Anna Calvi - Desire

The music video for Anna Calvi's song Desire features a lot of iconography and imagery. In order to pull together an analysis for it, I shall be examining the section 2:00-2:35.


We see a lot of religious symbolism in the song which fits closely with lyrics from the song; she sings of desire being "heavenly", which fits well with images of cherubs, but she also sings of the "fire", which has connotations with hell, just a few moments before, which has obviously strong links with imagery such as that shown in the image to the right, of some kind of skull. The track, when paired with the video, seems to strongly link religion with desire, and the addition of a snake in certain places makes it seem as though she is referring to the Fall, in which Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge through the advice of a snake inspiring the desire to do so within them.

This section seems to focus a lot on a picture which looks relatively non-descript, which appears odd to us as Calvi is singing into the portrait and looking at it with great intent. The slow pan into the picture also creates suspense around this. We feel as though we are about to witness something interesting, but it seems to not come for a long period of time through the drawn out approach. 
The way in which the camera tracks around the back of Calvi as she sings to the painting also creates an essence of voyeurism, (Goodwin, '93), as it seems as though we are looking at her and studying her to find out why she is quite so absorbed in terms of the artwork. 


This voyeurism is also notable in the first few seconds of this section; we see the mantlepiece she is standing opposite from a sideways angle, with her guitar coming into view every now and again; this indicates that we are seeing Calvi in a candid manner, as she idolises the things in front of her. The way in which we only see her hands (very slightly) for less than a second of time reinforces this idea and suggests that the few glimpses we do get of Calvi are almost 'stolen' and not authorised.
There is a skull below the painting, which is interesting as it is a different one to the one seen in the first screengrab. It almost suggests that there is a lot of religious material in the home (the skull is shown in conjunction with the snake and cherub), bringing more meaning to lyrics such as but it's just the devil in me.

 We see why Calvi is so interested in the painting towards the end of the section. Her pupils dilate, which is sign of desire and attraction in humans. They widen as the painting begins to morph into something far more interesting; that is, the blurry grey painting transforms into crashing waves which correspond well with the track, signifying some kind of climax in the song; like a wave, it has built up for a long period of time before coming crashing down in a dramatic manner.

This also is a symbol of pathetic fallacy; a technique often used in literature to suggest an emotion. For instance, when a passage is happy, the weather may be pleasant, and respectively, when a passage features sadness, it may be raining outside. In this situation, the wave crashing suggests anger and very strong emotion. It suggests that this 'desire' Calvi is experiencing is wrong and she is not feeling at ease with it. This is reinforced in the beginning of the section where flies crawl over a garment of clothing, which looks very much like a corset. This also suggests that the desire is wrong, and the fact that it's flies rather than any other insect seems to imply that it is almost disgusting.
The shot shown here  depicts a girl sitting on the bed, her back bare looks incredibly voyeuristic. Lights flash on her skin repeatedly, which makes it seems as though the girl is in the middle of some sort of storm or in a very urban area. The exposure of her skin helps to make her look vulnerable and weak, since she ==//

There are a wide variety of shots used in this piece. There are some moments where the camera seems to be focusing on things other than the main symbols, like Calvi herself, and this is interesting because usually in a music video, these look unnecessary. However, as I previously analysed, these shots that look unrelated actually carry a lot of meaning; for instance, one shot looks to be an unfocused and unsteady shot, half of the wall and half of a room, but on closer inspection, it is very voyeuristic and appears to be showing someone peeping around the wall to see Calvi - as can be seen in the shot to the right here. 
The camera shots seem to change a bit more towards the point in the song where there is a shift of focus away from the repetition of verses and choruses, to a section that seems like a build up to the climax of the song, where she sings "only the lonely". The camera seems to switch between Calvi and a painting on the wall, which helps to suggest that there is a link between Calvi and the painting that she is facing. The camera varies in its distance from Calvi and the painting, getting progressively closer to each between shots, culminating in an extreme close up of Calvi's eye and the entire screen being filled with the painting. The angle remains more or less the same - that is, equal to Calvi, although the camera seems to be slightly tilted when we see the painting. This upwards tilt seems to be putting emphasis on the painting and implying that it has a lot of importance. 
This is something I feel would be well incorporated in my video. This helps to emphasise an important point in the video, and considering how my plot includes a boy turning his back on something that has become such a large part of his life I think it would be helpful to include. 
Angles are incredibly helpful in establishing people's position in regards to others and so I would like to be able to use this in my own work.

I wanna go to the sun
Hold my life like I've never done
But it's just the devil in me
The devil that's calling as I come undone
The sky is getting dark tonight
Darker than the fear that's gonna pull us apart
The beating is the sound of love
The sound of love is beating like a fevered heart
And it's the fire, the fire, the fire
It's heavenly, heavenly,
Desire, desire
Desire, Desire
I wanna lay in the dust
The dust is gonna fall when I lie
God knows it's just the devil in me
The devil that's taking my hand to the fire
I never wanna leave you now
Leave you like the sun is gonna disappear
But it's just believing now
Believing in my heart is what I've come to fear
And it's the fire, the fire, the fire
It's heavenly, heavenly
Desire, desire
Desire, desire
I've got desire, desire
I've got desire, desire
And only the lonely
Only the lonely fall
Only the lonely
Only the lonely fall
Fall
Oh, and I go to the fire
But God knows it's the sound of, it's the sound of love
It's the beat of my heart that you
Finally beating, it's coming, coming, coming for you
And it's just the devil in me
It's just a door to the devil gathered in disguise
Taking me by the hand
And leading me, leading me off to the fire
And it's the fire, the fire, the fire

It's heavenly, heavenly

Desire, desire

Desire, desire

You don't have to be lost 

(Desire, desire)

You don't have to be lost 

(Desire, desire)

You don't have to be lost 

(Desire, desire)

Edits to text made in blue