Film Directors and Fashion Advertising

Thankfully, fashion advertising is quite good these days, and we can admire the work of the advertisers, as they collaborate with the best professionals on the area. Being a movie fan as I am, I love seeing how some of my favourite film directors create pieces of art for fashion brands like Chanel, Dior... It's a way of producing advertising disguised as culture. Culture that sells products, but art anyway. In fact, you'll see how most of these commercials are introduced as "films" instead of "ads".

I've selected some of the best examples. If you see, the director and actor choices are not arbitrary. Jude Law and Guy Ritchie worked together in "Sherlock Holmes", Jean-Pierre Jeunet directed Audrey Tautou in "Amelie" and "Un long dimanche de fiançailles", Joe Wright and Keira Knightley made "Pride and Prejudice"...

Dior
Guy Ritchie and Jude Law for Dior Homme
Jude Law and Michaela Kocianova star in this beautiful short film for Dior Homme released in septmber. The story is quite simple, but the photography direction is amazing. And Jude looks too good.
Watch the video here


David Lynch and Marion Cotillard
David Lynch directed an episode of the "Lady Dior" series. It featured a Franz Ferdinand song composed exclusively for the ad titled "The eyes of Mars". Then Jonas Akerlund (director of "Telephone" by Lady Gaga's videoclip) directed a clip in which Marion sings the song herself.
Watch the video here


Sofia Coppola and Maryna Linchuk
Dior couldn't have chosen a better director to make the "Miss Dior Chérie" ad, don't you think?
Watch the video here


Chanel
Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Audrey Tautou
This is probably one of the most beatiful adverts Chanel Nº5 has produced. The reflection of the fragrance bottle is not a special effect, it was real! When the video was released, Chanel sent a collector's chest with memorabilia, I posted about it.
Watch the video here




Joe Wright and Keira Knightley
The ad for Coco Mademoiselle is just perfect. The soundtracks is L.O.V.E by Joss Stone. I've been listening to it on-repeat for the last three days.
Watch the video here


Baz Luhrmann and Nicole Kidman
This advert is known as being the most expensive ad ever made. It costed more than $25 million. The ad is a movie itself, in fact, it could be a trailer of a blockbuster. If you haven't seen it, you really need to. You'll be amazed at how incredible it is. The dress Nicole Kidman wears was made specially for her. It is a work of art. In spite of using a very common song ("Clair de Lune" by Debussy. It is beautiful, but it's everywhere), it adds the perfect touch.
Watch the video here



Martin Scorsese for Chanel Bleu
I love Martin Scorsese, and Gaspard Ulliel, so I had to love this ad too. It's one of the best examples of how film directors can transform their art into advertising and create masterpieces. By the way, Mark Reay (I've interviewed him many times for the blog) stars in the ad too! Can you spot him?
Watch the video here



Oliver Peoples
Zooey Deschanel and Robert Evans starred in the 2010 campaign shot by Autumn de Wilde.
Watch the video here


Elijah Wood and Shirley Manson. This is very fun and surreal :D
Watch the video here


Devendra Banhart and Rebeca Schwartz for Spring/Summer 2011
I made a post about this campaign last week. Check it here.
Watch the video here

Oliver Peoples - How to do beautiful advertising

One of the main trends today is that advertising is trying to find new ways to present their products. You can't just say "buy it now!" or get a celebrity to say it. Ad agencies are creating beautiful ads and commercials. Marion Cotillard for Dior, Scorsese directing a short film, Sofia Coppola making commercials for Dior... Well, I just realized most of these examples are by Dior, but you get the idea. The thing is that you are no longer watching a commercial that you want to skip as fast as you can, you actually like the commercial, you actually play it again and again. The photograph direction is beautiful, the soundtrack is fantastic, and you love everything about it. Can you believe it is advertising?

Labels collaborate with artists: filmmakers, musicians, singers, painters, designers, djs, photographers... They contribute with their art, and therefore, there are more quality ads.

The last example I've seen is this theatrical cut of a short film by Lisa Eisner (photographer and aspiring film director) with Devendra Banhart and Rebecca Schwartz for the glasses label Oliver Peoples. The real life couple (the film is very real, you'll see) lounges around in Rainbow House, designed by architect John Lautner. The film is really beautiful, peaceful scenes, relaxing music, and lots of different sunglasses. It's a mix between Nabokov's Lolita and Coppola's "Virgin Suicides".

I've made screencaps of my favourite scenes. Some of these photographs could be print ads, don't you think? It is advertising disguised as art.

The full short film will be released very soon at the Oliver Peoples website. You can watch the preview at the end of the post, or here.

The video: