Earlier this month Lana Del Rey released Tropico, a short film. It was written by her and directed by Anthony Mandler who had also directed Ride and National Anthem. The film starts off with Del Rey as Eve in the Garden of Eden, with Adam played by model Shaun Ross. There, in Eden, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, John Wayne and Jesus co-exist. Eve picks an apple from the Tree of Knowledge, while her song Body Electric plays. Next Gods and Monsters play as the couple get banished from the Garden of Eden to the Garden of Evil (Los Angeles) in which Lana Del Rey is a stripper and Shaun Ross is a convenience store employee. They are both trapped in poverty, each doing what they can to survive. The strippers and the thugs (including Ross) stage a robbery of businessmen. In the final segment, after the robbery, Del Rey and Ross are fleeing across the country. Bel Air starts playing as they get out of the car and head towards a field. They are free, alone, with nothing surrounding them but each other.
The film is just under 30 minutes long, but covers a lot of topics; loss of innocence, good versus evil, beauty for money and redemption. It's true that the film was created in an artistic way, therefore it can be hard to fully understand the meaning behind everything, but I think it was very well written and shot, and it's definitely worth a watch. I found this article in which Anthony Mandler talks more about Tropico.
Watch Tropico below.
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