It is a sunny day with a bright blue sky. Later, when the musical riff repeats, we see three hands shoot into the camera frame, each one made up in one of the colors of the French flag (blue, white, and red). In sync with some keyboard riffs are the emergence of the colors of the French flag quickly on, then off, the screen, one by one. This instantly sets a tone of quaint, expensive European luxury. The video begins with a blue circle moving across a black screen that dissolves into a shot of Cannes as if approaching it by helicopter. Duh.” Such an admission was not an option yet in 1983, not if you wanted your videos played on MTV. That was the usual pattern in these years, to question the very idea of sexual identity and the labels people use, like Michael Stipe and Boy George and other closeted gay video stars did in interview after interview, until they all eventually bluntly said, “of course I’m gay. But in the early 80s, I would imagine he was probably dodging the question. Later on, by the late 90s, he had become the consummate openly gay celebrity. The marriage didn’t last long, and his heavy drug and alcohol use in these years probably clouded his judgment. I suspect this is an example of bearding, a Bowie-esque renunciation of his previous sexual identity explained away as decadent experimentation. In the 1980s however he married a woman, some hot fashion model. John had used the word “bisexual” to describe himself in a Rolling Stone article in 1976. The early 1980s was a period of rapid retreat back into the closet for many music stars because of the conservative political mood, the AIDS crisis, and the commercial pressures of MTV. According to Wikipedia, he officially came out as a gay man in 1988. I’m not exactly sure what the official status of John’s sexual identity was in 1983. The camera and editing in the video are characteristically busy and frenetic, with the distinct Mulcahy touch of clever synchronizations between the editing of the film and the musical beats and rhythms of the song, especially in transitional moments. There are scenes in wide boulevards along the water, on the beach, in front of grand hotels, and other glamorous locales. The setting is the French Riviera, Cannes and Nice, places where people with lots of money go. To me, he looks doped up, or perhaps hung over, hiding behind sunglasses, listless and flat underneath expensive clothing. It consists primarily of shots of Elton lip-synching the song as a dancing troupe repeatedly swarms and surrounds him. The video features an “Elton on vacation” motif. I found the song sterile and tuneless, all effects and machines with no warmth or soul or humanity like John’s earlier songs, and I just couldn’t relate to the video’s elitist vision of the world. It was heavily overplayed, just on all the damn time. I never liked this video when it was popular, despite its homoerotic imagery. The video was directed by Russell Mulcahy-he did almost all of Elton John’s videos, a gay man directing another gay man for a channel on which homosexuality did not yet officially exist. It has many gay inflected moments, yet the video’s gayness is muted by blunt heterosexual representations as well. This video is a mixture of European cosmopolitanism, high-end leisure, and almost-naked bodies covered in thick, brightly colored make-up. I think he played one of the traffic policemen dressed in leg warmers and a leotard.” Bruno Tonioli, who’s a judge of Dancing with the Stars, was one of our dancers. … We had leather boys, and mimes, and kissing clowns. My costume designer was in charge of body-painting all the boys. “Elton John’s ‘I’m Still Standing’ was super, super, super gay.
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