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Taylor Swift has executed an impressive and understated move typical of a pop star at her level: letting someone else take the spotlight in her music video. This isn’t a first for Swift, who previously cast Sadie Sink to represent her in the extended “All Too Well” video. However, in her latest release titled “Elizabeth Taylor,” she opts for a unique approach by relying entirely on archival footage. The video exclusively features clips of the iconic Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor, incorporating candid shots, news segments, and scenes from the 1968 documentary Around the World of Mike Todd. Most notably, the footage highlights Elizabeth Taylor’s prime years during the 1950s and ’60s, with only a single exception from the 1948 film Julia Misbehaves.
For those curious about the sources of these cinematic snippets, the video concludes with a list of 11 films from which the excerpts are drawn. However, for Swift enthusiasts who might be more familiar with one Taylor than the other, here’s a quick guide to the origins of some notable clips.
Let the Taylor and Taylor collaboration take center stage!
“Sometimes it doesn’t feel so glamorous to be me”
The song opens with lines set against scenes of Elizabeth Taylor in a nightgown from the 1954 film Elephant Walk, a drama where she portrays the new bride of a tea plantation owner struggling to adapt to life in Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, amidst the threat of elephant herds. Although not among her most celebrated works, the film was already deemed rather dull upon its release. Using a scene from a film about a European woman feeling isolated as the only white woman in South Asia to reflect on the pitfalls of fame and fortune might raise eyebrows, but perhaps Swift is intentionally nodding to her privileged persona. Following this, the video transitions through more recognizable works from Elizabeth Taylor’s career in the 1950s, including a wedding dress scene from the original 1950 Father of the Bride—the inspiration for the beloved Steve Martin remake—a thoughtful moment from A Place in the Sun (1951), and instances of private happiness from Giant (1956).
“If your letters ever said goodbye, I’d cry my eyes violet / Elizabeth Taylor / Tell me for real / Do you think it’s forever?”
The montage speed accelerates as the song kicks into the chorus after the “cry my eyes violet” line. It seems like a quick ocular close-up here is from another Taylor (relative) obscurity, the 1968 cult movie Boom!, one of three Tennessee Williams adaptations Taylor starred in during her peak movie-star years. All three of these are represented in the video – a later instance of accelerated montage for the chorus also use footage from Suddenly, Last Summer – but Boom! is easily the least famous of the trio. It’s also used later in the video as footage for Swift’s line about “white diamonds” (also the perfume for which Taylor advertised later in life). In it, she plays a terminally ill woman grappling with how to let go of the material world.
The most noticeable Taylor glamor shot in this montage, however, the one the video actually uses over the line “Elizabeth Taylor,” is the actress winking in a scene from Cleopatra. Almost any shot of Taylor in an especially elaborate costume, headwear, or state of undress is from this 1963 boondoggle. The historical epic about the Egyptian queen was actually a major hit, the highest grossing of its year and one of the biggest movies of the 1960s. But it was also by most accounts the most expensive movie ever made at the time (and even adjusted for inflation, it would sit pretty high up there), and failed to recoup its production costs during its original release. Probably not a coincidence, then, that a shot from Cleopatra (featuring Taylor lying on her stomach, nude in profile and barely covered) accompanies the line “only hot as your last hit.” Cleopatra come back in the clip for another round of “be my NY when Hollywood hates me,” a good match for the film’s lavish notoriety as a troubled production.
“I can’t have fun if I can’t have… you”
The last line of the first chorus lingers, before the video makes a transition to more extensive behind-the-scenes footage of Taylor, lingers on a few shots from the 1954 film Rhapsody, featuring (in this excerpt) Taylor in a green patterned dress, taking a phonecall and dramatically touching her face in the aftermath. In the film, she plays a debutante in a love triangle with two different musicians. Like Boom! and Elephant Walk, it’s not a movie that looms large in the Taylor canon (or has been inducted into it at all). But you can see why a music-based melodrama from Taylor’s younger years might appeal to Swift.
“In the papers, on the screen, and in their minds”
Other movies that appear throughout the video include Love Is Better Than Ever (1952), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) (the second of her three Tennessee Williams movies), and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), one of her last major films. Two surprising omissions are Raintree Country and Butterfield 8, because they’re both movies where Taylor was nominated for an Oscar (though she received nominations for Roof, Suddenly, and Woolf as well). She even won the award for Butterfield 8, though she’d go on to win again for Woolf, and Taylor herself didn’t care for Butterfield 8, which was essentially forced to do under her MGM contract. Obviously Swift has some experience with those sorts of conflicts, and might prefer to avoid that one entirely. She hasn’t provided a full primer on the career of one of her favorite movie stars, but there’s more than enough in “Elizabeth Taylor” to get any newbies started.
Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn podcasting at www.sportsalcohol.com. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Guardian, among others.