Ryan Lietaer is joining the community London as the agency’s managing director. The move reunites him with executive creative director Mark Hunter after they met at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam 10 years ago.
Lietaer led W+K’s global Coca-Cola business before leaving to become general manager of BBDO Paris where in addition to leading international new business, he spearheaded the global Pepsi and HP accounts. Lietaer then left BBDO to launch his own creative agency Peoplewelike, in 2013 where his clients included LVMH, Suntory Schweppes, Diageo, L’Oreal, Le Coq Sportif and Weight Watchers.
“Ryan has a rare mix of talent and humanity that resonates strongly with our team. He’s a big impact player and someone who has been a part of great creative thinking his whole career,” said Joaquin Mollá, co-founder and co-CCO of the community.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More