What happens after death? We don’t know, but Lady GaGa makes her (apparent) last journey by falling towards a vortex. The final shot of this scene is a clear homage to the sublime opening credits by Saul Bass from Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Vertigo. The same reference can be found in other scenes of the video.

Her death was obviously apparent, so here she is again, sitting on a wheelchair but ready to kick back. In this scene, she enters her tacky mansion (full of gold details, marble floors, big bunches of flowers, velvet chairs) with tuxedo-clad boys (her handymen?). Her outfit is hilarious: she’s wearing a leopard jumpsuit, a leather jacket with padded shoulders, studs and chains, round-framed sunglasses, Balmain studded sandals and a Betony Vernon for Swarovski red rhinestone collar with a white cross on it. This is a nightmare from the hair rock era!

She takes away her clothes and something gorgeous appears beneath. In this scene she tries to walk with the use of crutches and she’s wearing the infamous robot costume and helmet by Thierry Mugler. This is one of the most interesting moments of the video: she’s compared to a robot and this marks her renewal and re-birth after the apparent death. The metal corset could also be a reference to Maria, the female robot in Metropolis (1927) by Fritz Lang, who is the wicked symbol of capitalism trying to crush the working class. In the movie, the robot is created as a mechanical double of Maria, the heroine of the working class, with the purpose of creating chaos among the workers. The borders between woman and machine blur, and the false prophetess causes the workers’ revolt. In the case of Paparazzi, GaGa wearing a robot costume could also be a victim of capitalism and of a greedy society which has turned her into something inhuman.

The metal costume she’s wearing is iconic, one of the most famous and influential pieces by the visionary French designer: it was made famous by the model Emma Sjoberg, who wore it in George Michael’s Too Funky music video in 1992 and it was also seen on Helena Christensen (portrayed by Herb Ritts). Gisele Bundchen wore a slightly different version in the 2006 Pirelli calendar, shot by Mert and Marcus.

The central part of the video sees Lady GaGa making out with three blonde boys, who actually look like girls.

I think they are a mix of Duff McKagan, the Guns n’ Roses bassist, and Bill Kaulitz, the Tokio Hotel frontman.

Lady GaGa is not a natural born dancer, but there is a short dance sequence in the video. It is set in a ballroom, with colums and marble floors, stuccoed ceiling and a huge chandelier. In this case, she’s wearing a white Boudicca Couture jumpsuit with black ruffles at the hip and on the shoulder.

The references to Vertigo and the theme of the fall can be found everywhere in the video. Check the picture above: a housemaid lies dead on the floor and the image really pays homage to the playbill of the film by Hitchcock. Glimpses of beautiful women’s dead bodies appear in the central part of the video: it is not clear who they are, but this reminds me of Izima Kaoru and Melanie Pullen’s works, who have staged death for their fashion shots.

The third part of the video is the revenge of the formerly dead singer. I hate her outfit here (a mice-printed yellow jumpsuit by Jeremy Scott, from the fall/winter 2009 collection), but it’s funny and suits her. GaGa is sitting on a sofa with her lover: he’s reading a newspaper and is sporting a metal patch on an eye, and she’s sipping tea from her famous purple teacup. She serves him some Neuro Sonic and puts some powder poison in it. The lover immediately dies, she calls 911 and confesses her crime. In this scene she’s sporting a bizarre lip make-up: the black lipstick is applied on the central part of the lips and this resembles the make-up of a geisha. Her Mickey-Mouse sunglasses are by Jeremy Scott for Linda Farrow.