If one finds it a bit hard to endure feature-length works by Yorgos Lanthimos these days, he may have found his ideal mode of expression in (certainly well-paying) commercials. His latest project finds him teaming with Prada for a new ad starring Scarlett Johansson, who recently debuted both her first directorial feature and had time to play with dinosaurs this summer.
Here’s the official description: “Discover the new Prada campaign directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Prada Ambassador Scarlett Johansson. A cinematic study of transformation and persona, where ritual identities take place. A totem of change, the Prada Galleria handbag is reimagined season after season. In this film, it becomes central to a story of perpetual transformation – of the self, of identity, of Prada itself.”
“Yorgos himself wrote the monologue for this Prada campaign film, and there were so many different ways to interpret it,” Johansson told Harper’s Bazaar. “In the repetition of the monologue, with each take and different setups, you discover new meaning—in its abstraction, it becomes a changing, effervescent thing.”
Zhuo-Ning Su said in our Venice review of Bugonia, “After dabbling in dystopian fantasy (The Lobster) and period comedy (The Favourite), shocking us along the way with original creations (Dogtooth) and fanciful adaptations (Poor Things) alike, Yorgos Lanthimos has proven time and again that there’s not a single uncreative bone in his body. Remaking the criminally underseen Korean sci-fi comedic thriller Save the Green Planet!, he succeeds in honoring the original while putting his unique stamp on it. The result is a sleeker (if slightly paler) version of a truly bonkers film.”
Watch the ad below.
The post Watch: Scarlett Johansson Finds Rituals in Yorgos Lanthimos-Directed Prada Ad first appeared on The Film Stage.
