Jean-Jacques Goldman - Les choses (Clip officiel)

What this video is

Released in late 2001 as a single from 'Chansons pour les pieds', 'Les choses' arrived at a moment of peak Western consumer anxiety — post-Y2K euphoria collapsing into post-dot-com-bust uncertainty, with brand identity and conspicuous consumption newly contested in French public discourse. Goldman's lyric directly inverts Descartes' 'cogito ergo sum' into 'j'ai donc je suis' ('I own therefore I am'), a formula that…

Why it matters

A landmark example of French chanson engagée adapted for the early-2000s pop-video format. The clip demonstrates how Goldman and director Saillet fused satirical narrative concept video conventions — inherited from Anglo-American MTV aesthetics — with distinctly French chanson critique, achieving…

The director

Yannick Saillet (born 23 November 1966, Caen, France) is a French film and music video director. From 1993 to 2007 he directed over 160 music videos for French and international artists including Céline Dion, Garou, Yannick Noah, Curt Smith (Tears for…