Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions (2020)

On November 12, along with the re-recording of her album ‘Red’, Taylor Swift released a short film with the same name of a track that has rubbed metaphorical salt in my heart-wounds on many occasions: All Too Well. 

Swift is no stranger to the screen, with directing and producing credits to her name already including many of her music videos, along with her live studio session. 

The film is just shy of 15 minutes and is accompanied by the new ten-minute “Taylor’s Version” of the song. But with the entirety of the song running throughout the film, with a small interlude for dialogue, my initial expectations for the narrative accompanying the heart-wrenching track were quickly cast to the wayside... because this was a music video. 

I’m genuinely confused as to what makes this not a music video. Is it the titles? The brief dialogue break? The length? It does enhance the story of the elongated song with a visual element... which is the exact purpose of a music video.