While some would prefer to effortlessly liken Selena Gomez’s latest video for the single, “Back to You,” to something out of a Wes Anderson movie (maybe it’s her Margot Tenenbaum-esque haircut or the loosely based plot on Moonrise Kingdom–at least, in part), it would appear that director Scott Cudmore’s true intent is to remake Gomez into a modern day Anna Karina–as if that could ever be achieved. But still, he tries, with the thin and simple premise being one after Jean-Luc Godard’s very own heart as Gomez asks a boy at a party, “Do you want to steal a car?” Of course he does, it’s a millennial party–boring as shit. So it is that one of the many subtitles reads: “Sure.” But before this rewind sort of effect takes place, we are given a re-creation of the color schemes of Ferdinand “Pierrot” Griffon’s (Jean-Paul Belmondo) encounters at the party where he reconnects with his ex, Marianne Renoir (Anna Karina), the OG of manic pixie dream girls–unless you count Garance from Les Enfants du Paradis.
With an intro title that says merely VIDEO all in blue, Gomez stands betwixt three other animated partygoers while she herself seems only to be animated by a sequined dress accented with green feather hems at the sleeves and skirt. And so with a backbeat that mirrors that of Avicii’s “Wake Me Up,” Selena and her old boo take to the outside world in a stolen car (in a scene that sort of re-creates Cher from Clueless leaving her house with Christian–maybe that’s only because every man seems like a “cakeboy” nowadays).
“So where are we going?,” he asks, in typical deference to the woman because he has no plan or brain of his own. She lists, “Italy. France. Canada. Russia. Michigan.” Gomez is clearly only at her best at the initial phases of brainstorming. Getting all meta on us (/further referencing that this song just has to be about Justin Bieber), her cohort remarks, “You know, you sort of look like Selena Gomez.” It’s at this point that an almost shot-for-shot (word-for-word) replication of the scene in Pierrot Le Fou where Marianne turns around in the same exact way to speak to us in that breaking the fourth wall way that we’re truly aware of just who Gomez–or, one supposes, Cudmore–wants to pay homage to. And it ain’t Wes Anderson, himself a grafter of all things 60s in nature, Godard films included.
There are other crime spree duos that Gomez reminds one of in the video as well, most notably Bonnie and Clyde (a.k.a. Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty) and Holly Sargis and Kit Carruthers (a.k.a. Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen). But it is all Godard, in truth, that saturates the narrative and cinematography of the video–as much a tribute to recycling old flames as Pierrot Le Fou is, actually even more so, as Selena Gomez doesn’t turn out to be a backstabbing enemy. Unless you count setting a stolen vehicle on fire as a means to avoid jail time an act of traitorousness. On the plus side, at least she makes herself the literary one as opposed to the man, absently poring over Tales of Infidelity by Scott Cudmore (accenting the fact that it’s not a real book, and this isn’t a real love story–as so few are).
One minute a couple eating the forbidden fruits of freedom (very literally biting apples together as the camera flashes to a notebook page with the words, “Liberty?” and “Freedom?” scrawled in them), soon their time together starts to feel imprisoning, just as it did for Pierrot and Marianne–and, oh, all monogamous couples.
So she leaves their self-made paradise turned hell in the hopes of maybe finding someone else at the little fête, suddenly saddled with the revelation, “You can cut me up and kiss me harder/You can be the pill to ease the pain/’Cause I know I’m addicted to your drama/Baby, here we go again” (P.S. Taylor Swift wants her lyrical style back). Which is precisely why the storyline begins all over again, Gomez singing, “I know I’d go back to you,” a realization that comes only after calling the whole thing off and attempting to start anew at the same party. The thing is, everyone else is even worse than the fuckboy you already hate. So why not just stick with the diabolical animal you already know?–that is, unless, he decides to blow himself up before you can get any rebound sex.
Genna Rivieccio, thank you ever so for you post.Much thanks again.