Paris Fashion Week | From Catherine Deneuve to Jake Gyllenhaal: Special stars in Cartier and The Mill campaigns
‘Santos’
In 2018, The Mill Paris’ team collaborated with Cartier, Seb Edwards, Hoyte Van Hoytemato to relaunch its iconic Santos watch with a film featuring its new ambassador, Jake Gyllenhaal. Created in 1904, the original watch was designed by Louis Cartier for his friend Alberto Santos-Dumont, the Brazilian adventurer who first mastered, unaided, heavier-than-air powered flight in 1906, so that he could easily tell the time while flying. At that time, our VFX team worked on the environments and especially on the street shots, providing lots of CG works for smoke and steam, especially on the wide shots, to complement the one in camera, as well as plates for the sky. They also worked on the compositing to integrate the multiple elements inside the environment, including a CG street environment to help connect the inside with the outside, as well as colour grading to unify the creative intents for the various sequences.
“I was executive producer on the Cartier "Tank" and "How far would you go for love?" campaigns . Our last project for the 'Tank' watch was a big challenge because we had to find a solution to reproduce Catherine Deneuve's face in 4 emblematic periods of her filmography such as "Parapluies de Cherbourg", "Indochine" or "Place Vendôme". This was a real challenge because everyone has known the actress for years. She is an icon of French cinema but also a figure of fashion and French chic. She has even been the muse of famous couturiers such as Yves Saint Laurent or more recently Marc Jacobs when he was artistic director of Louis Vuitton. The technical constraints were huge but thanks to the hard work of our artists the result is amazing and we were even nominated at the VES in the best compositing and lighting category ! I was honoured to be able to work on this film with so many prestigious and talented people, including the director Guy Ritchie, and with a dream cast of Catherine Deneuve and Rami Malek. This film is the continuation of a long and important collaboration with the production company 75 who still trust us for its ambitious project.
I also remember the film "How would you go for love?" as a very poetic ad, showing the evolution of a love story over time. We were lucky enough to work with film director Cédric Klapish, with whom we had already worked on the visual effects for some of these films such as "Les Poupées Russes" and "Casse-Tête Chinois".
Although these two films are very different, they both deal with 'time' in a poetic way and show that elegance and love can be timeless.”
‘Tank’
Shortlisted at the VES in the “composition and lighting in advertising” category, Cartier’s “Tank” ad, released in January 2022, caused a sensation with articles in various media such as Little Black Book, Shots, Adforum… A remarkable deepfake work created thanks to a hybrid work method combining artificial intelligence and traditional CG techniques. Featuring director Guy Ritchie, Soixante Quinze and Reset production and Publicis Luxe agency, our artists met all the challenge thanks to their technical-creative approach.
‘How far would you go for love?’
In 2020, Cartier entrusted director Cédric Klapisch for its romantic ad to invite us into a love story while showcasing its collections at different times of the life of a couple. For this digital campaign created in close collaboration with Publicis Luxe, our Parisian studio provided finishing services including beauty work especially on the jewels, on top of restoration, color grading and conform.
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