Rihanna is trapped in a prison cell in part of her music video for "Russian Roulette." She's involved in a high stakes game of Russian roulette as well. Director Anthony Mandler told MTV that he sees the video as more of a metaphor for Rihanna's very public life than as commentary on Chris Brown's assault of Rihanna.
"I think that with this song and the meaning of this song and how loaded it all is, no pun intended, how much imagery and perhaps symbolism that is loaded in this song, the only way to do it was to do something that was visually challenging," he told MTV News about the video, which premieres Friday (November 13) on "20/20."
Mandler thought of the video as a metaphor for Rihanna's very public life in the gossip pages, as opposed to a direct comment on her February assault by then-boyfriend Chris Brown.
Here's Rihanna's dark and moody video. Take a look:
