Morrissey Foretelling The Death of Diana

11/12/2006

The sixteen minute video suggests – through an exquisitely constructed montage of found film and video footage, appropriated song fragments, and a meticulously researched voice-over narrative – that Morrissey, the former lead singer of The Smiths, somehow anticipated the 1997 death of Princess Diana via cryptic clues and asides secreted in his lyrics or embedded in images on Smiths’ record sleeves or in their pop videos. Focusing on a track-by-track analysis of The Smiths’ seminal 1986 Album “The Queen Is Dead” Laumann’s film adopts the form of a conspiracy-theory-cum-urban-myth, and despite its labyrinthine twists-and turns, seems to make absolute sense: somehow proving its case, suggesting that perhaps Morrissey – albeit aided and abetted by extraterrestrial forces – did indeed possess clairvoyant powers.