Monday, May 06, 2013

Penny Thoughts ‘13—Desire (2013) **


NR, 13 min.
Director: Adam Smith
Starring: Damian Lewis, Shannyn Sossamon, Jordi Mollá

So I had a stupid idea. I heard that Jaguar had made a short film to promote their new car, the F-TYPE. I thought, “Hey! That might make a good Penny Thoughts entry!” Yeah, well, it’s a car commercial. What can I say?


The truth is I’ve been intrigued by this concept of making film quality advertisements for certain products, like cars, ever since BMW first did it in 2001 with the Clive Owen starrer “The Hire”. But, they’re rarely any good. They’re often too high concept for their simplistic goals. In its essence the only thing this film was made for was to sell a car. This one in particular includes one of the worst inserted sales pitches I’ve seen. There’s a moment when its star, Damian Lewis of “Homeland”, just lists off all the features of the car at gunpoint. Really?! Not fans of the subtle approach at Jaguar. I suppose that makes sense when you think about it.

There are a couple of funny moments, like when the woman at the gas station asks for ten dollars in Spanish and holds up her finger so Lewis can understand, or when Lewis parts a street marching band concert by holding up his passport claiming that he’s British. For the most part, though, this is pretty dry stuff. Even the photography holds only a few really beautiful shots, and most of those are far overhead shots where you really can’t see the car very well. Perhaps, that’s why they work, because they drop the whole “this is a Jaguar” stance for those shots. It sure sounds like an awesome car, though. Thank you, sound department.

You can watch Jaguar’s commercial “Desire” below.



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