Although, unquestionably, all of Madonna’s music videos (except perhaps “Everybody”) have consistently exhibited a predilection toward her painterly influences in life (Tamara de Lempicka, Remedios Varo and Frida Kahlo among a few of the most prominent), it’s been some time since the grande dame of pop music took a more high art tack with her aesthetic. It was most noticeably during the mid-90s years of Bedtime Stories singles that M was overtly focused on cultivating a cinematic look for her videos (“Take A Bow” being a key example as it was her design to use it as an audition tape for Evita director Alan Parker, as well as its stunning sequel video, also directed by Michael Haussman, “You’ll See”).
In 1995, “Bedtime Story” (directed by Mark Romanek) itself was one of the most expensive music videos ever made, topped by Madonna herself with the video for “Express Yourself,” and later, “Die Another Day” (another concept involving a dual persona). The costliness of “Bedtime Story” made sense when considering it was the visual manifestation of her highly attuned art curation skills, and most concretely spoke to the effect of that curation on mass culture. Once again, in speaking of the conceptualization for the “Medellín” video, Madonna specifically name checked Leonora Carrington and Frida Kahlo, as well as her attraction to Diana Kunst (who co-directed with Mau Morgó) for her “painterly” sensibilities, and her hope that the video comes across from an aesthetic standpoint as a painting. That it does. From the instant we open on a praying Madonna (which we can never see enough of–lucky for us it takes a lifetime to heal from an upbringing in Catholicism by expressing its far-reaching influence through art), the color palette she referenced enjoying from Kunst’s work is apparent. The dramatic shot of the light shining through the stained glass window is heightened by Madonna’s prayer monologue:
Dear God, how could I trust anybody after years of disappointment and betrayal? How could I not want to run away again and again? Escape. I will never be what society expects me to be. I have seen too much. I cannot turn back. I have been kidnapped, tortured, humiliated and abused. And yet I still have hope. I still believe in the goodness of humans. Thank God for nature. For the angels that surround me. For the spirit of my mother, who is always protecting me. From now on, I am Madame X. And Madame X loves to dance. Because you can’t hit a moving target.”
And then, as we’ve seen so many times before (namely in the “Hung Up” video), a brunette Madonna walks out confidently onto the dance floor of a practice studio in her best version of the “obey everything I say” teacher she probably despised in Catholic school. Complete with elbow-length leather gloves, riding crop and eye patch (it’s an aesthetic that another one of her alter egos from “Erotica,” Dita, would surely approve of. In fact, maybe Dita is secretly Madame X for all we know).
As a group of fellow dancers including Maluma join their instructor, the cinematography becomes saturated in the same hue of red one can see in a dark room, with Madonna and Maluma taking center stage as they become the only two people on the floor. Apparently this dance lesson leads them to sipping their pain like champagne in bed together as Madonna shrimps Maluma’s toe (again, are we sure this not Dita from “Erotica”?) in between showcasing her cleavage and smoking cigarillos.
From jumping into bed to jumping onto a banquet table at their wedding (for yes, heteronormativeness is the most controversial thing of all at present), a now blonde Madonna in elaborate wedding attire (more so than the kind from her “Like A Virgin” days) walks confidently along the length of the place settings to get to her groom, Maluma. With the guests in similarly elaborate regalia, the party looks to be of the most decadent sort that one can only seem to find in Venice during Carnevale nowadays. After reaching the end of the table to kiss Maluma, an intercut shot of the Madame X of the beginning of the video–the one running frantically in a silk robe through a Twin Peaksian forest shot in black and white–slices through the reverie. As though to remind us that Madame X is still haunted by and running from her past (the lyrics to Ray of Light‘s “Mer Girl” do well to accent that visual).
In between dancing with her guests and this intercut shot of Madonna at the center of a bull-like ring, wrestling with both herself and the presence of a cloaked man on a horse, it’s evident that Madame X can only relish moments of joy so much before being brought back down to reality by her demons, or simply her profession as international woman of mystery.
Maybe that’s why she needs to cut and run once again, doing her best imitation of Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride by the end of the video, set in those early hours of the morning. And just like Roberts as Maggie Carpenter, she finally decides to bring her groom along for the ride, that final overhead shot a sweeping visual of the vast expanse of nature that even someone as prominent as Madonna a.k.a. Madame X can disappear into.
As she explained to MTV during the interview before the video’s premiere, “Madame X is back to her roots. She doesn’t care. Zero you know whats.” Of course, actually saying the real word for “you know whats” might be further assurance of that. For it’s quite evident that Madonna does still give a fuck very much. Which is precisely why the video for “Medellín” is so meticulously shot.
