She released her new video titled Alejandro. This is her third single from her second album Fame Monster. The video was directed by Steven Klein. It was inspired by lady gaga for her gay friends and admiration of gay love – her envy of the courage and bravery they require to be together. The music video portrays Gaga with a group of soldiers in a cabaret, dancing to the song. It is interspersed with scenes of Gaga as a nun eating a rosary and near-naked men, holding machine guns.
A good part of the video is dedicated to the Broadway musical Cabaret. The video begins with soldiers sleeping in a cabaret with a close-up of a soldier passed out in fishnet stockings and heels as another lone soldier stares into the distance. The scene then cuts to male dancers performing elaborate choreography while marching forward. As the intro of the song begins, Gaga is shown leading a funeral procession, carrying her heart with a wire "A" spelled on it. When the lyrics begin, she sits on a throne wearing an elaborate headpiece and binocular-like eyepieces, with a smoking pipe in her hand, watching her dancers perform a rigorous routine in the snow. Gaga is then seen as character Sally from Cabaret, dancing and simulating sex acts with three men on a stage with twin beds on a stage surrounded by spotlights, all wearing nothing but underwear intercut with shots of Gaga lying on a larger bed dressed in a red latex nun outfit. She subsequently appears dressed in a white hooded robe with several red crosses on it with her dancers, before a shot of her as the nun eating a rosary. Gaga is seen in a blonde bob and a similar outfit to one of Liza Minnelli's performance costumes. The video moves to a scene of her wearing a bra equipped with assault rifle barrels and her dancers performing another dance routine. She is then shown in the empty club, scenes of war breaking out flash by, and the lone soldier appears again. Going back to the hooded robe scene, she struggles with her dancers and disrobes. The video ends with her dressed as the nun, the film burning away from her face outwards. The director explained that it is an interpretation of a woman's desire to resurrect a dead love and who can not face the brutality of her present situation, the pain of living without your true love.
The Catholic League criticized the video for its use of religious imagery. In an interview, Steven Klein explained that the religious symbolism is not meant to denote anything negative, but represents the character's battle between the dark forces of this world and the spiritual salvation of the Soul. Thus at the end of the film, she chooses to be a nun, and the reason her mouth and eyes disappear is because she is withdrawing her senses from the world of evil and going inward towards prayer and contemplation." Klein added that the scene where Gaga devours the rosary beads is meant to represent "the desire to take in the Holy”.
Okay this is not a video review. This is just an investigative curiosity of my conscious mind. As I was watching the video, this reminds me of director dubbed as “Master of Darkness” Fritz Lang. And the video’s wardrobe of nun’s habits and other religious imagery could be viewed as references to the Catholic Church’s demonization of homosexuality. I grew up in a Roman Catholic country, raised and inspired by the church teachings and beliefs. In that note I found few scenes blasphemous to the catholic culture. But if you would think on the aesthetic and artistic side of the video, you will understand why those scenes are put on it. “Alejandro” is controversial and polarizing–no Gaga video would be complete without a little shock value–but by Gaga standards, this video is actually almost downright tame, and this time, she isn’t dancing with cans of Miracle Whip or disco sticks or hats fashioned out of princess phones. This time, there seems to be a message behind Gaga’s madness.
I don’t believe Gaga is acting with any malice in this video, she was brought up Catholic too, I believe, and this work certainly does not offend me at all. I think Gaga is a true star, imaginative and exciting and it’s good to have her around.
As of this moment, I haven’t heard anything from any official of The Vatican or Catholic/Religious organization regarding to this video. Maybe the response of the people will not as loud as Madonna got on her time when she did the video, Like a Prayer and Vogue. We are in the 21st century, where technology revolves our daily lives. I just don’t know if the video will be aired completely in music channels and or in MTV, where wide-ranged of audience are watching. Maybe there are scenes that will be cut, but I am sure that this will be shown globally, and hello, there is a thing called “youtube” today.
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