In between, there is no shortage of evocative imagery (glamorous black-and-white close-ups, thick plumes of translucent smoke, oversaturated hill-scapes, artfully silhouetted stallions), all of which make for a visually arresting experience." He concluded by comparing the video to the song itself commenting, "The result is both incredibly intimate and wide-screen public". James Montgomery of MTV News, stated that the video for "Diamonds", "opens with raking her fingers through piles of the titular stones and ends with her adrift at sea. Upon its release, the video received positive response from critics. The video ends with Rihanna once again floating alone in the open waters. As the video progresses, Rihanna and her lover's hands are shown slowly slipping apart, with only their fingertips touching towards the conclusion of the video. Scenes of a street battle are later shown, depicting burning cars and broken glass around the environment. As the second verse starts, Rihanna is shown in a desert where horses run freely. Throughout the video, Rihanna's hand is shown intertwined with that of a heavily tattooed man, whose face is not shown in the video. She then stops as she looks up to the night sky at an aurora view. Rihanna is shown again on the highway, running away from what appears to be the headlights of a chasing car. Images of Rihanna on a bed in a room while singing are shown, with objects breaking, curtains falling and roses burning in reverse effect. Rihanna performs in the same black-and-white setting while in a black corset. The image fades to black as the song begins. In a black-and-white scene, Rihanna licks the joint and begins smoking it. As the video progresses Rihanna is shown running on a highway. The music video opens with a view of Rihanna lying in open waters, as other scenes of diamonds being rolled in a manner suggestive of making a marijuana cigarette are intercut - a scene reminiscent of the single's artwork. It was digitally released on Novemvia iTunes in all countries except Australia. An online streaming of the video was also made available for viewing at. The music video for "Diamonds" premiered November 8, 2012, on MTV and MTV.com. Scenes of Rihanna standing in a deserted landscape are also shown. The scenes are intercut with police officers chasing armed fighters. It features Rihanna emerging from a trailer, wrapped in a "leopard-print" robe and heading to the shooting set. we tried to bring up these deeper questions that relate to song and her life and finding beauty in chaos and finding beauty in pain and finding pain in beauty." On November 7, 2012, a behind-the-scenes video was posted on MTV's official website. What's truth or fiction? You know 'Is she drowning, or is she in complete ecstasy? Are those hands coming apart, or are they finding each other?'. they needed to feel like dream vignettes, like, when you wake up from a dream, you realize what you were dreaming about is not really what it was about, it was about something else." He further explained, "And you can see what I'm getting at in terms of relating this to Rihanna's real life, and what she's been through. Mandler also spoke about the video and its theme, "With this one, I felt the need to create a wider landscape almost hint at things, go into things, then get out of them, and not allow people to attach themselves to too much. Ethan Sacks of New York Daily News wrote, "Rihanna looked like a gem on the set of her video shoot." Speaking to MTV News, Rihanna explained the concept behind the video explaining that with different abstract scenes she wanted to give the audience "the right emotion". Photographs of the production were leaked on the same day on them, Rihanna is seen wearing a white and black dress as she stands in front of a fire and looks into the camera. It was directed by her regular collaborator Anthony Mandler, who previously directed Rihanna's music videos for " Russian Roulette" (2009) and " Man Down" (2011). Rihanna began shooting the music video for " Diamonds" on Octoin Los Angeles, California.