Stay (Faraway, So Close!) - Release - Music Video

Music Video

"I love the interplay between Bono and Meret. It's very hard for Meret to pretend to be singing all alone, and Bono really teased her... he tried to distract her but she just continued singing as if he wasn't there."

The music video for "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" was directed by Wim Wenders, produced by Debbie Mason, and edited by Jerry Chater. The video was filmed in Berlin over the course of three days, primarily in black-and-white but with some sequences in colour. It contains cameos of some of the actors who appeared in Faraway, So Close!, including Otto Sander, as well as Wenders' nephew. Several scenes are taken directly from Faraway, So Close! and Wenders' 1987 film Wings of Desire, which also served as the principal inspiration for the video's premise. Wenders noted that "making a video is really a very different ballgame. You have the script, so to speak, because you have the song, and everything you do is in order to help the song shine... You want to make that song look as good as possible and sound as good as possible and as interesting as possible." Several shots depict the band members standing on the statue of Victoria, a monument at the top of the Berlin Victory Column; a model of the angel was created for those scenes. Leftover military equipment from the Cold War, including the Russian MiG, were included in the background.

The video depicts a band playing "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)". U2 were cast in the role of the band's guardian angels, watching over the position that corresponds to their instrument in U2. Meret Becker is the lead actress of the video, cast as the band's lead singer. Wenders stated that they "liked the idea that Bono's voice would be sung by a girl in this video." Throughout the video U2 help the musicians play the track; drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. is shown assisting in the beat, while The Edge tunes the guitar, which Wenders noted is "what you'd do if you were guardian angel to a lead guitarist." The video alternates between the band playing, the members of U2 standing on Victoria, and scenes from both Wenders films. At the conclusion of the video, Bono leaves the band on their own. The final shot shows him falling to earth, personifying the final lyric "Just the bang and the clatter as an angel hits the ground."