What Is the Meaning of Lady Gaga’s song Alejandro? Alejandro By Lady Gaga As A Short Film About The Passions Of The Black Queen. Among the video of Lady Gaga Alejandro (2010), if not the most provocative, then the most interesting in terms of plot. Although it is believed that he does not have a plot as such: they say that the director of the video, Stephen Klein, being a man from the fashion world, simply illustrated the rather simple words of the song with a series of spectacular pictures, dressing the singer and the backing dancer in clothes from the coolest brands. Meanwhile, the very long, almost 9-minute clip doesn’t just have a clear plot: it can be seen as a complete short film. At the same time, the erotic phantasmagoria of the film takes place in a gloomy and cold world with recognizable historical features.
Where does the video take place and who are its characters?
The fictional world of the clip is the world of some totalitarian, fascist regime, whose characteristic feature is homosexuality. At the beginning, we see how young people in strange clothes doze at the tables – some in a uniform suspiciously similar to the SS, while others only have a cap in combination with fishnet tights from this uniform. Then, with the help of a very tough and aggressive dance with elements of marching, other characteristics of this world are emphasized – militarism and brutality.
But suddenly the tender melody of Monty’s chardash and the image of a woman in black break into the brutal dance. This is the only woman in the video wearing a headdress that looks like a crown, behind her is an adjutant with a monocle, she looks at the men’s dances from the side. It can be assumed that we have before us the ruler of this fascist state, the black queen (by the way, few people know that fascist Italy, for example, was formally a monarchy), and the striking contrast between the chardash and the march shows that between this woman and the world in which she lives there are insurmountable contradictions.
The fatal passion of the black queen
Looking at the aggressive dance, the queen remembers her deceased lover and his funeral procession to the sounds of chardash. Her words addressed to the deceased are full of sadness: “I know that we are young, and that you may love me, but I can no longer be with you like this, Alejandro …”
Who is Alejandro and why did he die? For several minutes, the viewer sees a muscular young man in a helmet and with a pistol, and around him there are many threads. The metaphor is clear: most likely, Alejandro committed suicide, tired of being a puppet or confused in relations with the heroine of Lady Gaga and his comrades – and most likely both.
But was Alejandro the heroine’s lover in the full sense of the word? The words “… Her boyfriend is like a father to her” hint that the passion was one-sided, and this applies not only to Alejandro. All the black queen has is her fantasies. The fact that erotic episodes exist only in the imagination is emphasized by the binoculars with which she regularly covers her eyes.
The heroine of the clip is torn between the desire to be pure and pure, like a nun, and a physical attraction to muscular beauties. She then indulges in vice with them, then refuses their company (“I don’t want kisses … I don’t want hugs …”).
The black queen is crucified on the cross of passions, but she is not destined to be either in bed or on stage with her idols. Neither Roberto nor Fernando needs her, and Alejandro will not call her from the other world. Such behavior is suicidal, it destroys the heroine, and the final frames of the video can be interpreted as her symbolic death.
How do the singer and director explain the meaning of the video?
Such an interpretation fully fits into the explanation of “Alejandro” offered by Lady Gaga herself: “This is a message of love and respect to all my gay friends. …According to the plot of the video, I seek love from gays, but I understand that I can’t be interesting to the end and full-fledged love in the classical sense between us is impossible. The director sees in “Alejandro” a sad story of a woman who lost her beloved and cannot come to terms with the cruelty of the world around.
The impossibility of entering the circle of lovers on an equal footing does not contradict the meaning that Klein put into the video, but complements it. But why did the director take the story to such a gloomy, “fascist” world? Not only for the sake of shocking, but also because it allows you to give a lot of quotes from cult films and clips.
What works are quoted in the video?
If the critics saw the appeal to the work of Madonna, and above all to the video “Like a Prayer”, then they had to tinker with other reminiscences and quotes from the films.
There is an obvious allusion to the cult film by B. Foss “Cabaret”, especially in terms of choreography. The images of slumbering young men at the beginning of the video clearly came from another cult film – “The Death of the Gods” by L. Visconti, one of the most impressive episodes of which is the shooting of SA storm troopers in 1934 after a drunken orgy. And the scenes of a cruel orgy frankly allude to L. Cavani’s film “The Night Porter”.
You can look for other allusions (and they will certainly be found). But in any case, it is obvious: the original plot and skillful play with quotes take “Alejandro” beyond the scope of another outrageous video, turning it into an interesting phenomenon of postmodern culture.
