Jack Whiteley and Laura Brownhill's winning video for Elton John's music video competition The Cut imagines his mid-70s classic Bennie and The Jets as a gorgeous black and white dance film inspired by classic Hollywood.

With nods to Busby Berkley musicals and the work of Fritz Lang, the promo imagines a retro-futurist dance competition floating through space. With wonderful choreography, set design, costume, make-up, camerawork and editing all working in perfect synchronicity to evoke a modern twist on a distinct era, the video is a wonderful celebration of Expressionist cinema.

JACK WHITELEY:

"With this video we wanted to explore the genesis of Bennie and the Jets. Using the song’s lyrics ‘weird and wonderful’ and the notion of ‘the future as if imagined from the past’ as our starting point, we created a lo-fi, retro-futuristic talent show in which the mystical Bennie is auditioning to find her backing band, i.e the Jets.

"We wanted to channel Elton’s more flamboyant and avant-garde nature from his 1970s period that a lot of the younger generation won’t be as familiar with and combine that with our own influences to come up with something that hopefully feels like a unique and fresh take on an old classic."