Lynch, Galliano, Cotillard: Lady Blue Shanghai
What do you guys think of this new 16-minute commercial that David Lynch created for Dior? Art-directed by John Galliano and starring Marion Cotillard, the film is rife with beloved Lynchian hallmarks: red curtains, an anxious woman in an empty hallway, and curiously gaudy hotel decor. Lynch told the Financial Times, “(Chanel) called me up and said, ‘Would you like to make a short film for the internet? You can do anything you want, you just need to show the handbag, the Pearl Tower and some old Shanghai.'” He added, “this falls between a regular film and a commercial. I liked that idea.” Lynch says that he didn’t know much about the Pearl Tower, but when he learned that the building’s architecture was inspired by a poem, ideas for the long-form commercial started coming to him (in fact, the film itself is based on a poem that Lynch wrote, titled “It holds the love“).
Lady Blue is the third chapter in Dior’s cinematographic campaign starring Cotillard; Lady Noir was directed by La Vie En Rose‘s Olivier Dahan (really moody!), and Lady Rouge was a Franz Ferdinand music video (kind of boring).
Do you like this short, or do you feel like this could’ve been directed by the guy who made the trailer for David Lynch’s A Goofy Movie? I’d have to say “both of the above.” There’s a bit more repetition (or self-parody?) here than in his earlier commercial work – and even then, there was almost always a hint of that in his ads. I love the “Laura Palmer is Alive and Pregnant” commercial, for which, the legend goes, Lynch asked the actress (not Sheryl Lee, but looks like her) to take a pregnancy test, and then switched her result with a positive-testing one unbeknownst to her in order to capture a genuine reaction. Littering never looked more sinister than in his “Clean Up New York” PSA. He made fish rain from the sky, in reverse, to sell us… cigarettes. More David Lynch commercials (with appearances by Heather Graham, Gerard Depardieu, Michael Jackson and Bambi), after the jump.
May 21st, 2010 at 11:18 pm
re: the Dior campaign – I’m just generally entranced by Marion Cotillard. I really hated the film “Love me if you dare,” but loved *her* in it, even before she morphed into Edit Piaf and blew my mind away. I love her style and her humble but intelligent way of speaking interviews. That said, of the three commercials I saw (Lade red, blue, black), Lynch’s is the strongest because I actually *do* remember the bag. Everything surrounding it is so hazy and vague and obscure, yet the bag remains absolutely sharp. He’s clever like that, huh?
(The Wacky cigarette ad & the Gucci commercial are my two favorites)
May 22nd, 2010 at 12:36 am
But David Lynch eating panties (seriously) might just be the best:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioKyxGkBRro
May 22nd, 2010 at 12:55 am
@Tanya I love Cotillard! I wonder if any other directors are going to do more installments in this series… and yes, I can perfectly visualize that damn $2,500 bag now!
@Richard The panty-eating incident. The comments on that clip are YouTube clip are very amusing. Parodied to great effect here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv6CiEkwl2E. From the same crazy kids who brought you David Lynch, Problem Solver:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=david+lynch+problem+solver&aq=f