After premiering it in theaters during her Release Party of a Showgirl theatrical event, Taylor Swift put her video for “The Fate of Ophelia” on YouTube Sunday night.
Taylor, who wrote and directed the clip, described it on Instagram as a “journey through the chaotic world of show business.” During the theatrical event, Variety reports that Taylor explained the concept as “all these different ways in which, over time periods, historically, you could be a showgirl.”
Among those ways: being in a Pre-Raphaelite painting in the 1800s, being a cabaret performer, a theatrical actor, a Vegas showgirl or a movie musical star. You could even, she said, “be a pop singer on the Eras Tour.”
We see all those different incarnations in the video, starting with Taylor in a scenario inspired by the 1851 painting Ophelia by John Everett Millais. She goes from that to posing in another painting, along with a loaf of her own sourdough bread.
Next, she’s a cabaret performer in a Marilyn Monroe ‘do, a club singer in the ’60s, a theater actress fighting pirates, an Esther Williams-style star in a movie musical and a Vegas showgirl. Finally, she’s Taylor the pop star, wearing a spangly dress and riding a cart down a hotel corridor and catching a football. The video ends with her lying in a bathtub, recreating the cover of the album.
Noting that the video reunited her with her “Eras Tour family,” Taylor explained on Instagram, “I wanted each one-take scene to feel like a live performance and remind us all of how it felt to be at those shows together. Making every moment count.”
The promise of a first look at the video helped The Release Party of a Showgirl top the weekend box office with $33 million.
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