Lenny Kravitz ＂Believe＂ - Lenny Kravitz ＂Believe＂

JUL 01 1993 · 12:00

Lenny Kravitz ＂Believe＂ - Lenny Kravitz ＂Believe＂ (1993) Director: Michel Gondry Era: Post-Grunge Alt-Rock & Neo-Soul Revival (1993) - Peak of early-90s rock balladry, bridging classic rock retro-revivalism with spiritual lyricism, set against the rise of MTV-era concept video auteurism. High curatorial value as a historically significant intersection of two emerging forces in 1993 visual culture: Michel Gondry's nascent international career and Lenny Kravitz's peak commercial moment. The video is a documented precursor to Gondry's celebrated surrealist-cinematic approach, and an early example of prestige film homage deployed as music video concept. The BUF Compagnie VFX work is technically significant for early digital compositing in the medium. Suitable for Tier 1 archival treatment given the confirmed director provenance, multi-source verification, and cultural-historical significance. Context: Released in May 1993, 'Believe' arrived at the height of Lenny Kravitz's commercial breakthrough following Are You Gonna Go My Way. The video captures a pivotal cultural moment: the collision of early-90s retro-rock revivalism with the emerging MTV auteur video movement. By enlisting Michel Gondry, then a little-known French director weeks away from helming Björk's 'Human Behaviour', Kravitz positioned the video as high-concept arthouse cinema rather than conventional performance footage. The Kubrick homage signaled a new ambition for rock music videos: referencing prestige cinematic history to elevate the pop artifact. Simultaneously, the song's spiritual themes of faith and self-belief aligned with a broader 1993 cultural undercurrent of gospel-inflected rock, following in the tradition of artists like Prince and Stevie Wonder. The video's cosmic imagery also intersected with the early-90s cultural fascination with space (the Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990; renewed public space consciousness was prevalent). Director notes: Directed in 1993, one of Gondry's earliest high-profile international commissions, produced concurrently with his landmark Björk 'Human Behaviour' video the same year, marking his emergence as a global music video auteur. The video is an explicit homage to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), featuring Kravitz in the role of an astronaut navigating a cosmic environment. Visual effects were executed by French post-production company BUF Compagnie, whose photorealistic digital compositing was cutting-edge for 1993. The Deutsches Filminstitut cited the video as 'pretty close' to the look of Kubrick's original film. The video's slow pacing (avg shot 12.31s), dark luminance profile (brightness 57.66/255), and warm toning (color temp 2.67) reflect Gondry's formative arthouse sensibility, treating the music video as a short cinematic work rather than a promotional clip.