The video starts with a low angle of the sun and the Bahamas, close up shots of plants and the lighting is warm and natural. In contrast when we see more shots of the interior of the house we see a Chandelier, Money with Lady Gaga’s face on them and Dr. Dre Beats headphones. So we see the contrast of the warm natural environment of the outside to the artificial and manmade of the inside of the building. This may reflect the artificialness of being a actor both physically and mentally. The building being a mansion and all the lavish items inside suggests That owner is wealthy and to an extent has power.
The music video to an extent follows the Todorovian narrative model, this is presented as each stage is established. In the equilibrium of the music video Lady Gaga is in a surrounding which is of high class. We know this as we see a Chandelier, close up of money with her face. This shows a level of arrogance and dominance of the artist. Furthermore in this stage, she is kissing her lover in bed. We acknowledge this stage is positive. We recognise the disruption stage as the man pushes Lady Gaga of the edge. This scene has reference to Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo and the viwer gets this feeling of a slow movement of time. Recognition is demonstrated when we see Lady Gaga in a wheel chair. Gradually we see her getting better from the wheel chair to the crutches. In the reparation stage we see that she is in a party. Finally in the Re-equilibrium stage Lady Gaga gets her revenge by killing her boyfriend with a drug in his drink. Later we see newspaper pages having titles like ’Rises again’.
I can identify the Proppian characters to a degree. Lady Gaga is the antagonist as most shots are of her and so we are positioned on her side. The protagonist would be the boyfriend as he pushed Lady Gaga of the edge. The structure of the narrative is a linear narrative as it has a beginning, middle and end. Time in this music video is presented in order however is compressed with montage editing. This would give greater impact of the music video in a short amount of time. In this music video there are a display of binary oppositions, I have interpreted them as: Love vs. greed and Good vs. Bad. Good vs. Bad is displayed as the boyfriend does the evil deed of pushing Lady Gaga of the edge of a balcony. However, Lady Gaga comes back in revenge and kills the evil man. Finally Love vs. Greed is displayed as we see that Lady Gaga is in love with the man we see interactions of love like kissing. However, the boyfriend seems to be reaping the benefits and goes to the extent of getting rid of Lady Gaga for selfish reasons.
There are intertextual references in the music video. In the beginning section of the music video there are subtitles in a font which is reminiscent of old French films. This gives the video a vintage feel. When Lady Gaga is falling there is a black and white spiral in the background, this makes reference to a shot in the Vertigo film. When Lady Gaga is in a wheel chair she has a neck rest which has the Swiss symbol. This may give reference to the location of shooting. When Lady Gaga is in crutches she is wearing a gold colour plated costume, which makes reference to the film Metropolis. Finally, in the scene with the boyfriend and Lady Gaga, we see that the boyfriend has an eye-patch. This makes reference to James Bond villain Emilio Largo who wears an eye patch. The addition of the eye patch enforces the boyfriend being a protagonist. Lady Gaga is wearing a yellow jump suit with micky mouse patterns. Furthermore, her glasses captures the ears of Micky mouse which make her look. By having intertexual reference to Mickey or Minnie mouse this makes her seem innocent. As we associate Minnie or Mickey with cartoons and children’s.
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