5 Duran Duran Videos That Already Look Like They Were Directed by David Lynch

On Monday it was announced David Lynch will direct Duran Duran's live-streaming concert on March 23, which led to a collective, "Wait, what?" across the Internet. Lynch -- known for cerebral movies like Blue Velvet and this-makes-no-sense-to-any-rational-human-being movies like Mulholland Drive -- may not seem like the go-to point man for an '80s new wave pop group like Duran Duran. Then again, you may have forgotten just how well orchestrated and bizarre some of Duran Duran's videos actually are. (Remember, this is a band that got their name from the Jane Fonda movie, Barbarella.) In preparation for whatever Lynch's version of a Duran Duran concert is going to look like (here's hoping that it takes a series of 10 clues to interpret), let's take a refresher course on five Duran Duran videos that already look like they were directed by David Lynch.

"Wild Boys" (1985)

Russell Mulcahy directed a good portion of Duran Duran's video's during the heyday of their first four albums. "Wild Boys" takes the prize for being one of the oddest videos to be released by a mainstream pop band in the early-to-mid-1980s. At an unheard of cost of over one million dollars at the time, Duran Duran released this little ode to a torturous apocalypse as the only original song on their Arena live album. Lead singer Simon Le Bon sings -- strapped to some sort of windmill apparatus that dunks his head in water with each revolution -- while a robot-head-looking extra from A.I. observes... and occasionally breathes fire. Well, that's before the tornado appears. I mean, look, we can only hope that Lynch tortures each member of the band by making them watch their own videos as we see here. I've never been one to use the term "hot mess," but, if I were to start...

"New Moon on Monday" (1984)

The initial 90 seconds of the video for "New Moon on Monday" are, of course, entirely in French -- mixing scenes of a stage performer with some sort of flashback imagery of a captive woman. Here's what's great: this is the short version. Somewhere out there is a 17-minute version of Simon Le Bon as a resistance leader who helps stage a coup against an oppressive regime (at least, I'm pretty sure that's what's going on), using a bow and arrow -- and later a flag -- as a weapon. If only real revolutions were fought with flags against a military armed with plastic light swords and fireworks.

"Girls on Film" (1981)

Filmed before music videos became a sensation, Duran Duran apparently never realized that this video would be something played on regular television. What was so shocking in a simple little 1981 Duran Duran music video? Well: a lesbian make-out scene, a provocative massage given to a sumo wrestler, a half-naked woman riding an almost naked man wearing a horse head (who later gets a scrub down!), and an exposed woman's breast being rubbed with ice -- all of which may have led parents to not being particularly down with their kids watching the MTV (or, for certain unlucky kids who didn't have MTV, Night Tracks and Friday Night Videos). Or it may have just been the full on nude female mud wrestling -- who's to say? (By the way, NSFW!)

"Hungry Like The Wolf" (1982)

The second Mulcahy entry on the list, "Hungry Like the Wolf" is probably the most known of all of Duran Duran's videos, but that doesn't mean it's not still really bizarre. The band is in Sri Lanka, wearing pastel colors (of course), when we first meet Le Bon -- sitting at a table, unimpressed by the man trying to entertain him with a pet monkey. So unimpressed, in fact, that Le Bon eventually flips over his table in a mad rage (no wonder the locals in places like Sri Lanka think Westerners are rude). The rest of the video deals with Le Bon's obsession with an Indian woman -- going as far to look for her in a local lagoon -- eventually culminating in a hybrid make-out/wrestling match with the object of Le Bon's desires. At points in the video, it does appear that Le Bon's fellow band mates are searching for him, but, often, they are just seen getting sauced on local libations.

"The Chauffeur" (1983)

Duran Duran produced a video for "The Chauffeur" even though the song was never released as a single. The band doesn't appear in the video, but a scantly clad woman who -- let's say -- has some sexual urges does appear, as the passenger in the back of a car. And then there's another woman in a hotel room who... OK, you get the picture. The two eventually meet and perform some sort of hand dance, while a third woman -- who is shirtless -- dances. Though, the third woman might actually be a male chauffeur who morphed into the form of a woman at that point in time for whatever reason (don't judge!). Also, yeah, NSFW. (But a little safer than "Girls on Film." Put it this way: if you're going to get fired for watching a NSFW video at work, you may as well go all out and choose "Girls on Film" in this case).

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