In Promotional Video, Lady Gaga Modernizes the Mona Lisa’s Smile

It’s hard to top the image of visitors to the Louvre striking a warrior pose in the museum’s Cour Marly or grunting through an intense cardio session in the shadow of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, both of which were made possible thanks to a program called “Run in the Louvre” that the museum launched during this year’s Summer Olympics in Paris. 

The latest crossover marketing event at the museum is tied to the October 2 release of the Joker: Folie à Deux, the sequel to the 2019 Joaquin Phoenix vehicle The Joker. The museum released an 80-second video featuring Lady Gaga, who stars opposite Phoenix’s Joker as his maniacal love interest Harleen Quinzel, bopping through the Louvre’s halls, pointing finger guns at priceless works of art. Eventually, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa catches her eye. 

Gaga waves at the painting, then feels a rush of inspiration. The Mona Lisa could use some sprucing up. She pulls out a tube of lipstick and leans in towards the painting. Of course, she doesn’t actually deface the masterpiece. A little bit of movie magic involving a jump cut, a pane of glass, a camera pan, and pulling focus, makes it appear that Gaga scrawls a big red smile across the enigmatic lady’s lips. All the while, Gaga’s new song “The Joker” plays in the background.

The video isn’t a spot for the movie, however. According to the museum’s web page and The Art Newspaper, the video was made in collaboration with Gaga and Warner Bros. (which is distributing Folie à Deux) to promote the museum’s autumn exhibition “Figures of the Fool: From the Middle Ages to the Romantics,” which opens on  October 16. That being the case, it’s unlikely that Gaga will face prison time for defacing the world’s most famous picture.

This isn’t the first time that the museum has taken up a cross promotional strategy with a major pop star. In 2018, Beyoncé and Jay-Z used the museum as a setting for their “APES**T” music video in which they strolled past, Winged Victory, The Virgin of the Green Cushion, Pietà, and of course, The Mona Lisa. 

It’s all about the hits, isn’t it.