Fortnight is the “key” song from Taylor Swift’s new album The Tortured Poet’s Department . It is the first song on the track list that appears in Volume 1 of the album. Swift collaborated with rapper, singer, and songwriter Post Malone to perform and film the music video for this song.

Interestingly, this MV was inspired by the movie Poor things (2023).

In the MV, Swift transforms into a “crazy love” poetess living in a mental hospital. She is haunted by a past love affair. The MV is said to recall Swift’s love affair with her ex-boyfriend – actor Joe Alwyn.

The MV depicts the happy moments of the couple until their breakup. At this time, the girl has to live in a mental hospital, undergoing horrifying treatments, including scenes showing her being subjected to electric shocks.

This image is reminiscent of the movie Poor Things (2023) starring Taylor Swift’s best friend – actress Emma Stone. In fact, Emma Stone was also the “matchmaker” for Taylor Swift to meet actor Joe Alwyn. The couple had been together for 6 years before breaking up.

Since the album is so reminiscent of Swift and Alwyn’s past relationship, it’s understandable that she would mention “matchmaker” as well. Emma Stone and Taylor Swift have been friends since 2008.

In the film Poor Things directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone plays a girl who is brought back to life after committing suicide. In the film, Emma Stone’s character also has to undergo electric shocks to be revived.

Fortnight is considered a prelude for the audience to enjoy the remaining 30 songs in the album. Therefore, the MV of the song is attracting the attention of the public. As expected, Swift has intentionally inserted many meaningful details into the MV to satisfy her loyal fans.

The black and white MV has a strong cinematic feel. Fortnight is a special song for Swift, so she paid close attention to filming the MV for it. Swift said: “When I wrote the song and came up with the idea for the MV, I wanted you to see the world that I saw from my perspective.

A lot of the music video is metaphorical and references other songs and albums. For me, the Fortnight music video is a perfect representation of the whole album and can summarize the story I wanted to tell.

Let’s review the metaphorical details that appear in Swift’s MV Fortnight :

Typewriter: The typewriter appears quite a lot in the MV. After breaking up with her long-time boyfriend Joe Alwyn, Swift had a brief relationship with singer Matty Healy – who was very interested in using typewriters.

The fact that Swift used the typewriter so much in the Fortnight MV makes fans believe that she also wanted to remind them of this fleeting love affair.

Costumes: The costumes Swift wore for her appearance in the MV Fortnight were full of period costumes, reminiscent of last year’s blockbuster movie – Poor Things . The movie starred Emma Stone – Taylor Swift’s best friend. Emma Stone was also the one who introduced Joe Alwyn to Swift.

White Pleated Dress: In a scene from the Fortnight music video, Swift wears a white pleated dress that is quite similar to the one she wore to the Grammy Awards earlier this year. It was at this event that Swift made a surprise announcement about the upcoming release of a new album.

Dead Poets: Actors Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles played the scientists who treated Swift’s character in the music video Fortnight . The two actors previously appeared in the film The Dead Poets Society (1989).

The movie title The Dead Poet’s Society and Taylor Swift’s album title The Tortured Poet’s Department are similar, as they both refer to “poets.” Moreover, 1989 – the year the movie was released – is also Swift’s birth year.

The Black Dog: The black dog that appears in the MV symbolizes the song called The Black Dog in the album. In addition, the slang term “black dog” can also be seen as an implication of the period of hardship and decline that Swift went through.

Spacing: In the MV, when Swift types the words “I love you, it’s ruining my life” on the typewriter, she uses “double” spaces in several places. This is a detail reminiscent of the song Blank space from her album 1989 .

Face tattoos: The fake tattoos that appear on Swift’s face in the Fortnight MV are identical to the real tattoos on the face of singer Post Malone – who appeared with her in the MV.

Cats: In the frame introducing the staff who made the MV, images of cats appear in the 4 corners of the frame. Swift is a big cat lover, she has 3 cats.

The cure for missing someone: In her album The Tortured Poet’s Department , Swift talks a lot about broken relationships. She shows that she was so miserable after getting out of a broken relationship that she had to take pills called “forget him”.

In the song Fortnight there is the line “took the miracle move-on drug, its effects were temporary”.

Swift also sings about how she tries to act like she’s fine when she’s going through a breakup, but in reality, she’s also going through a very down period. This is also expressed in the song I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, which is also on the album.

Number 1: On the typewriter in the MV, the number 1 key is missing. This seems to be a reference to the song The 1 from the album Folklore (2020). This song is about Swift’s loss after breaking up with someone she thought she could be with for a long time.

In addition, before the news of Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn’s breakup was released, Swift quickly removed the song Invisible String from the list of songs she would perform on the Eras tour, because this song was written about her love for Alwyn. Instead, Swift chose to use the song The 1.

The book with the cover saying “Us” (Us): In the MV, there is an image of Swift lying next to Post Malone and holding a book with the cover saying “Us”. This is a reference to the song The story of us in the album Speak now.

Blue Smoke: A scene in the music video shows Swift and Post Malone sitting across from each other, using typewriters. Smoke is emitted from both machines. The machine on Post Malone’s side has blue smoke.

In the music video, Malone plays Swift’s lover. The blue smoke coming from Malone’s typewriter could be a reference to the color blue that Swift often uses in her songs, to talk about exes and the sad feelings they leave behind.