The video for Arctic Monkeys' "Arabella" depicts a mysterious woman who seems to represent the song's titular character. It uses a voyeuristic style, with shaky camerawork and shots that zoom in on and linger on the woman. This emphasizes the themes of objectification and the male gaze. Scenes cut between shots of the woman and Alex Turner singing, implying he is singing about her. While other women are shown in sexually suggestive ways, shots of "Arabella" maintain an air of mystery and unattainability, preserving the idea that she represents an ideal woman. The video blends narrative shots with a live performance setting to interpret the song's themes without a concrete story.

1. Arctic Monkeys – Arabella Music Video Analysis
The video starts with a Parental Advisory label. This stylistic choice indicates
the video contents will be mature, and conveys a certain image for the band
at the very startof the video. It demonstrates changein the Arctic Monkeys’
career, who started with a ‘young lads’ image, but now intend to portray
themselves as adults.
Andrew Goodwin identifies a voyeuristic depictionof women as a leading
convention in his music video theory. The first shotof this video features a
woman wearing a low-cut dress; the objectification of women is a recurring
theme in the video. The camera is positioned behind the doorframeand is
mildly shaky. This resembles a POV shot, and gives the impression that we
are ‘spying’ on the woman in a voyeuristic manner. The frame has artefacts
as though it has been recorded on film rather than digital, and the clip
reverses momentarily before playing again, creating an odd, unsettling feel.
This is also a recurring motif in the video. The audio in the background is an
audio sample of an investigation into the effects of LSD in the 1950s, and the
person narrating his experience, furthers the unsettling atmosphere.

2. The same woman is shown at numerous angles. The clips rewind before
playing again. This emphasises the voyeuristic nature as it forces the audience
to look at her for longer. The song name ‘Arabella’ is an intertextual
reference to the 1968 film‘Barbarella’ which is a B-movie based around a
‘highly sexual’ woman fromthe distant future(referenced in the lyric “She’s
got a Barbarella silver swimsuit”), crossed with lead singer Alex Turner’s then-
girlfriend Arielle. The concept of Arabella thereforemay be Turner’s idea of
the perfect woman, represented by this woman character. This is a link
between the lyrics/themes of thesong and the visuals of its accompanying
video. The black-and-white colour scheme of the video intends to channel
the styleof the 40s/50s timeperiod, reflected in the choice of audio
accompaniment (the LSD trial snippet).
A close-up shot of the woman’s heels demonstrate the importance of her
appearance. Her deliberately accentuated looks reinforceher role as a
stereotype of an ideal woman. This is further emphasised as the shot freezes
and the camera zooms in on her heels further. Her costume, a cheetah print
coat, is referenced in a lyric in the final bridge: “That’s magic in a cheetah
print coat”, further reinforcing the idea that this woman is a representation
of Arabella.

3. The director Jake Nava cuts to a sequencewith shots of the motorway filmed
froma moving car. He maintains the shaky, film-reel style. Similar themes in
this music video can be seen in Nava’s previous work, such as KanyeWest’s
‘Monster’, which also centres on a voyeuristic depiction of women. The choice
of director shows the band’s intention to convey these themes. The song
begins on this shot; the video uses a loose narrative, with many shots that
convey a feeling, theme, or atmosphere (such as this one), but ultimately
there is no concrete storyline. The song portrays Arabella as being an idea of a
perfect woman rather than a realistic depiction; the video reflects this by
conveying ideas that are not based entirely in reality: surrealism.
We then cut to a close-up shot of an armholding a microphone. The camera
moves about as does the arm but their movements are not synchronised,
creating an unfocused, kinetic shot. Due to the presenceof the microphone,
we can assumethe arm is Alex Turner’s, the lead singer. The editing is choppy
and uneven initially but as the camera comes to frame the arm the shotplays
in real-time, demonstrating the vocals are about to start.

4. The video then cuts to another shot with no narrative connotations. A woman
kisses a man’s neck while another woman is in the room. The man seems to
show no response. This perhaps means to imply that without the presenceof
Arabella, i.e. the ‘perfect’ woman, the love isn’t real or emotive; the multiple
women don’t compare to one ideal woman. This shot lingers as the playback is
manipulated again, reversing and playing again, to enforce the man’s empty
expression.
A shotfollows of a group of motorcyclists riding off into the night. This also has
no relevance to a narrative but could channel the effect of the lyrics in the
song about vehicular transportand riding into the sunset(“That little lady
sitting on the passenger side”).
An unfocused close-up shotof Turner’s faceslowly drifts upwards fromhis
shoulder to show his face. He has a frozen facial expression, eyes fixed on
somewherein particular off-screen thatwe cannot see. This is a referenceto
the notion of looking, a defined convention in Goodwin’s theory. The
implication is that he may be looking at Arabella (possibly a literal reflection of
the male gaze idea). This shotalso builds anticipation for the vocals for the
viewer as it reinstates Turner’s presenceshortly beforethe song vocals begin.

5. The next shot shows a woman standing next to a bed. The imagery in this shot
draws heavily fromgothic horror; this is an intertextual reference to the
genre/style. The imagery is constructed by a combination of microelements: the
dress is all dark and reminiscent of stereotypical gothic attire; low-key lighting
leaves the face difficult to make out; the hairstyleis comparableto that of 19th
century maids (or at least their depiction in media), etc. This shotmay intend to
reflect a different aspectof love: a darker, moremysterious side.
The following shotreturns to a close-up of the blonde woman; the woman we can
assumerepresents the song’s titular character. The camera moves in, freezes on
her face, and zooms in. This ensures shestands out among the other featured
women in the video, who are displayed too fastto properly memorize or are
made difficult to see by the lighting and camerawork. Her costumeis provocative
but there is no nudity, unlike someshots of other women later in the video. This
preserves Turner’s idea of ‘Arabella’ as something different and greater than most
girls.
This is immediately followed by a sequence of close-ups of Turner as the vocals of
the song start. This creates a relation between the song and the previous shot, as
the blonde woman is still in our mind when Turner begins to sing about ‘Arabella’,
and we assumehe means her. An abundance of close-ups is another convention
identified by Goodwin, and is one that is enforced by record labels to create band
recognisability. Turner mimes along to the lyrics, moving his little finger clockwise
to show how he’s (literally) ‘wrapped around her little finger’ when singing
“There’s a helter skelter round her little finger and I ride it endlessly”.

6. Shots of a different woman character create juxtaposition againstboth Turner
and the ‘Arabella’ character. In the case of the former, the close-up shot
establishes a theme of male/female duality, forcing theaudience to compare the
depiction of genders in the video. The juxtaposition between this character and
the blonde woman is conveyed almostentirely by mise-en-sceneand costume.
This woman is naked and surrounded by men, whereas the ‘Arabella’ character is
the sole focus of her shots and wears a dress, demonstrating that she is
‘unattainable’ in comparison to the naked woman who is already attained, thus a
comparison of real love versus cheap loveis made.
A close-up of a man and a woman kissing is contrasted with the reflection of the
car window they’rebehind, which shows peoplelooking in at them. This is a
further example of voyeurismand the presence of the people watching is
enforced by Jake Nava again using time-manipulation and reversing the clip. This
shotserves a similar purposeto the previous shot, enforcing the contrastbetween
the ‘Arabella’ character and this woman: namely the overwhelming presenceof
men in this shot and the complete lack of them in shots of ‘Arabella’.
The setting wherethe live performance aspectof the music video takes place is
not properly established. The location is seen primarily through close-ups, with
occasionalmedium shots too. Instead, weinfer fromthe presenceof instruments
and of Turner that it is a studio setting. A connection between narrative and live
performance is hinted at by the use of lighting. In the reflection of the exterior of
the studio, similar street lights are shown as in the motorcycle shots. This infers
that the studio inhabits the same universeas the narrative – they are not separate.

7. The other band members are featured in the video and are presentin the studio
location; however, they are shown in the background of shots whereTurner takes
the foreground. This artistic choice may reflect the very personalnature of the song
and empathise that it’s Turner’s vision. Itcould also be due to recordlabel requests
(an aspectof Goodwin’s theory). Arctic Monkeys’ label is Domino Records and they
would have overseen the development of the music video. As Alex Turner is the
frontman and therefore the most recognisablesymbolof the band, Domino may
have requested that he appears more prominently in the music video than his fellow
band members for the sakeof audience appeal.
One of the last shots of the video is of the blonde woman’s heels. This is narrative
circularity; thevideo is ending the same way it began. The sample of the LSD
experiments again plays on this shot, and does so through to the ending. The video
shows restraintin its portrayalof the blonde woman whereit does not with the
other women characters, who are shown up-front, close, personal, and sometimes
naked. The last shotof her shows her heels and her legs are mostly hidden by the
leopard print coat. It’s a rejectionof voyeurism, unusualfor a video that has so
openly accepted it in every other aspect. This contrastleaves an impact on the viewer when the video finishes, and
continues the theme of this character as the untouchable, unreachable ‘Arabella’ in the song.
To conclude, this music video conveys quite a complex meaning, one that requires somedissection of its practical
techniques to decipher, and blends loose narrativewith live performancewhile channelling the lyrics, themes, and style of
the song. The unique look and direction hooks the audience, and the intercutting between thematic shots and Alex Turner
performing stops the video frombeing overwhelming or incoherent. My group can draw inspiration fromthe cinematic
microelements in this video for our own project, especially when deciding how to convey meaning and themes.