It opens with an expanded instrumental intro, requested by Muller to make use of their gorgeous main setting, the 19th-century Villa Erba, built by the Italian director Luchino Visconti’s maternal grandfather. A man and woman walk nervously across its lush gardens toward Stefani, smiling tightly at its doors. After some charged pleasantries, he stumbles into their hostess, triggering brief flashbacks to their younger selves, smiling and in love on a lakeside dock. The song then begins in earnest and the video settles into its impressionistic groove: two timelines constantly collapsing into each other by moments and objects that prompt memories both painful and joyous.
Below, Muller shares with Vogue her closely held memories of the shoot, and some even closer-guarded on-set photos and storyboard frames.
On its conception
I knew that Gwen was a really good actress, but not in a straightforward way, like playing Shakespeare. She’s an amazing video actress. My proof is always this shot in “Don’t Speak,” where she’s holding an orange as she’s being photographed. She sees the band looking at her, pissed off, and she’s smiling for the photographer before her face falls, and you see that she feels terrible and guilty. That closeup of her face is really subtle, and that was what I based the whole concept of the “Cool” video on: her ability to do looks. The emotion comes not so much from the singing, but from her look.
On its cinematic influences
My influences are obviously films, especially from the 1950s and ’70s, but there weren’t any conscious references for the video. I wanted to allude to that time when filmmaking language was innocent and soft, not overly sexual. If anything, the person I copy all the time is Hitchcock: the camera work, the colors and the design of his films. That, combined with romantic Italian cinema and a blonde female lead in ’50s suits. But Gwen and I both had a love of The Sound of Music and one shot alludes to that, which is where they’re standing at the gates of the mansion, which looks a bit like the one from the movie.
On its shoot
It was a two-day shoot. The whole first day—the past scenes—was shot on 16-millimeter [film] and it was very quick: get on the bike, go in the room, go into the café, run around. The second day, we shot inside, on 35 millimeters, and it was really precise and really hard. There was a lot of, How will we finish? But everyone was literally at the top of their game, right at that moment in time. Lots of people came from Gwen’s world: her brother was there, filming behind the scenes, because that’s what he does, and a photographer came to take pictures of the set. I remember her saying, “I just can’t believe it. I could approve every single one, everything looks amazing.”
On directing the central trio
Originally, Gwen was going to have a partner in it. It was gonna be two couples, and you weren’t gonna see her husband—it was going to be just his hand or something. But then we thought, Oh, this is so stupid, let’s get rid of the husband. We wanted to lean into the idea that [the ex] should be an Italian actor, but eventually went with a Spanish one [Daniel González]. And then it was, Well, Erin is an actress, let’s use Erin. They were friendly, and Gwen and Tony were friendly. Having Erin just felt logical, you know? It wasn’t very hard directing them because they knew what they were doing. And Erin was great because all she had to do was be someone who was witnessing it all for the first time.
On its use of match cuts and gazes
You can do a lot with a head turn. If someone does that and then you show what they’re looking at, you’ve created a story. The match cuts came from the idea of, How do we portray the past and the present without being crass? My favorite shot—I’m so proud of it, and it’s storyboarded, which is what blew my mind—is when the waiter puts the spaghetti and meatballs down and it cuts with Gwen putting biscuits down in the present. I storyboarded all the connections—the hands, the meatballs, the teacups with their lips on them. I worked with one of the best storyboard artists ever, Glyn Dillon, who no longer does it because he’s so successful doing something else. He helped me come up with all those ideas.
On its lasting legacy
I think everyone loved it at the time, but it wasn’t a bigger hit. If you read the comments on YouTube now, it’s really amazing. I don’t really read comments, but these are so profound. People are saying they went to Como on their honeymoon because of the video, and commenting all the things it’s meant to them. I just could not believe it. I know some people really love music videos, but this one touches people in a really weird place. They all cry when they watch it; I didn’t expect that.