Lady Gaga releases astounding ‘911’ video that transforms her mental health battles into ‘poetry of pain’
Lady Gaga in the music video for 911 (YouTube)
The Lady Gaga “911” video is finally here – a majestic, complex, cinematic, and sometimes bizarre five minutes of unbridled greatness – and fans are absolutely obsessed.
The new Lady Gaga video is packed with meaning, transforming the star’s battles with mental health into a striking short film resplendent with hidden details – and a devastating twist.
It begins with the orchestral “Chromatica II” soundtracking Lady Gaga lying in a desert, before she is led away by a horse rider dressed all in black.
She follows the figure to an isolated house in the desert, where events become increasingly bizarre.
The “911” video continues with a cast of characters banging their heads against pillows and lip syncing to the track. At one point, Lady Gaga begins to float away like a balloon, before being pulled back to earth by a string tied around her ankle.
Lady Gaga is then strapped to a board and is taken inside to be murdered – but in a dramatic turn of events, she wakes up just as a man stabs her, revealing that the entire music video has been a bizarre dream reflecting the pain experienced following an accident.
It ends with the star asking paramedics if anyone has been hurt in the car accident. At one point, she tells the emergency responder that she can’t feel her leg, and that she doesn’t want to die.
Lady Gaga’s car accident represents mental illness.
The Lady Gaga “911” video is directed by Tarsem Singh Dhandwar, and has sent fans into a frenzy as people begin to unpack its densely layered imagery – in particular the car accident twist.
the video is literally about how her mind takes bits and pieces of reality and distorts them into the most dramatic extreme memories in her head because she can no longer process reality on its own due to her mental illnesses. this is next level genius #911video @ladygaga pic.twitter.com/yHbN6PaaYU
— bloom (fan acc) (@bloomthisway) September 18, 2020
towards the end, she offers a comparison of psychotic breaks to be as serious as an extreme car accident. she can’t feel her legs, and she’s flooded with a fear of death, which are the exact same symptoms you see in a psychotic break #911video pic.twitter.com/Z6JekC29fj— bloom (fan acc) (@bloomthisway) September 18, 2020
https://twitter.com/GagaMagazineUK/status/1306993344543891456
The scars on her mind.. 👀 I love the details #911Video pic.twitter.com/liYOWKjpD3— josh (@HailTricon) September 18, 2020
https://twitter.com/chromatixca/status/1306992997905694721
Sadly, music videos can’t qualify for the Oscars – because the ‘911’ video would have a clean sweep.
https://twitter.com/IadygagaoutsoId/status/1306995440785784832
Lady Gaga ‘911’ video has ‘poetic’ meaning.
Lady Gaga shared some insight into the “911” video’s meaning on Instagram following its debut on Friday (September 18)
“This short film is very personal to me, my experience with mental health and the way reality and dreams can interconnect to form heroes within us and all around us,” she wrote.
“I’d like to thank my director/filmmaker Tarsem for sharing a 25 year old idea he had with me because my life story spoke so much to him.”
She also thanked the crew for making the film “safely during this pandemic without anyone getting sick”.
“It’s been years since I felt so alive in my creativity to make together what we did with ‘911’,” she added, and thanked her collaborator Bloodpop for “taking a leap of faith”.
“Finally, thank you Little Monsters. I’m awake now, I can see you, I can feel you, thank you for believing in me when I was very afraid. Something that was once my real life everyday is now a film, a true story that is now the past and not the present. It’s the poetry of pain.”
