Mademoiselle Juliette video

[The Cap]

Ok ... just saw it on YouTube.

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Is anyone else reminded of the "nekkid masked party" scenes from Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" ?

[suzybananasplit]

I'm not sure if what they were doing was actually krumping...it just looked similar to what I've seen on tv.



I'm sure eventually Alizee will explain the video, like she has in the past. I've enjoyed reading the different theories.

[aditya8617]

Is that gal dressed in black taking Alizee everywhere Alizee as well? I had that feeling right at the end.

[Cooney]

Originally Posted by aditya8617

Is that gal dressed in black taking Alizee everywhere Alizee as well? I had that feeling right at the end.

She isn't Alizée physically - I'm 95% certain it's a different actress under there. She doesn't move like her. As for if her character is the same character as Alizée - that's a big part of the discussions in this thread :-)

[dan]

Very interesting to read everyone's insightful interepretations. Here's my take:

In brief, pink represents playful, flirtatious innocence, while black represents sterile, joyless maturity. Juliette is just coming of age, dressed in pink fringed with black, and is drawn by fate, who wears a black mask and has a steady deliberate gait, into battle with maturity. Only fate survives this battle. The story is narrated by the Shakespearean chorus, played by Alizée dressed in white, the color of neutrality.

The presence of Romeo at the beginning and end of this video is quite deliberate. Juliette's flirtations with Romeo are the spark that set this story in motion, prompting the visit by fate who leads her away. He is shown at the end to remind us of his tragic fate. Perhaps fate is walking to him after removing her mask?

[dan]

Well, I just talked with Mrs. Dan (no, that's not what I call myself in drag, I am actually quite happily married :-), and she had an interesting interpretation of this video. She sees this as an autobiographical coming of age story for Alizée, who came from an idealistic and innocent childhood (referenced by Gourmadises and Tinkerbell) and was led into Mylene's mature and hedonistic world (referenced by the brothel-like setting complete with Libertine bath). She emerges from this struggle as an adult herself, casting off the mask which she no longer wants or needs to wear, to be with her Romeo.

Leave it to Mrs. Dan to set me straight. I'll be quite curious to watch this video in hi-res so I can make out the tattoo on the back of the girl with the black mask. There are quite a few symbols in this video, so this may be telling. One thing I'm pretty sure of is that Alizée won't admit publicly that this video is autobiographical...

[fsquared]

Originally Posted by Brianh

Just a thought nothing solid here, but what if the whole pink and black thing is a personal struggle for Alizee the pink being the young Alizee and the black being the more Mature grown up Alizee. Just a passing thought, what do ya guys and girls think

You know, I was having the same thought, and I think it's an interesting idea to draw those analogies (esp. in Cooney's analysis) between Alizee's own personal journey and Juliette's, as portrayed in the video. In this way, the tour through the mansion recapitulates her early career: the bon-bons and Tinkerbells, the adolescent girls playing with dolls like PTB, the bathtub of JEAM, leading up to the room full of the competing influences on her life to duke it out. This one is probably allusive rather than a central theme, but allows the video to be interpreted on multiple levels.

Edit: Dan beat me to the punch. Great minds think alike I guess

Somehow my favorite touch is the anachronism of the jamming DJ in the background as the set up to face off.

[Deepwaters]

Dan, the trouble with that is that it doesn't match the song, nor Juliet's role in the play. Nor even Alizée's life, because the world she entered under Mylène's tutelage may have been glamorous, but it was hardly hedonistic. And as I said earlier, the image of the bath in this video has a completely different feel from the bath in Libertine. The women in the bath in MJ look so listless and lifeless, which is not at all how Mylène and her giggling bosomy friends appeared in Libertine.

I don't think the masked woman is Alizée (or Juliette). I'm sticking to the belief that she's Death. (Interestingly, while writing a comment about the video on Her Grace's MySpace page, I discovered that mort is a feminine noun, so having Death appear as a woman is linguistically appropriate, where as it might be more of a stretch in English.)

[fsquared]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

Dan, the trouble with that is that it doesn't match the song, nor Juliet's role in the play. Nor even Alizée's life, because the world she entered under Mylène's tutelage may have been glamorous, but it was hardly hedonistic. And as I said earlier, the image of the bath in this video has a completely different feel from the bath in Libertine. The women in the bath in MJ look so listless and lifeless, which is not at all how Mylène and her giggling bosomy friends appeared in Libertine.

I don't think the masked woman is Alizée (or Juliette). I'm sticking to the belief that she's Death. (Interestingly, while writing a comment about the video on Her Grace's MySpace page, I discovered that mort is a feminine noun, so having Death appear as a woman is linguistically appropriate, where as it might be more of a stretch in English.)

I agree with this too, which is why I think that it is at most a secondary allusive thread (more like a "personal touch" to the story).

Lady Death is a pretty familiar fantasy/mythical incarnation too (I guess to complement the male Grim Reaper). (In particular, the female Death exists as a force in the Marvel Universe...anyone remember the Infinity Gauntlet where Thanos takes over the universe?)

[Martin]

I think Dan could be right. It could well be autobiographical. Mylene's universe is very close to hedonistic imo. And the lyrics of the song talking about the author manipulating Juliette fit well. I dont know but those models that are presented like souless marionettes bring to my mind all this talk about Mylene's "play doll" and the way she manipulated Alizee artisticaly.