"[It's about the] purity of my friendships with my gay friends, and how I've been unable to find that with a straight man in my life. It's a celebration and an admiration of gay love—it confesses my envy of the courage and bravery they require to be together. In the video I'm pining for the love of my gay friends—but they just don't want me to be with them"--Lady Gaga in The Times
(delovely article about her: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article7129672.ece)
Okay. Lady Gaga's new video for Alejandro premiered a little less than two hours ago. I've watched it twice. It's 8 minutes and 43 seconds. I think I have to watch it a few more times before it all makes sense to me. The video is directed by Steven Klein and features a new hair look for Lady Gaga. The video opens with a shot of a shirtless soldier with his feet up on a table. We see he's wearing fishnets and black high heels. Fantastic. Then some male dancers with these strange, black bowl cut wigs on do a march down what looks to be the opening of an airplane hanger which makes sense for the military theme Gaga mentioned. We are touching down in the place of fighting. Some of the men appear to have bags over their heads as if they are prisoners being tortured. Not sure. Just an idea. Finally we see Gaga, looking like the Wicked Witch of the West, the Evil Queen in Snow White, and the Evil Queen in Alice in Wonderland sitting in her castle with snow falling in the background. It look very old movie-like. We are meant to see her as a Queen-figure. There are images of a bleeding heart on a pillow as Queen Gaga leads a funeral processional for a soldier. The song's opening words: "I know that we are young and I know that you may love me, but I just can't be with you like this anymore, Alejandro" seem to be delivered by Gaga as a kind of eulogy at a funeral. Alejandro has died, but he still has a mental grip on her. Then there's Gaga sitting in her tower in her castle watching soldier/dancers do a routine or "train" with a video of something burning behind them. Some men appear to be doing a strange, tough tango-esque dance that involves pushing one man to the floor with a grunt. It is supposed to simulate anal sex? I think so. Then Gaga is lying in bed looking like an odd nun or queen wearing a habit and a red robe that appears to be made out of the material she wore to perform for the Queen of England. Then we get a bizarre sequence involving beds and ropes and Gaga doing strange sex positions with one of her dancer/soldiers. Now I'm going to be frank here but this frankness comes from a place of love and admiration: Gaga does not look pretty or glamorous or stunning in these scenes with her off white bra and underwear and I don't think she's supposed to. The men on the beds are wearing black high heels which I just love as a little detail. At some points, she seems to be simulating gay sex positions with one of the men. It's fascinating. Then the men are all around her and she's wearing a cape with red crosses all over it including one over her hoohah or lady parts. That's very subtle. Then her Queen self lying in the bed swallows a rosary while Gaga in cape stands in front of a video of something burning (a car?). It looks kind of cheesy and cheap, but in an intentional way. Then comes this wonderful black and white bit where Gaga's wearing a black vest and pants doing vaudeville dance moves. It's what was shown in the 19 second preview of the video and everyone thought it was her imitating Madonna's Vogue video. Not really the case. Anyway this bit is great. She does her dance moves as pairs of her soldier/dancers walk by her doing some fierce strutting. It's a very brassy dame, Judy Garland, let's put on a show moment. Then we're back in color and Gaga's wearing a gun or rifle bra. Now she's performing into a microphone in the lounge from the beginning for all the soldiers. It's weird to see her doing this because her videos are never the ones where the singer stands on a stage and sings into the microphone, but it's part of the concept here. There's a cross behind her (reference to Madonna's Like A Prayer?). Then there are black and white flashbacks of her in the bed with the man, her as the queen, and footage of what appear to be fiery riots. And there's an angry looking soldier. Who is he? Then her dancers throw her about and she takes off her cape and there's an orgy of sorts. They all want to touch her. Now we are back to the Queen Gaga in red in bed. Is she dead? An evil monster takes over the image, appearing to be coming out of her face. The end. I'm very confused, but intrigued and slightly disappointed. This isn't the hilarity of Telephone. It has less of a straight forward plot. The video for this song could have been a Spanish-themed romp a la Carmen (see here: http://zxlcreative.blogs.com/electroqueer/2010/06/eqtv-watch-alejandro-by-lady-gaga.html). I still don't totally see how the video relates to the song itself. I do find the video very interesting though and pretty kinky, sensual, and raw in some scenes (the bed scenes! the choreography!). I think there's a lot to decode here. Does Gaga want to be one of her dancer soldiers? See for yourself.
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