Product Details

• Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Atlantic / Wea
• VHS Release Date: November 17, 1998
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305214808
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #248,144 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

With her skittering, piano-based melodies, fluttering voice, and penchant for mingling High Romantic imagery with impish surrealism, Tori Amos invites the love-hate relationships that define objects of cult worship. Except that Amos's particular cult long ago reached mass popularity on both sides of the Atlantic, a commercial success borne out by the length and scale of this anthology, which collects all of her music videos to date. For her fans, of course, the package is a commercial slam dunk and instant hit, but even nonbelievers may find themselves mesmerized by these consistently inventive, beautifully shot miniatures.

Like her predecessor, British singer-songwriter Kate Bush, Amos suggests a steely waif: her petite beauty and tremulous songs project a fragility that her artistic nerve and lyric provocations belie. However ethereal her image, Amos brings intense focus to her evident love affair with the camera; pale blue eyes, paler skin, and a nimbus of crimson hair make her a pre-Raphaelite poster girl, but she attacks her close-ups with a directness that anchors most of these clips. It's enough to make you forget the frequent obscurity of those lyrics, which her fans pore over like Holy Writ.

Amos also succeeds in building a visual style as coherent as her lyrics aren't. Although a committee of different directors and cinematographers appears in the credits, the artist has achieved a consistency in the use of simple but striking compositions (often using stark black or white backdrops and cut-out vignettes as framing devices), evocative special effects, and superb cinematography. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Complete Videos de Tori Amos 1991-1998, October 29, 2004

By 

Andrew (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tori Amos: Complete Videos: 1991-1998 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Beautiful. Creative. Black & White. Sad. Mesmerizing. Lustrous.
That, folks, is Tori Amos. And a heck of a lot more. Just don't call her boring.

1. Silent All These Years - Little Earthquakes
2. Cornflake Girl (European Version) - Under The Pink
2. Past The Mission - Under The Pink
4. China - Little Earthquakes
5. Raspberry Swirl - From The Choirgirl Hotel
6. Hey Jupiter (The Dakota Version) - Hey Jupiter EP
7. Spark - From The Choirgirl Hotel
8. Caught A Lite Sneeze - Boys For Pele
9. Winter - Little Earthquakes
10. Talula (The Tornado Mix) - Boys For Pele
11. God - Under The Pink
12. Crucify - Little Earthquakes
13. Jackie's Strength - From The Choirgirl Hotel
14. Cornflake Girl (US Version) - Under The Pink
15. Pretty Good Year - Under The Pink

Duration: A little over an hour.

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely essential for Toriphiles, August 25, 2002

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tori Amos: Complete Videos: 1991-1998 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This 1998 release gives us 15 Tori Amos videos, spanning material from her first four albums. I don't watch a lot of videos these days, but Tori's almost demand to be watched, studied, and enjoyed. I can't pretend to understand all of these videos, but I love to watch them. Forgive me if I go on and on about this, but Tori is just stunningly gorgeous, possessing a natural beauty that rivals the beauty of her music.

These videos are not in chronological order, and I don't know if there is a meaning behind the arrangement. We begin with "Silent All These Years," which is marked by stop-gap photography and highly contrasting white colors toward the end, all of which gives Tori an ethereal look. The European version of Cornflake Girl is next, and I find it much superior to the American version found later in this collection. It begins and ends with Tori lying among fallen leaves, looking stunning in a white dress; the heart of the video is in black and white, and it contains a hint of a Wizard of Oz motif among a number of visual images. Past the Mission is one of those videos I don't understand very well; Tori leads two girls, a teenager and a younger girl, Spanish-type village; the women of the town follow her until they meet a priest, at which point all of the women lie prostrate on the ground for the priest to make his way past them; the village men follow the priest, and the women all walk outside of the town, seeming much happier after doing so. China is an interesting visual treat, with Tori wearing a dress made to look like the rocks of the beach she is on.

I absolutely love Raspberry Swirl. It features a dark-haired Tori in a low-cut dark dress following a young lad through a dance club, ending with a meal wherein young Tori-like girls turn into pigs. I love the part where Tori starts jerking and flopping around inside an elevator. I think one secret behind Tori's beauty is the fact that she does not try to look beautiful. In the video for the hauntingly beautiful song Hey Jupiter, she appears in a trancelike state, with black mascara smeared all around her eyes. Caught a Lite Breeze features a more sophisticated Tori look which somehow reminds me of the 50s--full of imagery, it is a drama played out by Tori's ghost. Tori makes a dazzlingly beautiful ghost, I must say. Winter is a rather simple video that matches perfectly with this incredible song from Little Earthquakes. Talula is another favorite of mine. If I am not mistaken, there is one quick shot of Tori doing something interesting with her hands, and there is a certain look she gives in the midpoint of the powerful bridge that drives me crazy--that look lasts only a fraction of a second, but it says volumes. Tori is always able to convey great emotion through her expressions.

God and Crucify are fittingly ordered consecutively. I love the God video because that is where I discovered Tori Amos. It's a video hard not to notice, with all of its religious symbolism, snakes, and rats. Something about the way Tori let all those rats crawl all over her convinced me that this was a female singer I had to hear more from. The green dress Tori wears while playing the piano in Crucify dazzles my eyes, and I can't say I mind seeing her wet, either. Jackie's Strength is a lovely song. The video features Tori in a wedding dress riding around town in a cab on her wedding day, and it opens with a number of shots of Jackie Kennedy. The US version of Cornflake Girl is the only video I don't really care for, largely because it seems rather nonsensical to me. Pretty Good Year is a minimalistic video featuring Tori piled up in a big chair surrounded by an empty room; it's not bad but it's also not a spectacular way to end the tape.

I skipped Spark because this particular video deserves special mention. The song is Tori's best and most powerful one ever, in my opinion, and the video more than lives up to the challenge of representing that masterpiece. Some may find it disturbing, though. It opens with Tori lying on the ground in a forest, bound and blindfolded; she had obviously just been removed from a car trunk, and the man responsible for it lies prostrate beside the car. Tori runs away through the woods, soon followed by the man, submerges herself in a stream to remove her blindfold, and finally reaches the safety of a road, where two girls stop but drive off without helping her. This video is incredibly powerful, giving me goosebumps every time I watch it.

I have used a lot of words to describe the videos included here, but words are really inadequate when it comes to explaining Tori's musical vision. All I can say to Tori fans out there is that this video collection is a vital part of the complete Tori experience.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential video collection for all Tori fans, March 13, 2001

By 

dolly_ (maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tori Amos: Complete Videos: 1991-1998 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The collection includes all her videos from 91-98.

From the Little Earthquakes Era: Silent All These Years and Winter are simple videos with children, personal touches and many close-ups of Tori's face. Crucify was done very well. It starts off with Tori just wearing a bath towel and goes into Tori playing the piano and taking a bath fully clothed. I thought that video fit the song well. The only video I did not like was China. It was basically just a man piling rocks and Tori singing/playing piano.

From Under the Pink: Past the Mission seems to take place in Italy following a death (people wearing black, priests). Cornflake Girl has two versions, European and American. European video has Tori floating around with a Wizard of Oz theme. Caught A Light Sneeze is a much better video showing Tori floating around and different images. The American video has Tori driving a truck with a bunch of her girlfriends. God shows a religious festival with people playing with rats and snakes. I burst out laughing when I saw the `dance' scene in Pretty Good Year.

Boys for Pele: Talula has people `studying' Tori. Hey Jupiter has a young girl saving Tori from a burning building. Caught A Light Sneeze is a very surreal interesting video. That video makes you feel like you are floating right along with it.

From the Choirgirl Hotel: Jackie's Strength shows Tori in a taxi on her way to get married. Raspberry Swirl has a dance pit in an art gallery. Spark shows Tori blindfolded trying to escape from her abductor. It has a good twist in the end.

If you are a Tori fan, you should buy this. It's nice to have all her videos on one video.