Textual Analysis - "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga - Paparazzi (Official Music Video)

Lady Gaga | MySpace Video
Released July 5, 2009
Directed by Jonas Åkerlund

The music video opens with no music at all. Instead it is sort of reminiscent of a classic Hollywood film opening sequence, like Casablanca or even Loony Toons. This can be seen as an example of pastiche or homage because she is imitating those films because she believes they’ve influenced her music and style and is therefore crediting them.
During the opening a slideshow of different images are played on screen. They are basically used to establishing the setting of the video. One low angle shot shows an image of several palm trees with the sun shining behind it and another low angle shot to display a mansion. This therefore suggests this music video was set in Los Angeles; home of Hollywood stars and the famous, iconic street called ‘Sunset Boulevard’.

The video continues to show more close ups and mid shots which contain mise-en-scene such as flowers and chandeliers. This all further suggests the location is Hollywood because Hollywood is the home famous celebrities who are very wealthy and can afford to buy such luxuries. The title finally displays and shows Lady Gaga’s name and the name of the song and who directed it. This implies that the music video is about to begin. The font also plays homage to 1950’s films here. We get several high angle shots of the room. Money on the floor, broken bottles, room in a state. This indicates to the viewer that something bad has happened, most likely a domestic problem because we’re in a bedroom, perhaps a problem over sex and the man got angry. Note how we can here a piano in the backround. This links well with some of the shots we see at the beginning (chandeliers, palm trees) because it’s often stereotyped that the wealthy enjoy classical music.
Don’t forget the ambience of the chirping of birds in the background while the close ups of the mansion are played. The two compliment each other and create a sense of realism. We makes it easier for the audience to understand.

We get our first piece of dialogue now as we see Lady Gaga and her lover on her bed. There is no sining yet, alternatively they are just speaking but they are speaking in Swedish and there are subtitles on the screen which again sparks familiarity with a film. They move to the balcony and start making out. While that is happening we get several clips in and out of their make out scene. For example there are jewels on the table, also theres money with her face on it. Now this may imply that she is narcissistic and slightly drunk with money believing she is so rich she can buy money with her face on it believing she is as important as the early presidents of the USA.

However hidden photographers are taking pictures of them from behind the scenes. Gaga realizes that her boyfriend has set the paparazzi to photograph her and tries to stop him. When it becomes futile, she tries to push him away and ends up smashing him with a wine bottle. The enraged boyfriend throws her over the balcony. She then enters a CGI state where she is simulating falling but instead of showing the ground, it shows spirals in the background. This is wear we can see what she is wearing. A white swimsuit almost. This is conventional of a Lady Gaga music video as you usually expect to her in very revealng clothing. She is shown falling using a birds-eye-view, her arms flailing about. This shot suggests her to be vulnerable and helpless.
Gaga lies at the ground in her own blood as the photographers continue take pictures of her bloody body. Newspapers fly across the screen reading headlines such as “Gaga is over” proclaiming that her career is over. This scene apparently pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo.

Finally the music begins! Gaga is shown getting out of a limousine, being carried by male dancers to a wheelchair. As the dancers spin around her, we are cut in and out of scenes with her alone singing on a grand sofa. She is wearing a rather saucy leather swimsuit, again conventional of style. As she is helped into the house, the carpet is purple instead of red. Purple implies luxury and pleasure. The carpet may suggest she is subvert the stereotype of the typical celebrity and that she is not your ordinary pop star, she is different.
What she wears in as she is getting pulled is rather clever as she looks like she would if she were living in 1950. Note how she opens one glass lens. This could be done to mimic monicles that are often stereotyped with the very wealthy. We get various close ups and mid shots of Gaga and Gaga with the dancers. But instead of an extreme close up of her eyes, we get one of her lips, maybe representing the sexual aspect of her videos, but can also used to reference the 1960’s womens movement where women because more independant and started wearing make up and miniskirts. Films during the time would have reference society at the time and there she is playing homage to that.

In a rather seemless editing technique where we get an extreme close up of Gaga to a zoom out to reveal a new costume with the help of a pair of crutches while wearing a metallic bustier and a matching helmet. She is now joined with more dancers siginifing the performance aspect of the video. She resembles the robot from Star Wars: C3P0 while she is wearing this costume and is therefore also a reference to it. In this costumes she now has broken the distinction between the difference between humans and robots, a binery blurring.

As the chorus begins to end and we enter the bridge to the next verse, these scenes are interspersed with scenes of dead models lying around the mansion. The second verse begins and we contniue with Gaga on the golden couch. During the verse we are continuously bombarded with clips of dead women (some dead in the bath, some even hanging themselves). Lady Gaga is seen making out with three rockers on the golden couch during the line "Loving you is cherry pie". This is apparently a reference to rock band Warrent and their single “Cherry Pie”. In my opinion I believe this was included because Gaga explores the ideas about the sort of crazy situations that people will go though in order to be famous. Most specifically, pornography or murder. This signifys why the man she was kissing wanted her to look at the camera and why she is wearing revealing clothing.

The second chorus begins. Gaga is now wearing a white body suit and a black skirt on her right leg.This may reference lolita style gothic fashion which may link to the dark scenes of death seen in the second verse. The video continues through the intermediate bridge with Gaga wearing a dress made up of film strips and a towering feathered Mohawk headdress. The screen flashes mimicing paparazzi camera. In this costume she seeks to show her vulnerable side. The close up of a dog occasionally pops up during the bridge. This could be interpreted as a “hungry paparazzi”. The paparazzi are animals, beasts that are relentless until they have the truth. Her wearing nothing but film strips suggests her vulnerable to the paparazzi no matter what. Her mohawk on the other could be seen as a simbol of strength as it makes her head look bigger. This may link with the line “Still. Have. Fun” Maybe she is split between think she is better than the press and doesnt care and people like the man at the beginning getting what they want, her real self.

We finally enter that last part of the song. A dissolve from black occurs and fades in with the servant serving the tea on the table. In this part of the song Lady Gaga is seen wearing a yellow jumpsuit and sunglasses with the lens opened out to resemble giant ears. This is an example of intertextuality where it appears as though Lady Gaga is mimicing Minnie Mouse while wearing this. This implies her sweet and playful side. Maybe she is willing to forget what her boyfriend did to her. HOWEVER. The yellow jumpsuit is used to forshadow the boyfriends death as it could be a reference to the Kill Bill films. The boyfriend basically reperesenting Bill. The extreme close up of her black lipstick can also be used to connote death. She stirs poison into her boyfriends drink and licks the spoon she stired it in. This may imply she is so evil, so venomous that even poison won’t stop her.

Time passes after the death of her boyfriend. She’s fleed the scene and forensics are examining the dead body. Lady Gaga is shown being bodyguarded back to her limo with the paparazzi all over her and flying newspapers reading: “She’s back!” and “She’s innocent”!. There is a blurring of fiction occurrance here where the blurring is her getting arrested. She hasn’t really been arrested. But the paparazzi is the reality as she probably goes through that sort of situation everyday. Her being arrested links to 1950’s film as it is black and white. Films didn’t have colour back then. And finally a the video ends just like Looney Toons used to with a circle zooming to show nothing but a black screen. Afterwards credits are shows also typically with 1950s film.

This music video is fully evident that it is post-modern. With references to 1950s film and contemporary features such as the robot suit and the lolita dress. She seeks to attract mainly young audience because of this however entice old audience as they may recognise some of the references within the video.