“Fortnight”, Taylor Swift’s new music video, caused a stir by reaching almost 10 million views on YouTube in just nine hours since its premiere. This is the first track from their eleventh album. The Tortured Poets Department which the famous singer has promoted as a single.
The song, converted into black and white visual poetry, has not only captured attention for its narrative and aesthetics, but also for the participation of recognized figures such as Post Malone, Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles. These last two are a nod to the relationship between the album title and a classic eighties movie.
The theme of the video presents a complex interaction of Swift with scientists, played by Hawke and Charles, in an environment reminiscent of a style laboratory. Frankensteinalongside Malone, creating a connection through typewriters that emit vibrant colors.
“When I was writing the video for ‘Fortnight’, I wanted to show you the worlds that I saw in my head and that served as a backdrop for me to make this music. Almost everything in it is a metaphor or a reference to one corner or another of the album. For me, This video turned out to be the perfect visual representation of this album and the stories I tell in it“explained the artist on her social networks.
Additionally, he applauded Malone’s work “as our tortured tragic hero” and thanked him for joining the collaboration. And he added with notable emotion: “I’m still laughing at having been able to work with the coolest guys in the world, Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles (tortured poets, meet your companions at the end of the hall, the dead poets).”
The actors are well remembered for the film The death poet Society (1989), directed by Peter Weir and written by Tom Schulman. Set in 1959, in the fictional elite academy Welton Academytells the story of an English teacher, John Keating (Robin Williams), who inspires his students through the teaching of poetry. Keating, a former Welton student who studied English Literature from Cambridge, England, promotes the philosophy of “seizing the day” among his students.
Among the young people at the school were Todd Anderson (Hawke), a new student and Neil Perry, a promising senior assigned as his roommate (Robert Sean Leonard). Later, Anderson finds himself immersed in a group of friends that includes Knox Overstreet (Charles), Richard Cameron (Dylan Kussman), Steven Meeks (Allelon Ruggiero), Gerard Pitts (James Waterston) and Charlie Dalton (Gale Hansen).
They are all impacted by Keating’s unconventional teaching methods and attempt to follow in his footsteps as they navigate the sorrows and joys of adolescence. 35 years after the film’s Oscar nomination, Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles They represent scientists experimenting with Swift’s character in the aforementioned music video.
Following the release of the footage, Charles expressed admiration for the singer in an Instagram post: “I’ve admired Taylor for a long time., but meeting her in person took my hobby to a whole new level. Genuine, kind, approachable, and overall a stellar human being, not to mention she is an amazing director!”
In his same publication, Taylor Swift praised the collaboration of the famous director of photography Rodrigo Prietoknown for his work in critically acclaimed films such as The Moon Killers and Barbie; along with other collaborators such as Ethan Tobman, Chancler Haynes, Anthony Dimino, Jil Hardin and Dom Thomas. He in turn thanked Parliament’s visual effects team and costume designers Joseph Cassell, Lorrie Turk and Jemma Muradian for carrying out his vision for “Fortnight”.
The Tortured Poets Department is already a success in Spotify after obtaining 300 million views in a single day. The 31 songs from the latest album Taylor Swift They are available to listen to on digital platforms. As to The death poet Societyyou can find it in the catalog of Star+.
