ALICE: The CHROMATICA Film (fan concept)

[OMonster 14,581]

I’ve long felt that Chromatica would’ve made the perfect visual album… so I thought it would be fun to write a brief outline of how this could’ve turned out in terms of the overarching narrative and meanings attached to each song. 

I’ve titled the film concept as ‘ALICE’ to represent how it tells the story of Gaga falling down a dark hole before fighting to find her ‘wonderland’ of Chromatica: a healed heart, mind and soul. 

The film would open with Gaga in the middle of a white room, lying on an operating table and rigged up to a brain monitor. She is unconscious but her eyelids are fluttering and she is clearly disturbed. We journey into her unconscious mind as Chromatica I starts to play. 

ACT I: PAIN

- Chromatica I

- Alice

- Replay

- Fun Tonight

This act dives into and establishes Gaga's pain and trauma. In ‘Alice’, she wakes up in a scary world, feeling alone and lost. We see her trying to outrun a monstrous figure in ‘Replay’, whilst in ‘Fun Tonight’, the impact of her fame is made clear in a flashback to a post-show comedown.

ACT II: BATTLE

- Chromatica II 

- 911 

- Sour Candy

- Plastic Doll 

In Act II, Gaga goes to battle her demons. In ‘911’ she battles different versions of herself from her past, before realising she needs to set them free. She seduces their capturers in ‘Sour Candy’ - in turn, reclaiming her sexuality after the trauma of ‘Replay’ - and kills them in ‘Plastic Doll’. She becomes ‘Lady Gaga’ again and embraces her dual identity.

ACT III: CLARITY

- Chromatica III

- Sine From Above

- 1000 Doves

- Enigma

- Babylon

After battling her demons and being healed by music in ‘Sine From Above’, Act III sees Gaga arrive in Chromatica. In ‘1000 Doves’, she uses her new-found clarity of mind to tackle her identity as ‘Mother Monster’. She asks her fans to see and treat her as a human first. She sings ‘Enigma’ – a song about being ‘Lady Gaga’ – as she comes to terms with and embraces the relationship she has with her fans. In ‘Babylon’, Gaga celebrates winning her battles and new perspective on the 'noise' in her life.

ACT IV: FREEDOM

- Free Woman

- Stupid Love

- Rain On Me

The movie ends with euphoric celebration as Gaga celebrates on the dance floor she fought for in ‘Free Woman’, embraces the virtual but still very real love of her fans in ‘Stupid Love’, and honours her strength in ‘Rain On Me’. 

I could write an essay on the visuals and how all of this could play out... but I won't bore you with all of that! Instead, I thought it would be fun to share at least the track list of this concept and how the album could be reorganised to tell more clearly (in my opinion) the story it lays out of Gaga finding peace.

What do you think? And what ideas do you have for a Chromatica visual album?

[Guest]

I always thought the album would've made a great visual concept album, the tracklist tells a very cohesive story and its clearly divided in three acts. The elements for a space pop opera are there.

I would like either an animated film if they used the studio versions of the songs (think an Animatrix type of film, switch animation styles throughout the film with good indie studios) or a musical like staging (think her VMAs performance with a way higher budget) homaging 60s and 70s B films but with a more streamlined fashion look, like the visuals for the booklet, fanzine and the SL and RoM videos. In the latter option, even the brutalist aesthetic of TCB woould work well.

I really like your concept though, I just prefer the story in the original tracklist order.

[TheSine 6,105]

I love this concept. All of the songs were placed beautifully in order. Exactly how I thought about it. Personally, I wouldn't mind having an essay about all of the visuals. I'm intrigued on how this would play out. Please let me know!!! I'd love to pitch in personally.

[Guest]

21 hours ago, TheSine said:

Personally, I wouldn't mind having an essay about all of the visuals. I'm intrigued on how this would play out. 

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