Téléphone — Argent trop cher le Clip

JUL 01 1980 · 12:00

Téléphone — Argent trop cher le Clip (1980) Director: Julien Temple Era: French New Wave Rock (1980) - The dawn of the French rock music video era, coinciding with the peak of punk's post-wave influence on continental European youth culture and the nascent MTV/clip format industry. High. This is a confirmed-director, confirmed-year artifact representing a singular convergence: France's most important rock band at their commercial breakthrough moment, helmed by one of the UK's most significant early music video directors. As one of the earliest high-profile French rock promotional clips, it is a primary source document for the history of both the French rock movement and the European music video industry. Context: Released in 1980 as the sole single from Téléphone's third album 'Au cœur de la nuit', 'Argent trop cher' marks a watershed moment in French popular music. Téléphone were the vanguard of a movement that proved French-language rock could carry genuine punk-adjacent energy and commercial weight — something considered nearly impossible in the French music industry of the mid-1970s. The song's chart success (#16 in France, early 1981) and the commissioning of a music video directed by internationally prominent British director Julien Temple reflects the band's label ambitions and the growing legitimacy of the 'clip' format as a promotional tool in France, predating MTV's 1981 launch. Director notes: Per IMDb (tt7566994), the 'Argent trop cher' clip was directed by Julien Temple in 1980 — the same year Temple was actively building his music video career off the back of his Sex Pistols work. The video was produced to support the single drawn from Téléphone's third studio album 'Au cœur de la nuit', recorded at Studio Pathé in Boulogne-Billancourt and Electric Lady Studios in New York during the summer of 1980. The single became the first charting single in Téléphone's career, reaching #16 on French charts in early 1981. Temple's involvement reflects the band's label investment in international-quality promo production at this pivotal commercial moment.