Threading straight from the previous blog post, I would like to continue with the notions of origin points in two (strangely related) popular culture references.
1) Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" (film)
2) Lady Gaga's "I was Born this way" (music video)
Firstly, the film Vertigo has always been a confusing and often misinterpreted film out of Hitchcock's collection for a number of reasons. While studying his creation in a film course last year, I made it my concern to focus solely on the use of circles and spirals. My reasoning behind this was to pin-point why exactly they appeared in nearly every twisted sequence; but most prominently in the opening credits. The idea of the circle alone creates that unconventional reality of a "never-ending" problem, the replaying of events, but in the end never being able to find solutions because the circle is always the same (following the same pattern for eternity). On the other hand the spiral has clearly defined beginning and ending points, but when the spirals are shown in the actual film footage (staircases usually), the beginning and ending points become lost and create a frantic confusion that dooms those who have been caught up inside of it.
For those who have not seen the film I highly recommend it, as the opening credits do not exactly give the best examples. I found it interesting though that they foreshadow the events of the plot and story line.
This is the video of the opening credits (excuse the length, but it still gives you the general idea)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkHn8PNGYaA
The other day, while perusing youtube I noticed that the new Lady Gaga video had been posted. Knowing that this artist often makes an effort to reference Hitchcock movies made me interested to what new material she had come up with in her new album. While watching the opening sequences (lasting longer than usual), I found myself wondering where I had heard this music before. It is in fact, the IDENTICAL theme music from Vertigo! In my excitement, I replayed the video and began to take note of the fact that once again, Lady Gaga proved to be deeper than usual. Her interesting use of mirrored images forces the reference of copies, confusion, and the pure remix of visuals. Although she doesn't make much use of the original material, I do find this video to be a remix of a remix. If anything, Lady Gaga is presenting herself as a series of copies, and in the beginning sequences, the starting point of her birth, and the ending point of her evil is somewhat ambiguous and undetectable.
Check out the video! The song isn't the best (it's not up to her remix standards), but the first minute and a half may draw up other conclusions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV1FrqwZyKw
NOT TO MENTION:
ReplyDeletealso: when you close your eyes and listen to the music in both of these clips you will notice the arpeggio feel to the movement and rhythm which also makes you feel as though you are going around in circles. Once listening for an extended period of time, you will also likely experience loss of memory regarding where exactly these musical movement started and when they will end! It's so cool!