Pitchfork Forkcast: Video: Duran Duran: "Falling Down"

Video: Duran Duran: "Falling Down"

Justin Timberlake co-wrote and produced Duran Duran's "Falling Down", from the long-running UK new-wavers' latest album, Red Carpet Massacre, which also features a track pairing Timberlake with FutureSex-loving collaborator Timbaland. The video for "Falling Down" was directed by Anthony Mandler, who did the clip for the Killers' "When You Were Young", but it's easy to imagine the dude behind "What Goes Around...Comes Around" coming up with this one, too. Unless you've already forgotten about the famously misbehaving young female celebs with whom Timberlake has associated-- which would be a shame, because, really, there's more to Blackout than "Gimme More".

The best part of the "Falling Down" video is the two minutes leading into the actual song. Melodramatic orchestration with operatic pretensions plays as a guy in a limo tries to sweet-talk his young girlfriend into rehab-- "It's like school...you just got out of school, like, six months ago"-- and she goes "no, no, no." OK, the rest of the clip, which shows the rehab's model inmates laughing and acting out, is pretty entertaining, too. Meanwhile, Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon delivers echoey vocals about falling down, people standing 'round, and what's gotta happen before he hits the ground. Um, is he saying he needs an intervention, too?

Video:> Duran Duran: "Falling Down"
[from Red Carpet Massacre; due 11/13/07 on Epic]