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Steven Klein says the clip is about ‘the pain of living without your true love.’ By James Montgomery Lady Gaga in her “Alejandro” video Photo: Interscope Records Before working with Lady Gaga on the just-released “Alejandro,” famed fashion photographer Steven Klein had never directed a proper music video. But after seeing Gaga perform live, he knew it was time to take the plunge. “I went to see her show in NYC, and it felt like performance art in the ’90s. And I had not seen anything like that in a while,” Klein told MTV News in an e-mail. “Lady Gaga approached me about doing this particular song, and in the past, I have passed on such offers, but this time I felt [a] narrative drive you could make interesting, and we both aligned on the vision for the film.” Working closely with Gaga, the two created an eight-minute-plus, darkly surreal epic that draws equally from Madonna and Marlene Dietrich (to name just a few). Of course, given that Gaga and Klein are among the hottest names in their respective fields, getting together to plan “Alejandro” was difficult — and actually shooting it was nearly impossible. “I had a vision and story for the film, she reacted to it, then we both collaborated … We shot in Los Angeles on April 30, 2010,” Klein wrote. “My schedule and hers are both complicated, so it took a lot to get the days that we both could work together.” Now that the “Alejandro” video has been unleashed on the world, we figured we’d ask Klein to reveal what inspired the clip … or, at least explain what the heck it’s all about. “I was not thinking in terms [of influences.] I saw it more as a combination of cinema and theater,” Klein wrote.