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I guess that makes sense, though it feels like more of a murmur this morning rather than a passionate discussion. Of course, that might have more to do with the overall predictable nature of the ad.

Apparently David Gordon Green directed the quasi-controversial Clint Eastwood halftime Chrysler ad.

Two Hyundai ads by Wes Anderson, which will air during the Oscar broadcast:

"Modern Life"

"Talk to My Car"

Sofia Coppola for H&M, with an assist from Roxy Music.

She's really busting out of her pretty-people-looking-bored-to-a-great-soundtrack mold with that one. Come on girl, I am on your side but you have got to do something new.

Wes Anderson's stop-motion ad for the Sony Xperia

A little preview/explanation of the ad from Sony

Richard Brody's take from The New Yorker

For all the complaints about the Levi's ads, Hillcoat never plagiarized Malick quite this blatantly.

Thank God ... my wife told me that I'd be the only one to notice that rip-off. Time to rub this in her face. Thank you again, internet.

I thought these neat new TD Ameritrade commercials were maybe directed by Wes Anderson, but they were actually done by Brad Silberling. They sure beat the hell out of the old TD Ameritrade commercials with Sam Waterston looking somewhere off screen as he barks about investments.

Bizarre new Chanel No. 5 ad campaign with Brad Pitt, directed, such as it is, by Joe Wright. The ad copy sounds like crumpled scraps of Tree of Life script retrieved from Terrence Malick's dustbin.

Ken Loach comes clean about his McDonald's job

McDonald's ad directed by Ken Loach

Loach said taking McDonald’s money was even more embarrassing than the revelation that he voted Tory at school. Asked which was worse, the director said: “Oh, the McDonald’s advert by far.”

Burn!

I remember that advert from the time but had never put two and two together! Rewatching it I guess it has certain Loachian tropes of couples bickering over consumerist items (wasn't this the same period of the need for the communion dress causing a spiral into debt collection horror in Raining Stones?), and even at the time I loved that final scene at the counter of McDonald's with the couple still bickering over details while a couple of people in the queue behind them appear to give sighs of despair at being stuck there for a while! (As with many Loach films I can end up feeling more for the supporting characters than the front of stage, issue driven ones!)

Jeff wrote:Spike Jonze for Kenzo World perfume

Very similar to the "Weapon of Choice" video Jonze directed for Fatboy Slim, although without the novelty of having Christopher Walken doing the crazy dancing. Still, great fun, especially for a perfume ad!

Roger Ryan wrote:

Jeff wrote:Spike Jonze for Kenzo World perfume

Very similar to the "Weapon of Choice" video Jonze directed for Fatboy Slim, although without the novelty of having Christopher Walken doing the crazy dancing. Still, great fun, especially for a perfume ad!

Extremely similar, but I didn't care for the more frenetic movement & more irritating music (done by Jonze's brother, apparently). Still, I liked when she shot lasers & when she flew through the eye. Of note, the star is Margaret Qualley from The Leftovers (and Andie McDowell's daughter).

That was great! I know nothing about dance but I thought that was really well done, adding Margaret Qualley to the ever lengthening list of reasons we need more Hollywood musicals being made. Come to think of it why doesn't Spike Jonze make a musical?

Roger Ryan wrote:Very similar to the "Weapon of Choice" video Jonze directed for Fatboy Slim, although without the novelty of having Christopher Walken doing the crazy dancing. Still, great fun, especially for a perfume ad!

I saw somewhere (maybe the booklet that came with the Palm pictures DVD) that Jonze was having a tough time thinking of an idea for that video, until he finally called Fatboy Slim and said "I have a great idea! But we need to get Christopher Walken. Otherwise, I don't have any ideas."

I'm assuming the only way to do this with all the mirrors as she goes up the stairs is to digitally erase the cameras and crew in post, right?

Jeff wrote:I'm assuming the only way to do this with all the mirrors as she goes up the stairs is to digitally erase the cameras and crew in post, right?

Probably, although it's also possible that the space where the mirrors are was covered in green screen material and the "reflections" were composited in during post-production (not sure which approach would take less time).

Interestingly, there is only about a three-second difference in length between this new commercial and the "Weapon of Choice" video - Jonze replicates the pacing of the Fatboy Slim video almost precisely.

I just found out that ad was shot by Hoyte van Hoytema! As much as I love Lance Acord's work with Jonze, I would not be the least bit disappointed if Hoytema becomes Jonze's new go-to DoP.

Omensetter wrote: Sat May 25, 2019 5:20 pm I suppose this Malick perfume commercial Canal+ just aired is the closest he's getting this year.

Sorry : off topic.
I was wondering if there was a comprehensive list of best TV commercials made by auteurs. Since there is no end credits on a commercial, there is no easy way to know who directed it, unless you search the internet and you're lucky it's easy to describe in the search query. Because often times I found myself unable to track down the credit roll of certain commercials. Anyone knows if there is a website doing this?
Conversely, would it be possible to organise a List Project on auteur's TV commercials?

That does sound like an interesting project. I'm mostly familiar with only the Polanski perfume advert (also with Natalie Portman looking glamorous!) and of course that notorious 1980s Lars von Trier commercial for a tabloid newspaper, The Sauna (very NSFW!).

Here's a half hour compilation of David Lynch commercials, including the Japanese Twin Peaks coffee commercials featuring almost all of the cast, including the Log Lady! (At least Agent Cooper saved someone from the Black Lodge!) I particularly love the New York Sanitation one in which in amongst all of the standard New Yorkers dropping litter everywhere for the rats, there also seem to be gangs of biker punks wielding flaming torches as a standard sight too! I also quite like Gérard Depardieu starring in a commercial for pasta! And the amazing Dior commercial Lady Blue Shanghai starring Marion Cotillard! And here's his advert for his own coffee!

Lots of Jonathan Glazer would feature too including his 2002 Levis advert, though his "Follow The Yellow Brick Road" Wranglers commerical is his best! I suppose his post-Under The Skin package of idents for Channel 4 television in the UK would count too?

Doing a quick search of the Lürzer's Archive site uncovers:

a 1996 Olympus advert by the Coen Brothers

Alejandro González Iñárritu's 2010 World Cup Nike commercial.

2011:
an advert for a smoothie drink by Ben Wheatley!
a Dior film starring Kate Moss directed by Jonas Åkerlund
a very amusing Canal + advert by Matthijs van Heijningen (the same year he made the 2011 remake of The Thing) Here's his take on how unicorns became extinct from 2017. And here's his take on Thai action which cannot compete with in car comforts in a 2018 commercial.

2013:
Gucci commercial directed by Frank Miller, starring Chris Evans

2014:
BMW electric car commercial by Gus Van Sant (I'm waiting for the car to run out of charge in the desert and the actress to have to do a Gerry!)
VW spot promoting safe driving technology by Paul W.S. Anderson.

2016:

Tony Kaye's advert for sausages (and before he made American History X and Lake of Fire, Kaye was probably best known for the early 90s Dunlop commercial)
The Spike Jonze directed 'commercial' (really another music video) The New Fragrance (I remember that I used to do the same thing all the time before CCTV made me feel self conscious)
Asif Kapadia's (brilliantly cheeky!) use of the conventions of the historical biopic trailer for a life of Thomas Burberry ad
The H&M advert by Wes Anderson (lots of other Wes Anderson commercials are out there too: the Jacques Tati one with Brad Pitt, the American Express one, the Prada one and the Stella Artois one)

2017:
New York Times commercial by Darren Aronofsky
Michel Gondry recreating album covers in his own inimitable fashion for music streaming service Pandora. Gondry also apparently directed the John Lewis Christmas advert for that year!

2018:

The amazing Welcome Home by Spike Jonze

2019:

The Bucket by Jia Zhang-ke for Chinese New Year.
The Seven Worlds by Ridley Scott

Would there have to be a distinction between adverts made before a director started making theatrical features? Ridley Scott's Hovis advert would feature then, along with the 1992 Levi's Jeans advert homage to The Swimmer directed by Tarsem Singh (later to helm The Cell, The Fall and Immortals)

And all of those increasingly weird classic Rutger Hauer Guinness adverts were made by Ridley Scott, Paul Welland, Hugh Hudson and so on.

This discussion of “adverts by auteurs” is worthy of its own thread.