Lazarus by David bowie
Lazarus was the final song released during the lifetime of world renown male singer David Bowie on his 69th birthday 7/1/2016 (The day before he died). It was recorded in November 2015, less than 2 months before Bowie's death from cancer. It is clear from this video that bowie knew he was dying of cancer as the lyrics and video depict themes of mortality and death.
The video opens with an enigma code, a close up shot of a wardrobe, This could represent a coffin. after this long lingering take we cut to an ill and frail looking David Bowie lying in a bed with a blindfold over his head. He is clearly afraid as he grips the covers. This depicts his fear of death and the blindfold represents how he wants to be oblivious to the truth that he will soon die. It makes the audience question what is wrong with bowie as at this time his illness was not made public.
The camera cuts to a tracking shot as a hand representing death crawls out from the bottom of the bed. This acts as a shortcut to meaning and recreates the slow crawl of death and illness bowie is dealing with
Bowie is shown shaking as he struggles to get out of the bed and the video cuts between shots of this and bowie stood up curing the fact he must die.
The video shows him attempting to write what you could assume to be song lyrics as he falls to the floor or enters uncontrollable spasm on the floor.
The final shot of the video is of bowie finally backing down into the wardrobe or in this case a coffin and accepting death in peace as he knows that it's a relief from life.
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