High Five: Maverick Ads by Maverick Film Directors
I’m a big fan of film (yes, I am one of those people logging on to Letterboxd immediately after a film has ended to rate it) and have always been drawn towards the weirder side of it. One of my formative experiences as a teenager was watching Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer’s adaptation of 'Alice in Wonderland' ('Něco z Alenky') which led to my love of the surreal and strange -- and a soft-spot for all things stop-motion.
I wanted to talk about five adverts and idents created by film directors. Everyone knows about Ridley Scott’s fantastic 1984 commercial for Apple, so instead, I wanted to highlight ones that were more obscure and unconventional. With Cannes Film Festival coming up, it’s a good time to share my top five picks, in no particular order...
MTV Japan -- 'Tetsuo: The Iron Man'
Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Tsukamoto’s 'Tetsuo: The Iron Man' is a bizarre experimental film, a cyberpunk body-horror where a businessman finds bits of metal erupting from his body, becoming a mix of man and machine. Tsukamoto paired up with Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor to create an ident for MTV Japan, which is essentially Tetsuo condensed down to 45 seconds. It uses the same frenetic directing style which pairs perfectly with Reznor’s harsh industrial track.
Parisienne -- 'Parisienne People'
Director: David Lynch
Parisienne People was a series of adverts commissioned by Parisienne which featured famous directors including David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Robert Altman and the Coen Brothers (amongst others). Lynch’s surreal contribution is filmed entirely backwards, with ominous whooshing and fish falling upwards into the sky. The flashes of lightning and unnatural, jerky movements of the two men only add to the unnerving quality, making it feel like a missing scene from his groundbreaking TV show 'Twin Peaks'.
Micron PC -- 'Labyrinth'
Director: Terry Gilliam
Gilliam’s 1999 advert for Micron PC takes place in a dystopian office (which brings to mind his 1985 masterpiece Brazil) with hundreds of menacing computers making demands. It culminates in a nightmarish scene (with some utterly fantastic prosthetics) in which a man is fused with a computer. Dynamic camerawork helps to elevate the sense of anxiety throughout the ad. The threat of machine rebellion feels especially relevant today with our ever-increasing reliance on technology and the rise of AI.
Rejected BBC2 Ident -- 'The Calligrapher'
Director: Brothers Quay
Identical twins Stephen and Timothy Quay have been creating eerie stop-motion animations for the past 50 years (coincidentally, the aforementioned Švankmajer is an influence on their work). Their unsettling short film 'Street of Crocodiles' features dusty puppets and dilapidated sets (and was selected by Terry Gilliam as one of the top 10 animated films of all time). 'The Calligrapher' was an ident they created for BBC2 (which was sadly rejected) with an animated character made from paper and decorated in calligraphic flourishes.
Nike -- 'Nike Air 180'
Director: David Cronenberg
A master of horror, Cronenberg was well known at this point for directing films such as 'The Fly', 'Videodrome' and 'Scanners'. Seemingly an unusual choice to create a commercial for an athletic shoe, he directed this ad for Nike Air 180 featuring a strange alien landscape with giant pods. A grub-like husk is offered up to a pod and is swiftly snatched up by an insectoid hand, cracking open to reveal the shoe. Showcasing Cronenberg’s trademark biological horror and some brilliant practical effects, this advert makes the shoe feel like an organic object rather than a man-made one.
