Lana Del Rey - Born To Die - Music Video Analysis

PART EIGHT

How is the star presented in:

Born to die - Lana Del Rey

The mid-shot of Lana with a male actor shows an intimate embrace, expressing connotations of love and trust to the audience. This emphasises the large American flag which is in the background. The American flag, and general US based theme shows patriotism, satisfaction, loyalty and appreciation.

Although this intimacy is juxtaposed by the male's tattoos and piercings contrasted with Lana's purity. The dreamy looks they give each other shows that they trust each other. This is her way of portraying the message to the audience that even though they are very different, they can still love and trust each other. The American theme and American flags are something that unites them. They are both proud Americans.

In the next scene, which the music video keeps cutting back to in between shots of the storyline, we see Lana sat on a throne in a church wearing a long white dress. This gives her the star image that she is in charge and in some way royalty. 

The whiteness of her dress represents purity. Reinforcing the key image that Lana wants to portray herself through, the image of purity and elegance. 






To emphasise that she is in charge, there are two tigers either side of her. Tigers are renowned for being dangerous and wild animals, the fact that she can control them tells us that she must be wilder and more dangerous than them herself. 



Perhaps she wants to present herself through her star image as wild and dangerous, which contrasts what she has just lead the audience to believe about her being pure and elegant. This uncertainty within the audience about her star image and who she is trying to portray herself as is a good way to intrigue the audience and keep them guessing. She doesn't want to give the game away too fast.





So, to conclude, her star image in this music video shows us that she is MYSTERIOUS and INCOMPREHENSIBLE.