A man pushes his electric mower along his front lawn in about as mundane a slice of weekend life as you can get. However, it seems there’s a slice of something else on his grass. He stops the mower, turns it off and looks down to see what is in his path.
The man bends over to pick up the object, which is a detached human ear. He stares at it intently as if mulling over who it belongs to, how it became detached from its owner and how it wound up on his lawn.
But his curiosity quickly dissipates as he throws the ear over the fence to the lawn of his next door neighbor.
A super then “explains” this seemingly inexplicable behavior. It reads, “After 16 days of film, nothing will faze you,” followed by an end tag for the Vancouver International Film Festival.
“Ear” is one of four similarly themed commercials in an offbeat campaign directed by the Perlorian Brothers via Soft Citizen, Toronto, for agency TBWA, Vancouver, B.C. (The Perlorians are handled stateside by Furlined, Santa Monica.)
The agency ensemble included creative director/copywriter Paul Little, copywriter Brent Wheeler, art director Mark Mizgala and producer Mike Hasinoff.
Eva Preger and Link York executive produced for Soft Citizen, with Tuula Hopp serving as producer. The DP was Tico Poulakakis.
Editor was Bill Hardman of Tonic Post, Vancouver.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More