Chris Cunningham’s Gucci Advert

Hermit director and mess-head, Chris Cunningham is back about town this week with his new credit-crunch busting piece of directing for Gucci. Cunningham is the equivalent of a one-man-band  – editing, writing, directing, choreographing and even remixing the music for his work. I have total adoration for his ability to turn most things he does into gorgeously detailed and obsessionally laboured films that are edited together like a tailored suit from Saville Row. Some of the finest music videos (and indeed my favourite music vid of all time) have come from the mind of this man. So when I heard that the advert for Gucci’s new perfume ‘Flora’ was the work of Cunningham, I adjusted my chair and inhaled a long, breath.

The results are pretty splendid. The hues and lighting are soporific;  giving off  the sleepy chill of a halflight from a disturbing dream. The floaty camera work and rich imagery demand several re-runs before your eyes can even begin to establish what is happening. The last few seconds is where the trademark dark twists of Cunningham slide in and the girl’s dress turns into a freaky symmetry of creepy shapes and patterns… Probably some faces in there too. It’s all capped off with Cunningham’s own uneasy reworking of Donna Summer’s ‘I feel love’.

Welcome back Mr Cunningham, and may I say that is one hell of a way to sell perfume.