Watch Lady Gaga destroy the Mona Lisa to a rock song about 'Joker' in new album preview (original) (raw)

The spirit of Joaquin Phoenix's Joker (and a dash of darkness from The Fame Monster) have possessed Lady Gaga in the pop superstar's new teaser clip for her new movie, album, and a fresh art exhibition at the Louvre in Paris.

In a new collaborative clip filmed in Paris inside the Louvre museum, the footage — a teaser for the museum, the Joker: Folie à Deux blockbuster, and Gaga's upcoming companion covers album Harlequin — sees the 38-year-old exploring the collection of artwork in a short red wig, a spotted dress, and Converse sneakers.

While notes from her Harlequin rock song "The Joker" (a new take on Shirley Bassey's classic, inspired by the upcoming Todd Phillips-directed movie) play overhead, Gaga stops amid the abandoned scene to point her fingers into the shape of a gun as she takes aim at the classic works on display, before she comes face to face with the Mona Lisa. Gaga then pulls out a tube of lipstick and draws the infamous Joker smile atop the painting.

Lady Gaga destroys the Mona Lisa in 'The Joker' clip.

Musée du Louvre/Youtube

"There's always a joker in the pack, there's always a lonely clown. The poor laughing fool falls on his back and everyone laughs when he's down. There's always a funny man in the game, but he's only funny by mistake. And everyone laughs at him, just the same," Gaga sings as the song builds to a punk-ish chorus. "They don't see his lonely heartbreak. They don't care as long as there is a jester, just a fool. As foolish as he can be. There's always a joker, that's the rule! But fate deals the hand that I see. The joker is me."

Gaga then dances out of the museum with makeup on her face, recalling the characters she helped bring to life in the new movie.

In addition to teasing Gaga's transformation into the famed DC Comics character, the footage also promotes the Louvre's new exhibition "Figures of the Fool," which examines how, from the Middle Ages to the Romantics periods, jester-like, foolish depictions of people "came to occupy every available artistic space, insinuating himself into illuminated manuscripts, printed books and engravings, tapestries, paintings, sculptures, and all manner of objects both precious and mundane."

Echoing the lyrics of Gaga's song, Phillips recently told Entertainment Weekly that Folie à Deux explores a musicality within Joker, as he falls in love with Harleen "Lee" Quinzel (Gaga) while they are patients at Arkham State Hospital, across the musically tinged sequel.

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“He had issues. Clearly. But, there’s a light, a beauty, and a romance inside of him,” Phillips tells EW. “It was something Joaquin and I talked about early on; yes, he’s out of step with the world. However, there’s a romance inside of him, and there’s music inside of him."

Joker: Folie à Deux is in theaters Oct. 4, while Harlequin is set for release this Friday. Watch "The Joker" song preview above.