Bedtime Story, the video. Insane. I'm not going to go into how it's directed by Mark Romanek who directed Rain or how it's based off surrealist paintings and cross reference the paintings with the stills. There's a great article HERE (scroll down). I'm going to talk about Madonna's massive influence and the beauty of this video - which has been acquired for New York's Museum of Modern Art's film and video collection.
In the future, most people will not have the attention span to sit through feature length movies. In fact, a five minute video might be too long for them. Look around, everyone's on their little phone, rushing through things and writing commentaries in under 140 characters. That, too, will shorten.
When people tune into or scan their dvr for Turner Classic Movies (TCM) programming - they're not looking for the best actor, best director or best script. They're looking for recognizable names. In 50 years time, when people are searching the new version of Google - Madonna will be so monumental, more so than today. People will be searching their mini electronic devices for motion picture art and Madonna will be omnipresent.
Like Express Yourself and Vogue, we can see elements of Bedtime Story in many videos from 1995 until today. Look at all the wanna-be's today - almost 30 years into her career. They can't release anything without Madonna being brought up in every review of their new single, album, performance or video. They all byte her style but don't have the timeless pulsating songs, the blasphemous/holy name, dancer trained carriage or that fuck face. Or that old gay eye for detail - to eliminate the unnecessary and the ugly. She has always been a gay man, not an over embellished drag queen. Madonna embodies all the wonders in the arts which are evident here in Bedtime Story. She creates a role for each video and her songs are the score. All the while doing it in the most enticing cinematography.
So, with Bedtime Story, we have our visionary vamp in all her surrealistic glory. All those paintings come to life. She's not an insecure mangled monster who stutters through her songs with repellent visuals, she's a powerful surrealistic sex goddess summoning us with her lush, hypnotic voice and enchanting face. An echo or remembrance of a wet dream we had along the way. Anyone who tries to convince us we're "post-sex" is wrong.
Let's get lost in Bedtime Story the way they will in the future.
When this video was released, here in Los Angeles, it premiered at a movie theater in Santa Monica and we all went out there to see it - it was FAB-U-LOUS on the big screen! And, of course, we left before the long forgotten feature film started. We didn't have the time or the interest. We got what we wanted. The greatest star that ever lived - Madonna in under 5 minutes.
