The black-and-white video features actors Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles, of “Dead Poets Society”
Taylor Swift released this Saturday (4/20) the video for “Fortnight”, a collaboration with Post Malone from her new album, “The Tortured Poets Department”. The track is the album’s first single and revives the soft synthpop of ’80s bands like Berlin, Ultravoxx and The Motels.
Full of symbolism, the black and white video, created and directed by the singer, sees Taylor imprisoned in a mental institution. The first images refer to the disorientation of surrealism, as well as showing the artist’s face getting tattoos like Post Malone’s. She then appears in disconnected scenes, in a large poetry writing room, in a laboratory, and in a telephone booth. The last scene shows Taylor sitting on the roof of the cabin, during a torrential rain, and expresses the difficulty of connection between the two.
Taylor goes from prison – complete with handcuffs – to a hospice bed to an explosion of anger and frustration, destroying the newsroom environment and setting fire to several pages of typed poems. Between scenes, he undergoes electroshock with mad scientist equipment – played, in a brief cameo, by actors Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles, who as young men worked together in “Dead Poets’ Day” (1989 ).
It’s all beautifully photographed by cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, who has been nominated for an Oscar four times, most recently this year for “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
“When I was designing the music video for ‘Fortnight,’ I wanted to show you the worlds I saw in my head that were the backdrop to the making of this song,” the singer wrote on Instagram. “Almost everything in it is a metaphor or reference to one corner of the album or another. For me, this video proved to be the perfect visual representation of this record and the stories I sing in it. Post Malone brought me surprised on set as our tragic tortured hero and I’m very grateful for everything he put into this collaboration.”
He also commented that he was laughing with happiness “to be working with the coolest guys in the world, Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles (tortured poets, meet your colleagues down the hall, the dead poets)”. She added: “I still can’t believe I worked with the incomprehensibly brilliant Rodrigo Prieto.”
Source: Terra
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
