Radical Media, which handled director Quentin van den Bossche in the U.K. and Germany, has now extended that relationship to worldwide representation, including becoming what’s believed to his first production company home in the U.S. ad market.
While at Wieden+Kennedy (W+K) Amsterdam, van den Bossche made his initial major directorial mark with the film portion of the Heineken “Legendary Posters” campaign which won a Cannes Silver Lion and four Bronze Lions in 2014. A couple of years later, he earned a slot in SHOOT’s New Directors Showcase on the strength of Booking.com’s “Wing It.” His short documentary, Part Time Heroes, a portrait of the Sea Shepherd conservation group which proactively fights poaching and habitat destruction, was released by CNN’s Great Big Story, and selected for Best Short Doc at the St. Louis International Film Festival.
Van den Bossche honed his directorial chops at W+K’s creative incubator, The Kennedys. Most of his work generally features real-life characters in exotic locations, with a conceptual hook and a visceral as well as observational style.
Van den Bossche recently directed a series of spots for Corona’s “Lime Ritual” campaign, as well as a commercial for Nike Basketball, “Mt Olympus,” which celebrates Greek native, Milwaukee Bucks star and NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. For the release of Antetokounmpo’s signature Nike shoe–making him the first European player to attain that honor–van den Bossche and W+K put a hoop on the top of Mount Olympus, the highest point in Greece and the ancient home of the Greek Gods. This lofty perch reflects the amazing journey Antetokounmpo has taken from one of Athens, Greece’s most impoverished suburbs to the very top of the NBA, propelled by a strong work ethic and a dream of attaining greatness. In the spot, which was produced via Athens-based production house Yard, the basket’s backboard has a message spanning across it which reads, “Fate can start you at the bottom. Dreams can take you to the top.”
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More