Photo: TAS Rights Management
When Taylor Swift said at the outset of The Life of a Showgirl’s release that she was hoping to use her post–Eras Tour time to work on more music videos, there was a part of me that hoped she’d direct something truly evil and mischievous for her interpolation of George Michael’s “Father Figure,” maybe a “Bad Blood”–ian redux that sees her take the role of Big Machine Records’ Scott Borchetta. Ah, well — hope springs eternal. Instead, she premiered a teaser for her “Patient Zero” music video on CBS Mornings on September 24, ahead of the midnight release of four additional songs on The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore.
The teaser boasts an all-star cast of, well, Swift herself, along with longtime Swift pal Dakota Johnson and Colin Farrell, whose involvement may seem random until you go back and remember that she did a Directors on Directors interview with longtime Farrell collaborator Martin McDonagh. And maybe she’s got an Irish thing going on, given her recentish collaboration with Farrell’s fellow countryman Domhnall Gleeson. “Patient Zero” is presumably directed by Swift, as she’s done for her last several music videos, though she’s switched up cinematographers, working with Emmanuel Lubezki in lieu of Rodrigo Prieto. who has shot several of her recent videos. Lubezki is best known for his work with Terrence Malick, Alfonso Cuarón, and Digger director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, whose star sat beside Swift at the Chiefs game last week. What’s that famous phrase again? “Her web connects them all”?
What can we glean about the vibe or content or themes of this very gray, 13-seond (of course) teaser trailer? For one, the look here is very Reputation: icy, cold, and stark. While The Tortured Poets Department had a lush Victorian quality to its desaturated aesthetic, this is much more vivid and scary. Johnson and Swift often seem to be in matching outfits and postures, suggesting one might be a replacement for the other in the video’s narrative. The two also appear at one point to be standing over a grave that seems to read, “Lover and daughter gone too soon.” Farrell, for his part, gets out of an expensive-looking car, which is always a cool thing for a man to be doing. Later in the teaser, Johnson appears in white, which suggests some kind of wedding imagery? Maybe a wedding gone awry? Also, does any of this have anything to do with the fake rain outside Swift’s apartment the other day?
We’ll get some context, maybe, when the song drops in a little over 12 hours, but we’ll otherwise have to wait until Sunday night’s VMAs to get the full scoop on what made this poor showgirl so sick.
Taylor Swift’s ‘Patient Zero’ Looks Very Reputation
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