'I'm the one playing this role: and I'm choosing how:' A brief analysis of The Fate of Ophelia MV, as seen through the eyes of a classic film lover and a kaylor.
Sources are there, the rest is penned by mine own hand.
Table of Contents:
Diamonds are a girls best friend and Marilyn Monroe
Anne Bonny
Odysseys/ The Odyssey/ Helen of Troy/ Sirens/Scylla and Reputation
A lot of information on Ester Williams
Busby Berkely
Ending thoughts
Marilyn Monroe and Diamonds are a girls best friend:
(Director: Howard Hawks. Starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell).
Now, in terms of the diamonds and the 60s motif: there are many shots in this particular scene that correlate to Berkely, more on him later. The diamond, reflecting kaleidoscope effect, the diamond effect on the dress-- it screams, the most important thing a woman can do is get married.
This is a nod to owning Tay's own sexuality but being trapped in a cage. The visual reference to “the engagement ring” and her knowing performance mock the expectation of female heterosexuality and domesticity.
There is, of course, this song from Gentlemen prefer blondes, where Marilyn sings about Diamonds being a girls best friend. How could I not have remembered before?!
(This choreo cracks me up: no, no, no, no I don't want you, I WANT YOUR DIAMOND RING!) so on the nose.
The movie is about two showgirls, one who is obsessed with wealth (Monroe) and the other who only wants to marry for love (Russell.)
(Note that bombshell Monroe hair comes before black haired diamond TS.)
The themes of the song are that:
1. Romance is fleeting, but money and jewelry are FOREVER. 2. Her looks will fade so she has to convert into something LASTING ( a diamond). 3. Men’s affection are changeable; wealth, symbolized by diamonds, are not.
This song has been long embraced by the queer community, for it being so very 'camp,' and Monroe's confidence in performing the role so perfectly that it becomes absurd is queer-coded: she’s in control of the performance of gender.
This relates to Taylor the identity and queerness: her exaggerated personas (the Ophelia archetype, the Marilyn bombshell, the showgirl) are not presented as “real” women but as constructed roles, consciously performed.
Next, I would like to discuss the scene where TS is on the ship: I call this segment
ANNE BONNY (or, Chappell Roan as she could have been! LMAO).
Anne Bonny was an Irish pirate active in the Golden Age of Piracy ( early 18th century. Her flaming red hair was iconic. She went to sea disguised as a man, and eventually sailed alongside Calico Jack and another woman, Mary Read.
She and Read became legends for fighting fiercely, while the men hide below deck. When their ship was captured in 1720, the two reportedly fought to the death while the others surrendered. There is much speculation about their relationship.
Her last words were: "“If you had fought like a man, you need not have been hang’d like a dog.” (How very REP!)
In terms of TLOASG:
The two women both cross-dressed at sea, and were known to be close. In pirate lore and queer histography, they are symbols of autonomy and gender fluidity.
TS is reclaiming the pirate myth. The red heart on her silver dress could symbolize her truth, her defiant love, the love she will die fighting for-- shining even if she's cast into the watery abyss.
The ocean is both punishment and rebirth.
Therefore, we see TS on the set of a theatre, dramatically fighting other pirates until she has to be walked off the gangplank. While there isn't another woman at her side, she could easily fit in if we consider the light of TS representing this iconic character.
The sword fighting and the way she is overcome... I see this as twofold. 1. Fighting for love until the end. 2. Choosing to reborn through punishment.
THE ODYSESSY.
-THE SIRENS
The Odyssey is one of the two great ancient Greek epics attributed to Homer (the other is The Iliad) It was composed around the 8th century BCE. It follows Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, as he tries to return home after the Trojan War. His journey takes ten years — full of shipwrecks, monsters, gods, and temptations. Meanwhile, his wife Penelope stays home, fending off suitors who want to replace him. (Google)
During the text, there is a scene where their ship is blocked by sirens, guarding the pass through to home. Odysseys, warned by the witch Circe, orders his men to plug their ears with wax, while he lashes himself to the mast and listens to their alluring song.
(Artis :Herbert James Draper (1909)
First of all, the siren: The siren is a mirror for the male fear of female voices and power: she has to be silenced, or she must be survived. A siren is figure of feminine rage, grief, and temptation — the woman who refuses to be quiet, and so is punished by being turned into a monster. She is a mirror for men fear of a woman's voice.
To me, this is the voices of her fans, trying to pull her away from love, adoring the showgirl persona, every persona she's had. Yet still: trying to destroy her through any means possible.
SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS
NOTE ALSO!!! Scylla and Charybdis are two legendary sea monsters from Greek mythology, positioned on opposite sides of a narrow strait in Homer’s Odyssey. Scylla has six heads and devours sailors who pass too close. Charybdis was a daughter of Poseidon and Gaia who was turned into a deadly whirlpool for swallowing massive amounts of water three times a day, creating violent currents that could sink ships.
Scylla is traditionally depicted as a snake like monster with six heads.
Reputation is the sixth album.
We still haven't gotten reputation (taylor's version).
A metaphor for the fans as the sirens, heralding her to doom, danger, the real world, and the monsters, immediate unavoidable danger.
(What part Charybdis plays in this, I know not. Yet it could also be a metaphor for the papparazzi.)
Now: Penelope and Odysseys.
In returning home, it must be known that Odysseus is tempted by many women on his trip. Some of you may recall that I have often referred to Taylor as Circe.
A list of the woman Odysseys had to overcome to return to his wife:
Circe, the witch who turns men into pigs — a symbol of transformation and seduction.
Calypso, the nymph who keeps him as her lover for seven years — desire as captivity. (now that's pretty fucked up. Joe Alwynn? Are you here? That is a joke! JOKE!)
The Sirens, whose voices nearly destroy him — knowledge and temptation fused.
Nausicaa, the innocent princess who rescues him — purity and hospitality.
Note that each of these women are trapped, alluring, or being punished. Except Nausicaa LOL.
Throughout the ten year long journey, Helen waits for her husband, even when being pressed by thousands of suitors. She buys time while weaving a funeral shroud, promising to marry one after she finishes. However, she unravels it at night, delaying it till her husband returns.
The shroud is a symbol of her duty, loyalty, love and grief. The act itself represents time, patience, and the tension between creation and destruction. When Odysseys returns, disguised as a beggar, Helen recognizes him immediately.
Not to mention all the parallels to thread, weaving, braiding throughout her other albums. Mhm. Note that Helen never gives up on her husband, waiting for him to brave the journey and return home to her, never choosing to love another. And Odessyeus is fighting to get back to her the whole time-- and it's the story of a part of his life for a reason, and that is why it is so iconic and that is why I absolutely love the idea of....
Karlie = Helen, Taylor = Odysseys.
And now, Esther Williams:
Esther Williams was a Hollywood star in the 1940s-50s known for aqua-musicals: films built around swimming, synchronized swimming, and large scale, glamorous water spectacles ( source, Google)
The glamour versus the unseen cost: despite the shimmering days and the synchronized swimming, the performance aspects are heavy: the emotional fatigue,
Correlates to the madness and drowning of Ophelia.
When Taylor enters the Esther Williams–style pool scene, she’s stepping into a lineage of controlled spectacle — the woman who performs perfection in the very element that can kill her.
The madness and the drowning of Ophelia; the rise from the depths to the glamour and the glitz, beyond the horizon where the sea truly.
THE STAIRCASE: Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkely (1895–1976) was a legendary Hollywood choreographer and director, famous for creating those massive, geometric musical numbers of the 1930s–50s. ( Source: Google).
The dancers were often short from above, in kaleidoscope patterns, mirrors and spirals and symmetry, very elaborate showgirl costumes. It was the era of femininity and fantasy being the sole trait of a woman, and suppression. Lavender Haze.
He and Esther worked on three movies together. She also saw him as an exit: "When I saw Berkeley's storyboards, I could foresee my liberation. I could envision the two of us going on together from one movie to the next. I knew I needed someone with a real sense of showmanship if my movies were to continue to be successful." (quote: book.
Therein lies the partnership of show business, and why this is important to Taylor's MV. Esther believed that Berkely actually saw her for what she was: a serious performer. Many other directors only saw her aquatic prowess, not her true talent. However their relationship was very tumultuous.
Berkely and Esther: ( i may be reaching on this one but hear me out?)
After WWII, Berkely was responsible for MGM's 'aqua musicals'.
1952: B & E work on Million Dollar Mermaid. (see above).
"I'm having his baby ... No, I'm not!!!!!"
Esther Williams was pregnant during the filming of Easy Love (1953)
She did most of her own stunts which lead to many injuries t ( waterskiing, diving from great heights, rupturing her eardrums from spending so much time underwater).
Esther was expected to, while pregnant, do an 80-foot dive from a helicopter into a formation of water skies. She refused, and when pressed by Berkely, who said he hated using stunt doubles, she said, " not as much as I hate miscarriages," emphasizing her commitment to safety over spectacle.
Esther said, "Busby didn't give much thought to my safety. He just expected me to do whatever he dreamed up for me. Because I was the star, he said I had to do it better than anyone else. As a result, I risked my life every time he said, 'Roll 'em.'"
There were many costume mishaps, irresponsible set designs, and she was the only one who knew what her swimming routine entailed: near death experiences, not just during pregnancies, such as being in a full body cast.
However, for all the dangers on set and the physical and mental toll, Busby was an exceptional choreographer and gave Esther the most famous movies of her career. She was immortalized in showgirl history as being The Mermaid of Hollywood.
In terms of being relevant to TLOASG:
It can be perceived as Taylors commentary on performance and image control-- seeing women as a extravagant fantasy, ornamental patterns. The watery imagery, particularly with Ophelia, shows risk and pain, drowning behind the hidden cost of fame, the fine line between art and loss. He turned women into spectacle; she performs spectacle to expose what it costs.
TS channels the showgirl, dazzling choreography, and the threats, but this makes her risk her own physical safety being the level of famous she is. The audience's gaze makes her all the more emotionally exposed. It also shows the dangers of showmanship physically.
The Queerness of Busby Berkely:
Berkely has had influence through queer culture until the current day, ie. this mv, but also through drag shows and disco choreography. His numbers are very 'camp'. The chorus girl as a reconstructed identity parallels queer experiences of performances and revelations.
In his era, women were objects, whereupon Berkely attempted to show them as art, connecting with Taylor's thought process; they reclaim the image of the sexual objectification and turn it into a language of agency and reclaim.
CONCLUSION:
One could argue that the most iconic figures in this video are representations of drowning, death. Ophelia ( a woman driven to drown through the actions of men), Marilyn Monroe, (the woman consumed by performance) Anne Bonny, (the woman punished for rebellion), and Esther Williams (beauty through danger).
I'm not truly sure how to end this, except that I hope it will helps others in their own analysis, and that I hope I provided some context for what I believe is going on.
Link to my asbox. Ta-Ta!
