‘Tropico’: revisiting Lana Del Rey’s cinematic short film
Before Elizabeth Woolridge Grant became Lana Del Rey, she wrote and recorded hundreds of songs under various names, such as May Jailer and Lizzy Grant. From upbeat pop tracks to sparse acoustic ballads, Del Rey proved herself to be prolific from the very beginning. She finally broke through into the mainstream with the song ‘Video Games’, her major label debut, in 2011.
The mellow baroque track was a stark contrast to the rest of the charts, and the video – filmed on a webcam – looked nothing like the high-budget glossy music videos that dominated MTV. Yet, with the release of her next few singles, teasing the release of Born to Die, Del Rey leaned into this opulent, big-budget style. Still, the singer hardly stuck to conventions, with music videos such as ‘Born to Die’, ‘Blue Jeans’, ‘Summertime Sadness’ and ‘National Anthem’ shocking audiences with the scenes of Del Rey dying, singing on a throne between two tigers, and even recreating JFK’s assassination, with the singer pretending to be both Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy.
These videos were rooted in vintage aesthetics, with ‘Blue Jeans’ filmed in smoky black-and-white and ‘National Anthem’, of course, echoing the 1960s. Del Rey quickly established herself as an artist heavily tied to visuals, using music videos as a way to bring the rich imagery from her lyrics to life. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons for her success. Fans fell in love with the world and image Del Rey carved out for herself, reblogging screenshots from her music videos on Tumblr and identifying with these glamorous yet tragic storylines which she seemed to inhabit.
Shortly after she released Born to Die, she surprised fans with an EP called Paradise, featuring several additional tracks. A year later, she released another EP, Tropico, containing three songs from Paradise – ‘Body Electric’, ‘Gods and Monsters’ and ‘Bel Air’. They soundtracked a short film of the same name, which Del Rey crafted with the assistance of director Anthony Mandler. He had previously worked with her on some of her greatest (and most cinematic) music videos – ‘National Anthem’ and ‘Ride’.
Tropico is perhaps the most Lana Del Rey thing that Del Rey could’ve done. Divided into three chapters, the short film begins in The Garden of Eden, where the singer wears nothing but a few roses, pretending to be Eve, while Shaun Ross plays Adam. The pair are greeted by several figures from American culture – Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne and Elvis Presley, as well as Jesus – but disaster inevitably arises when Del Rey fails to resist temptation. She eats an apple and is suddenly cast into modern-day Los Angeles, where she is now a stripper, and Ross’ character is in a gang.
Throughout, Del Rey recites some of her favourite American poems, such as Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ and Walt Whitman’s ‘I Sing The Body Electric’, with the latter providing significant inspiration for ‘Body Electric’, which played in the first section of the film. We then see strippers entertaining men before a robbery ensues. Del Rey depicts humanity’s fall from grace, taking us to a modern American wasteland filled with violence, exploitation and crime.
Wayne’s God-like figure returns for the final segment of the short, where the pair return to heaven as Del Rey’s ‘Bel Air’ plays over the top. Clocking in at around 27 minutes, the film shows Del Rey’s dedication to her art, creating a cinematic short that links the tracks together and allows her to celebrate her biggest influences, such as Whitman.
Tropico gave us one of Del Rey’s most accomplished works of art, as well as her iconic YouTube comment in reply to a fan rudely asking when it was being released: “It’s coming you little bitch.”
Watch Tropico below.
