Analysis
The video for the Arctic Monkeys song "when the sun goes down" is based around the life of a prostitute as is the song. The video itself is a narrative one and shows the day to day lifestyle of this prostitute and shows how she is controlled by a pimp, who is referred to in the song as 'scummy man'. When we first see her we get a mid shot of her standing in front of a tower block of urban flats, looking into the camera with a saddened expression on her face. This introduces her as someone who lives in the city and also lives in the poorer parts of the city. The weather is a dreary wet day and this sets up her life perfectly as shown in the video about how a poor life she lives.
In the next shot we see her leaning over into a car smiling whilst talking to a man. The smile could have been added to interpret her feeling that as each man she sleeps with she may be getting closer to escaping from the 'scummy man'. It also may be interpreted as her having to put on a false smile because she is so depressed knowing that she has to do what she is doing.
In one of the next shots we see her coming downstairs in a block of flats. The staircase we see her coming down is a spiralling one in which it can be interpreted to represent her life heading in a downward spiral as she become more dominated by the 'scummy man' and is pulled further into the lifestyle that she is now stuck in.
In one of the later parts of the video the women becomes a magicians apprentice and the 'scummy man' does not like the fact that she is trying to escape the lifestyle she is stuck in. He attacks the magician and takes her away but also makes her beat up the magician whilst he watches and laughs. This shows how much control he has over her and that even if she attempts to escape from this lifestyle he won't let her so there is no escape for her.
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