are sometimes smooth and silky, and other times tired and tight.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Commercial Appeal (Stella)

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Much to my surprise, as I sat in the Landmark Sunshine Theater, eating a spinach knish from Yona Schimmel's, waiting to see The Wrestler, I spotted yet another biking commercial. This one wasn't for a car or onbijtkoek, nope, this one was for beer.

Considering the fact that this was New Years afternoon, I wasn't really interested in the product, but none the less, I watched the ad. Calling it that, an "ad", does some disservice to the creators of this very short, very commercial, commercial film.

The basic plot is pretty simple, after all, despite what I just wrote, this is a commercial. Two brothers, amongst a peloton of post WWI racers in southern France, look at a photo of their "Papa", and pledge their victory to him. The race starts, they attack early, get a gap, and it looks like they have things wrapped up until the front tire gets a flat, right as they pass a cafe.

I initially thought there was going to be some nod to the Eugène Christophe affair, but that would have been too complicated. Anyway, as one brother fixes the flat, the notices a nice cold glass of Stella Artois (if there is such a thing as a nice glass of Stella), so he promptly lets the air out of the rear tire, so they can have a beer. As they sit there, knocking back their pintjes, they spot Papa's pic on the wall of the cafe, just as the peloton passes. The end.

Once you see the production levels involved, coupled with the wardrobe and props, and even a Francophone Fausto Coppi clone as the lead, there's not really much that I can say, but chapeau!

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Climbing the wall.

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Point deduction: the guy on the left is far too big to be at the front of a climb.

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