We open on a continuous row of Philips LED lamps, which illuminate the homes and lives of the characters in this piece like falling dominoes. Lighting every room and space in a perfectly timed chain of events, the fluid passage of lamplights takes the viewer in and out of the domestic setting, cutting across gardens and gliding over a strip of LED tea lights lying on the surface of a swimming pool, which spark to life.
The journey of the lights continues along roads where children’s’ bikes are guided safely by Philips, then out across a car park and on to a fleeting glimpse of a highway, where Philips’ LEDs are shown in an industrial capacity.
A cinematic sequence takes the viewer across a bridge and into the city, lighting the architectural forms in its path. Never missing a beat or losing the sense of humanity and intimacy that prevails throughout, the spot concludes with a captivating synchronised LED display that plays across the face of a skyscraper.
The spot was directed by Philippe Andrß of Independent, London, for DDB Amsterdam.
Review: Director Pablo Larrain’s “Maria” Starring Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie glides through the final days of Maria Callas' short life in Pablo Larraín's "Maria," a dramatic, evocative elegy to the famed soprano. It's an affair that's at turns melancholy, biting and grandly theatrical, an aria for a once in a generation star.
Reality is of little consequence on the stage and in "Maria." It's all about the raw feeling, which serves the movie well, more dream than history lesson about La Callas. Early on, she pops some Mandrax and tells her devoted butler Ferruccio (a simply wonderful Pierfrancesco Favino) that a television crew is on the way. Are they real, he wonders.
"As of this morning, what is real and what is not real is my business," she says calmly and definitively, making a feast out of Steven Knight's sharp script. It's one of many great lines and moments for Jolie, whose intensity and resolve belie her fragile appearance. And it's a signal to the audience as well: Don't fret about dull facts or that Jolie doesn't really resemble Callas all that much. This is a biopic as opera — an emotional journey fitting of the great diva, full of flair, beauty, betrayal, revelations and sorrow.
In "Maria," we are the companion to a protagonist with an ever-loosening grip on reality, walking with her through Paris, and her life, for one week in September 1977.
The images from cinematographer Ed Lachman, playfully shifting in form and style, take us on a scattershot journey through her triumphs on stage, her scandalous romance with Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer) and her traumatic youth. In the present, at age 53, she sleeps till midday, drinks the minimal calories she ingests, goes to restaurants where the waiters know her name looking for adulation and has visions of performances staged just for... Read More