Coldplay Have Some Tricks Up Their Sleeve in the Video for their New Single ‘Magic’

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin must have learned a trick or two from his soon-to-be-ex, actress Gwyneth Paltrow. The video for the band's new tune "Magic" — the first official single from their forthcoming sixth album, "Ghost Stories" — is more of a short film than a traditional music video, and features Martin playing two roles: Claude, a mustachioed, drunken magician, and Cristoph, the assistant of Cecile, a "beautiful young 'magicienne'" who is married to Claude.

Actress Zhang Ziyi ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") plays Cecile in the five-minute, black-and-white clip, which was directed by Jonas Akerlund (Prodigy's "Smack My B---- Up," Madonna's "Ray of Light," Lady Gaga's "Telephone") and shot to look like an early 20th century silent film.

Martin is nearly unrecognizable as Claude, wearing false teeth, a wig, and a mustache to portray the villainous magician who abuses his wife. The singer looks much more like himself portraying the quietly heroic Cristoph, who pines away for Cecile while working on perfecting his own magic tricks.

As the story unfolds with the downtempo song playing in the background, we learn that drunken Claude is very bad news for Cecile. Meanwhile, the lovely Cecile's fondness for sweet Cristoph grows as he works on perfecting his own magic tricks, progressing from basic slights-of-hand to learning how to levitate, which comes in handy in the video's finale.

The mellow British rockers are gearing up to release "Ghost Stories" on May 19.