LADY GAGA - TELEPHONE FEAT. BEYONCé OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO [MARCH 2010] *PROMOTES ALMOST EVERYTHING IN IT]
Shem1 said
12:29 03/12 2010
So: After endless anticipation, Lady Gagas music video for Telephone is here, featuring Beyonce. True to form and expectation, its really weird: In a good way, though, IMO.
For one thing, Telephones nonmusic/music ratio rivals Martin Scorceses 18-minute music video for Michael Jacksons Bad: the thing is nine-and-a-half minutes long, with about three minutes of highly stylized female prison drama and Lady Gaga naked-making before you hear a single note.
But then theres the stylization itself. Lady Gaga told E! that There certainly is a Tarantino-inspired quality in the video; while there are other influences swimming around in there (wed like to propose Twin Peaks), the Tarantino shines through the most.
You may recall that Beyonces Video Phone started off with a reference to the slow-mo walk in Reservoir Dogs; wheres the Tarantino in Telephone?
1. The p**sy Wagon from Kill Bill
The most straightforward Tarantino reference in Telephone comes from the p**sy Wagon that Lady Gaga and Beyonce drive; Uma Thurman steals and drives the same one in Kill Bill Vol. 1. Like, literally the same one: Tarantino lent Gaga the original when they were discussing the video.
Also, the girl-on-girl prison fights at the start and bright, oversaturated colors throughout call Kill Bill to mind.
Gaga addresses Beyonce as Honey Bee before they pull off their (spoiler alert) poison murder spree in the diner; this seems like a pretty clear reference to Honey Bunny, the nickname given to Yolanda, one of the two robbers in the famous diner scene Pulp Fiction.
The diner setting itself is very Tarantino: Reservoir Dogs also opens up with an extended diner discussion.
3. To be continued: also Pulp Fiction
While were on Pulp Fiction, the To be continued title card at the end of Telephone got us thinking about Pulp Fictions epilogue. To be continued is a classic line for ending comic books or B-movies on a cliffhanger, but its also a classic Vincent Vega line that caps off Pulp Fictions anticlimax (and is endlessly debated by film geeks as such). From the script: (again, there be sorta spoilers)
JULES If you find my answers frightening, Vincent, you should cease askin scary questions.
VINCENT When did you make this decision while you were sitting there eatin your muffin? JULES Yeah. I was just sitting here drinking my coffee, eating my muffin, playin the incident in my head, when I had what alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity.
VINCENT I gotta take a %&%*. To be continued.
Vincent exits for the restroom.
Jules, alone, takes a mouthful of muffin, thenPumpkin and Honey Bunny rise with guns raised.
4. Yellow title card text with reddish drop shadow: Jackie Brown
Kinda speaks for itself; the fonts and hues are different, but the effect and relative proportion to the screen are similar. Death Proof has somewhat similar credits, though it uses a black drop.
5. Female banter in the car: Death Proof
Yes, zany, pop culturey and idiomatic banter is a Tarantino staple, and Telephone rides that wave with lines like once you kill a cow, you gotta make a burger. But which genus of Tarantino banter is it?
Were going to go with the sorely underappreciated Death Proof, Tarantinos fantastic tough-girls-in-cars-fighting-Kurt-Russell flick that got the short end of the stick because it was double-billed with Planet Terror in Grindhouse. Some (presumably male) viewers complained that it felt too much like The View because of all of the girl talk, but it was balanced out with kickassery, much like Telephone; also, there are few shots of Beyonce driving that kinda look like Death Proof shots of Tracie Thoms in her own red-and-yellow car.
So: After endless anticipation, Lady Gagas music video for Telephone is here, featuring Beyonce. True to form and expectation, its really weird: In a good way, though, IMO.
For one thing, Telephones nonmusic/music ratio rivals Martin Scorceses 18-minute music video for Michael Jacksons Bad: the thing is nine-and-a-half minutes long, with about three minutes of highly stylized female prison drama and Lady Gaga naked-making before you hear a single note.
But then theres the stylization itself. Lady Gaga told E! that There certainly is a Tarantino-inspired quality in the video; while there are other influences swimming around in there (wed like to propose Twin Peaks), the Tarantino shines through the most.
You may recall that Beyonces Video Phone started off with a reference to the slow-mo walk in Reservoir Dogs; wheres the Tarantino in Telephone?
1. The p**sy Wagon from Kill Bill
The most straightforward Tarantino reference in Telephone comes from the p**sy Wagon that Lady Gaga and Beyonce drive; Uma Thurman steals and drives the same one in Kill Bill Vol. 1. Like, literally the same one: Tarantino lent Gaga the original when they were discussing the video.
Also, the girl-on-girl prison fights at the start and bright, oversaturated colors throughout call Kill Bill to mind.
2. Beyonces nickname Honey Bee: diner robber Honey Bunny in Pulp Fiction
Gaga addresses Beyonce as Honey Bee before they pull off their (spoiler alert) poison murder spree in the diner; this seems like a pretty clear reference to Honey Bunny, the nickname given to Yolanda, one of the two robbers in the famous diner scene Pulp Fiction.
The diner setting itself is very Tarantino: Reservoir Dogs also opens up with an extended diner discussion.
3. To be continued: also Pulp Fiction
While were on Pulp Fiction, the To be continued title card at the end of Telephone got us thinking about Pulp Fictions epilogue. To be continued is a classic line for ending comic books or B-movies on a cliffhanger, but its also a classic Vincent Vega line that caps off Pulp Fictions anticlimax (and is endlessly debated by film geeks as such). From the script: (again, there be sorta spoilers)
4. Yellow title card text with reddish drop shadow: Jackie Brown
Kinda speaks for itself; the fonts and hues are different, but the effect and relative proportion to the screen are similar. Death Proof has somewhat similar credits, though it uses a black drop.
5. Female banter in the car: Death Proof
Yes, zany, pop culturey and idiomatic banter is a Tarantino staple, and Telephone rides that wave with lines like once you kill a cow, you gotta make a burger. But which genus of Tarantino banter is it?
Were going to go with the sorely underappreciated Death Proof, Tarantinos fantastic tough-girls-in-cars-fighting-Kurt-Russell flick that got the short end of the stick because it was double-billed with Planet Terror in Grindhouse. Some (presumably male) viewers complained that it felt too much like The View because of all of the girl talk, but it was balanced out with kickassery, much like Telephone; also, there are few shots of Beyonce driving that kinda look like Death Proof shots of Tracie Thoms in her own red-and-yellow car.
Bonus: We cant think of any Tarantino analogues for two of the coolest, most random shots in Telephone the Cook n Kill recipe and the random plug for PlentyofFish.com (an actual dating site); can you? If not, we bet he wishes hed done them first.
Final: heres the official video for Telephone, courtesy of Vevo:
-- Edited by Shem on Friday 12th of March 2010 12:30:27 PM