Synopsis

Falco moves through a rain-soaked Vienna shaped by film noir, surveillance and unease. He watches a young woman near a nightclub, follows her through the city and appears in alternating roles: stalker, suspect, prisoner and obsessive narrator. A television news report announces that a 19-year-old girl is missing, while stark images suggest that Jeanny may have been attacked or killed. The video keeps reality deliberately unstable, however. In its final moments, the seemingly lifeless Jeanny opens her eyes, leaving her fate - and Falco's guilt - unresolved.

Factoids & Trivia

• Jeanny is portrayed by 15-year-old Theresa Guggenberger, who was selected through a formal casting process. She later returned as Jeanny in "Coming Home (Jeanny Part 2, Ein Jahr Danach)."

• The video's disturbing imagery intensified the controversy surrounding the song. Several radio stations in German-speaking Europe objected to its apparent depiction of stalking, sexual violence and murder, even though the lyrics never explicitly state that Jeanny is dead or has been raped.

• The main Vienna location is the Opernpassage, whose underground setting gives the clip a distinctly noir atmosphere.

• The video contains visual references to several classic films. The "Bates Motel" sign evokes Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," the underground canal recalls "The Third Man," and the chalk "F" on Falco's coat alludes to Fritz Lang's "M."

• The news report about a missing 19-year-old girl was interpreted as an oblique reference to Austrian criminal Jack Unterweger, who was still imprisoned when the video was made.

• The final image of Jeanny opening her eyes complicates the apparent murder narrative. It suggests that she is alive, or that the preceding scenes may belong to Falco's disturbed fantasy rather than an objective account.

• "Jeanny" became the first part of a loose trilogy. "Coming Home" followed in 1986, while "Bar Minor 7/11 (Jeanny Dry)" appeared in 1990 with a more self-aware and sardonic tone.