Since building pre-release Hollywood buzz is almost as commonplace for a film as actually filming it, teaser trailers aren’t as exciting as they once were, and fall into predictable territories, particularly for superhero movies and horrors. There are exceptions to the rule of course, which seems to be the case below, because it’s only a commercial. Who teases a commercial?
The Playlist has come across the following video clip for an ad being produced for French auto company Citron, from director James Gray. Instead of actually advertising anything, or being pulse-pounding as theatrical teasers are, this is the complete opposite, taking viewers behind the scenes into the production, which stars Ewan McGregor and Vinessa Shaw. Ambient music plays over edited footage of TV monitors, a production crew at work, and the actors sitting around a table on set. Not a French car to be found. Watch the video for yourself and see how excited you find yourself for the actual commercial.
New James Gray with Ewan McGregor & Vinessa Shaw (opens in new tab) from Mats Andersen (opens in new tab) on Vimeo (opens in new tab).
The fact that characters names are used is rather bizarre, with McGregor as Mats Anderson and Shaw as Special Agent Carter. If you’ll notice, the Vimeo video is hosted by the username “Mats Anderson,” if that means anything beyond a meta wink of the eye. We’ll just have to wait and see if this matches up anywhere near John Woo’s BMW mini-movie with Clive Owen from 2007.
James Gray, whose next feature is the vaudeville romance Lowlife with Jeremy Renner and Marion Cotillard, also recently directed a delightful ad for Martell XO cognac titled “Rise Above,” which you can watch below.
