Justify My Love



Justify My Love features Madonna and her then-boyfriend, model and actor Tony Ward. Some of the dancers featured in the video were also dancers from her Blond Ambition Tour. The video is a tribute to Jeanne Moreau of La Baie des Anges. The action in the video takes place in an elegant hotel that apparently caters to alternate lifestyle couples.

The video was filmed in grainy black and white in the style of a 1960s European art film. There are also several shadowy film-noir elements such as characters seen only in silhouette. Madonna enters looking tired and distressed as she walks down the hallway toward her room. There she has a romantic fling with a mysterious man. Some of the doors to the other rooms are ajar and we catch glimpses of various couples cavorting in BDSM fetish outfits.

In a dream-like sequence, Madonna rolls around in bed wearing skimpy lace underwear and a garter belt and stockings while various figures come and go. The theme of androgyny is also briefly alluded to when a woman who closely resembles Madonna's lover is seen in men's clothing with a drawn-on pencil mustache. The overall presentation is surreal and deliberately ambiguous. The retinue of strange characters may be real or simply fantasies from Madonna's imagination. In the end, a rejuvenated Madonna rushes out of the hotel room smiling and laughing.

The video was banned by MTV and MuchMusic.