Given that the film contains grainy dv shots, ominously loud ambient soundscores, a nervous girl walking down empty corridors, overlapping image bleed and red curtains, it's Lynchian with a capital L. But parodically so?
In some ways it plays like a distant cousin of INLAND EMPIRE, a lightweight cousin with a heftier clothing allowance. Cotillard has her talents -- I like the way she handles one of those absurdly obvious Lynch questions "who knows what's inside that bag?" -- but nobody will ever top Laura Dern for her facility at embodying Lynch's psychotic break story beats in all their humor, danger and weird sincerity. Give or take Laura Palmer.
For what it's worth the film is more beautiful to look at on the Lady Dior site. I have no idea who her co-star is here. It says "with Gong Tao" but a search brings up nothing by way of an actor or model with that name.
I love that modern corporations have taken to employing acclaimed auteurs for longform commercials (a nice way for them to make extra money while audiences ignore their filmographies to buy tickets to the latest CGI film) but I doubt anything will ever top The Hire (2000-2001, starring Clive Owen) in this particular realm of filmdom. Those were such gems.
Share
* Further reading on this Lynch project at /Film and The Financial Times
Posts
13 comments:
Wow, that is truly ridiculous. Who cares! All that for an overpriced blue bag.
It's the worst kind of flick, the kind that is just interesting enough that you want to keep watching, but having no substance....kind of like Porn.
Weird...I thought the "Poem" video was the extent of "Lady Blue" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnqScGiGx-I), but I guess that was more of a prologue(???). Regardless, it's a really hypnotic ad, and even though the sense of movement in DV tends to bother, Lynch really knows how to make it work, and Marion seems like she's pretty in tune with his bizarro vision. All in all, though, I think the "Lady Rouge" video is still my favorite.
Although Marion seems like she's become a huge star, she hasn't had a big role since La Vie en Rose. Weird. I am officially asking Charlie Kaufman and Sofia Coppola to write a movie on her. One of the two or both.
Its like Lynchian-Wong Kar Wai. Even those old Shanghai shots of them running through alleys and courtyards seem like the exact locations used for the noodle shop in In the Mood For Love, and although the open shutter effect is widely used, the effect here recalls Chunking Express almost purposely. Overall, I was left feeling cheated and empty at the end realizing it was merely, and nothing more, an advertisement for a "beautiful" purse. While it was a step up in quality compared to Inland Empire (not a fan), I miss the time when Lynch used real film. His digital stuff feels diluted and lacking in its emotional/cerebral grip compared to his previous masterpieces - they're too long, he needs the limitations of film. I'm sad with the inclination that he'll never make another Mulholland Dr, Blue Velvet, or Lost Highway (my personal favorite), hopefully I'm wrong.
Patricia Arquette is my favorite David Lynch actress. Her only Lynch credit is Lost Highway but David uses her very particularly the way Ridley Scott used Sean Young in Blade Runner.
Amazing. It´s both so beautiful and intelligent. I´m so in love with David Lynch that I can´t write the proper words. This commercial is amazing, the story is fascinating, poetic, the concept is so strong, all about what the handbag and Dior in general means... And it has so many unforgettable images!! when I was watching the couple running through Shanghai I was like hypnothized, and the blue rose... Gorgeous. It´s ART with capital letters. And all the lynchian elements, the great use of colour, specially of course the blue in everything, leading us to the poetry of dreams and remembers from the past. And above all the incredible use of sound and music!! I adore Lynch´s music, "From the past" is totally genius. When Marion tells us the story, with the images of the tower and the pearls, and the sound they made... By the way, Marion is amazing I need her directed by Lynch in a new movie! I need another movie by Lynch! Why he´s not like Allen? I think the answer is in their filmography... And I need Nathaniel to say more things about this great commercial!
And, though Lady Rouge is greatness, to me Lady Blue is like 1000 times better. Appart from all the things I loved about it,the meaning and the message related to what they are selling, everything that lies behind (or inside) the handbag is incredibly powerful, intelligent and brilliant in its efectiveness (does that word exist?). And the final image of Marion is... too much beauty in too few seconds
This is my favorite of the series so far, I wonder what the mysterious fourth Lady is going to be about/directed by? Marion sure is doing some interesting stuff. And her auteur work is quickly stacking up recently. Mann, Nolan, Allen, Cronenberg, and working with Lynch for this even if it's just an elaborate (though hypnotic) ad. All she needs is some von Trier, Aronofsky, and PTA and she'll be the new queen of auteurs!
The next chapter, which is also the last, is set in Moscow, and its most probably Lady White.
Sorry but I can´t agree with Dino. I think that the use of the "digital stuff" in Lynch cinema and art enriches the final result, it´s just what he needed, it seems created to his purposes, because it has a beauty of uncertainty, the way Lynch uses it speaks about the thin line between what is real and what is dreamt, if it´s a flashback or a lie... Digital combined with the sound and a great performance carry us to that mysterious world, the images flow and change on screen so strangely but yet in such a natural way that the result is a more tangible approach to LynchLand.
Deivith if it's possible to be straight down the middle with lynch film / lynch digital, i think I am. the scuzzier image quality is absolutely freaky which works for some of Lynch's nightmare intentions (if it's possible to know his intentions) but I agree that discipline certainly can't hurt any filmmaker. I remember feeling like that with INLAND EMPIRE.
but I agree with Dino in that I am a bit sad that he'll never make a film as "beautiful" in the more traditional sense -- while still allowing for his oddity -- as Mulholland Dr again.
seeking amy are you trying to take the tiara away from my Nicki Kidman??? Back off! ;)
You have a point on that, Nathaniel I would like him to return to real film reaching the beauty that has Mulholland Dr., my favourite movie from him and maybe my favourite movie in general, but I applause when an auteur goes experimental and takes risks that have coherence with his work and enrich his world.
And Queen of Auteurs is and will be always and forever NICOLE KIDMAN, she plays in other league...in which she´s alone on the top. I can´t imagine a better dream than Nic & Lynch reunited! And then Almodóvar, and the Aronofsky, and then PT Anderson (another god), and then Kar Wai...
Aronofsky is not an auteur, people.
Post a Comment