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Hermes Presents Stylish Videos Online
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Written by
Anthony Kaufman
September 21, 2006
It's the sad truth of online movies, but oftentimes the best videos around are corporate sponsored (remember BMW's series "The Hire," which featured works from the likes of Ang Lee, John Frankenheimer and Wong Kar-wai).
As much as we love to celebrate the art of wholly independent filmmaking at The Daily Reel, sometimes you got to tip your hat to the support of The Man.
Turner Classic Movies and the Paris-based fashion house Hermès have joined forces to salute the art of short filmmaking through a project titled "Behind The Camera: The Shorts Circuit," which is airing on TCM as well as this Hermès's website.
Turner Classic Movies and the Paris-based fashion house Hermès have joined forces to salute the art of short filmmaking through a project titled "Behind The Camera: The Shorts Circuit," which is airing on TCM as well as this Hermès's website.
Longer than you'd expect, and perhaps what's suitable for 2-inch-square online viewing (running between 8 and 13 minutes in length), the six movies are nevertheless a vast step forward for Internet cinema, as informative, innovative, and creative as anything you'd catch at the world's premier film festivals.
Actor-turned-director Griffin Dune comes up, fittingly, with a tongue-in-cheek documentary about the birth of Hollywood product placement, "Your Product Here," while Peter Gilbert (Hoop Dreams) presents a touching look at his aging mother, ravaged by a stroke, who seeks comfort in watching old movies (yes, TCM gets a plug).
But the films aren't all comfy nonfiction: E. Elias Merhige (Shadow of the Vampire) presents an hypnotic, pulsating black and white experimental short "Din of Celestial Birds," which recounts the creation of the earth, and music video whiz Floria Sigismondi offers "Postmortem Bliss," a beautifully photographed, evocative vision of one boy's angst, inspired by Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause. Shots of the young man floating underwater create a strong metaphoric space for teenage alienation.
Maybe TCM, a division of Time Warner, is cooler than we thought.
