From ‘Vertigo’ by Alfred Hitchcock to ‘Melancholy’ by Lars von Trier, through ‘Where the Wild Roses Grow’ by Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue.
‘Ophelia’, the famous painting by the Pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais, is one of the most used pictorial references in audiovisual productions, on par with ‘Christina’s World’ (Andrew Wyeth) or ‘American Gothic’ (Grant Wood).
In 1900, the work was reinterpreted by the German painter Friedrich Heyser. Her ‘Ofelia’ is the one that serves as a model for Taylor Swift in the recreation that begins ‘The Fate of Ophelia’. Continuing with the Pre-Raphaelites, the bird that appears in the second tableau vivant seems inspired by Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s ‘Blessed Beatrix’, although the rest of the composition has nothing to do with it.
With both pictorial references a video clip opens that stands out for two factors. On the one hand, the attractive dynamism of the montage and staging, which links sequences through a very creative use of (false) continuity and visual chains (the opening of a curtain, a movement of the hand, a splash…).
On the other hand, and leaving aside the usual Easter eggs for the (very) fans, due to the variety of looks and scenarios that the clip presents, most of them based on classic references: from the cabaret aesthetic – in its music-hall or burlesque aspect – to the pop music of the girl bands of the 60s, passing through the sets of Broadway productions or the aquatic choreographies of Esther Williams. ‘The Fate of Ophelia’ concludes with a nod to “Ophelia’s fate,” showing Taylor submerged in a bathtub.
