekend’s Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, Kasabian’s Vlad The Impaler, and the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Heads Will Roll.

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