Synopsis

Set around the production of a crime movie, the video follows a troubled relationship between a film director and the actress whose career he helped launch. As scenes are shot, edited, and reviewed, their personal conflict becomes intertwined with the fictional drama being created. The actress decides to leave, while the director struggles with her success and departure. Cameras, crew members, film equipment, and behind-the-scenes activity remain visible, giving the promo a stylish film-within-a-film structure.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed near Slough, Berkshire, during November 1981 and released in December of that year.

• Virgin Records commissioned the promo as music videos were becoming an increasingly important marketing tool, particularly with the launch of MTV in 1981.

• The production was designed as a film-within-a-film, with the band members appearing as performers, actors, and members of the fictional movie crew.

• Susan Ann Sulley later described the concept as resembling *The French Lieutenant's Woman*, another film centered on the making of a film. The video's broader cinematic influence also included Francois Truffaut's *Day for Night*.

• Unlike many early-1980s pop promos, it was shot on film rather than videotape. That helped give the video its more cinematic appearance.

• In a 1995 interview, Sulley and Joanne Catherall recalled that Jo Callis' car had to be pushed into position because Callis could not drive at the time. Sulley joked that he still could not drive.

• The video helped establish "Don't You Want Me" with American television audiences as the single later reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1982.

• Its dramatic visual approach became an important part of the song's identity and helped make it one of the defining music videos of the early MTV era.