A short story, then some commercials

My brother sent me a note after last week’s issue. Some of the AI chatter reminded him a short story he’d read last year. It’s a Ted Chiang piece called “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling,” which is about… well, I don’t really want to spoil it, because I’d recommend reading it (so does my brother). But one of the characters is a journalist who writes about a new technology that allows users to document and search memories perfectly.

The reason I’m mentioning it is I’d read the story previously but forgot that it was science fiction and was remembering it as an actual article written by a real journalist. Because I forgotten plot details and created an unreliable memory, I’d actually spent time that week unsuccessfully searching¹ for a REAL article about the unreliability of creating your own memories.

Wild.

Wes Anderson has a new commercial out for Montblanc, 100 Years of Meisterstück, which led me down a rabbit hole of old commercials he’s done. There have been quite a few—these are some of my favorites. If you’re only going to watch one, skip to the Prada short film at the end, though it’s one of the longer ads. Maybe pick one of the 30-second AT&T commercials? You know what, don’t let me tell you what to do.

AT&T (Reporter)
AT&T (Salesman)
AT&T (Actor)
2007
I would love to see a Spike Jonze-esque behind-the-scenes for these shoots. It sure seems like they’re all done in camera, in one take, with some sort of rig moving the camera and narrator through the scenes. Surely there was someone on set who took pictures of all this? No amount of googling is uncovering anything.

Softbank
2008
Quintessential Anderson. No dialogue, just dapper costuming, whip pans, center framing, and Hollywood star-power.

Modern Life
Hyundai, 2012 
It’s wild how jarring the last shot of this commercial feels. The first half of the commercial is ramped up to 11 (the baby in the cupboard is my favorite, though there’s a lot to choose from), and of course the conceit relies on the side-tracking shot, but that final cut to the traditional three-quarter angle feels incredibly out of place in Anderson’s world.

Come Together
H&M, 2016
The recursiveness of Anderson’s aesthetics is often derided, but I think it’s fascinating to see someone return to similar visual themes. This came out nine years after The Darjeeling Limited and two after The Grand Budapest Hotel, but it feels like it could have easily belonged to either of those films.

Hamster
Salmon
Dasani, 2005
I love these because they’re awful. It’s so nice to know that even the best directors get pulled into hot, steaming dumpster fire projects. I can see versions of these² that are good (the sets are actually pretty interesting), but this isn’t it. These don’t show up on his IMDB—others in this list do.

Castello Cavalcanti
Prada, 2013³
This Prada ad is one of my favorite things that Wes Anderson has done, though I am admittedly a Life Aquatic kind of person. The title, the pacing, the pans and tracking, the dialogue, Jason Schwartzman… it’s all here.

That’s it! That’s the email.
Dave

1  Including using ChatGPT

2  With better writing

3  Honorable mention to Prada’s Candy L’Eau, also 2013, which I dare you to watch for 15 seconds without thinking of The French Dispatch