Directed by Jonathan Glazer
Trip-hop
Narrative & Performance based
Mise en scene - The video is set in a hotel, lit with high key lighting (harsh with little contrast). There is a man with long, unkept hair and beard who is very rough looking, and that helps to immediately give the impression that he is dodgy and probably not a nice character. The video is full of people dressed in strange costumes and make up, such as the man at 0:38 with a gun muttering to himself pointing the gun at different rooms, obviously in a state of distress and paranoia, and the way he is dressed just makes him look even more weird and like he can't be trusted. The man covered with oil among mirrors and cameras, I presume to be performing some kind of bizarre artwork. A man has been covered with brown oil at 3:54 and is pulling his finger out of his own stomach, this just adds to the completly bizarre feel of the video.
Cinematography - At the start we see a camera tracking shot going down the corridor of the hotel to set the scene of where this video is taking place, and a high angle shot is shown of a man sitting on a chair, who has been shot of stabbed. Close ups are used throughout of the Massive Attack members singing.
Editing/Visual effects - To establish a more downbeat mood, this video uses slow pace and gentler shot transitions compared with the fast cut montage of shots used for more upbeat music videos. Many special effects have been added in post production of the music video, for example there is a man that attempting to drown a mini copy of himself in a bathtub at 4:16.
Relationship between lyrics and visuals - There is hardly any relationship between what we hear in the lyrics and the visuals of the video, the song is quite cryptic and conceptual yet the visuals have a strong narrative, so they kind of contradict each other yet I think it works rather well with the trippy lyrics and feel of the song.
Relationship between music and the visuals - The shot transitions are in time with the beats of the music giving a very nice rhythmical feel. The shot durations are longer than you would expect from a music video, it's almost like mini film, which I think helps establish the narrative and show the several different characters in their own hotel rooms and what each of them is doing. The whole video has a very strange almost hallucinogenic feel to it, like its something a schizophrenic person would see, which I think works well with the trip-hop genre of the music and its downbeat, trippy mood.
Intertextuality - Intertextuality and homages to other filmmakers are used throughout the video - particularly to to the 1980s film The Shining, such as the two eerie identical twins, the shots of long and empty hotel corridors and the obsessive typing of a single phrase on a typewriter. The woman with black short hair wearing a suit is reminiscent of Mia Wallace played by Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, in particular the scene where she suddenly has a nosebleed at 3:23.
Genre characteristics of the music style - The characteristics of trip hop, and alternative music are that the videos are usually very artistic and non-mainstream and lots of editing effects used. Similar songs Massive Attack have had such as Teardrop have also had very unconventional music videos that provoke a strong response in the audience.
Representation - Throughout the video at different intervals, we see members of Massive Attack singing the lyrics, which was likely a demand of the record company to reinforce that the song is by Massive Attack, and to strengthen the bands identity. The band are represented in the video as edgy and alternative, with quite a strong artistic and almost poetic feel to their work.
Audience - I think that the intended audience for this music video are young people aged 18-24, that are perhaps into non-mainstream music and will appreciate the artistic and alternative nature of the video.
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