This is why Adele uses a flip phone in the ‘Hello’ music video

I.Ding a smartphone would have thrown you off

Aside from “OMGGGGGGGGG *10,000 cry emoji*”, the most common response to Adele’s comeback music video ‘Hello’ was “why on Earth is she using a flip phone in 2015?”

Well now we have an answer, courtesy of the video’s 26-year-old director Xavier Dolan: smartphones are ugly to film and remind the viewer of the real world, pulling them out of the narrative.

“I never like filming modern phones or cars," he told tells the Los Angeles Times.

"They're so implanted in our lives that when you see them in movies you're reminded you're in reality. If you see an iPhone or a Toyota in a movie, they're anti-narrative, they take you out of the story [...] It feels like I'm making a commercial.”

The flip phone fits with the overall theme of the video, which is all about looking back into the past, with Adele visiting an old house and pulling dust covers off its furniture.

It also avoids accusations of product placement, and stops the viewer from being distracted by trying to work out what kind of phone it is.

"It says she is stranded in nature, which has regained its rights," Dolan continued.

"It's an element of the past. It's much more important than the flip and trying to identify whether it's Samsung or an AE9 or whatever.”

(via The Verge)