The music video was filmed during the last week of October 1989 at Culver Studios in Culver City, California, and was directed by David Fincher, who worked with Madonna in her video for "Express Yourself". Described by Carol Clerk, author of "Madonnastyle", as "harrowingly autobiographical", the video was shot entirely in black-and-white and recreates the death scene of a young woman, exploring the tempestuous relationship that ensues between the husband and the daughter she has left behind. The singer recalled in a 1991 interview with "Vanity Fair", that she remembered that her mother's lips looked funny in the funeral. When she got closer, she saw that Madonna Sr's lips had been sewn together. This image of her mother had haunted Madonna for many years, and led her to comment that she never could resolve her Electra complex.