The King of Ads (1991) User Reviews (2)

The King of Ads:Part 2.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 5/10 · 2 February 2015]

2011:

After watching auteur film maker Dario Argento's interesting 1973 film The Five Days of Milan,I took a look at Argento's IMDb page,and discovered that he had directed an advert which was featured in a documentary.Searching round all of the video streaming sites,I was surprised to find that along with there being no sign of the collective movie,that Argento's advert appeared to have become lost in the mist of time.

December 2014:

Checking my E-Mails after Christmas,I spotted an E-Mail from a DVD seller,about a massive sale that he was holding on old titles.Taking a look at the list,I spotted a double disc set called The Kings of Ads 1 and 2, (the first one of which does not have its own IMDb page) with part 2 featuring the Argento advert,which led to me getting ready to finally see the mad men in action.

Outline of the documentary:

The film showcases some of the biggest European adverts of the late 1980s-late 1990s.

View on the film:

Clearing the movie of text which clutters the first movie, (if the ad was filmed for French toilet roll,I can take a good guess as to which country the advert was shown in!)editor/director Jean-Mario Boursicot allows the various directors names to be clearly shown (and easy to read) over the opening few moments of the ads.Despite being made by extremely different directors,the adverts interestingly are mainly based in 2 categories,with the first being wilderness dead zones,where the item is the only shining light in the area,and the second being the items offering a bright future,which comes alive when the people in the ads leave their dull present life behind,and buy the luxury item.

Taking a look at the ads in a collective form,almost all of them avoid hyping the items in a serious manner,with the traditionally mature directors using quirky Comedy to leave the viewer with a memorable hum.Working in a limited format,almost all of the directors show a real energy in making the most of their 30 second slot,with Argento taking a test-run on dazzling camera moves that he would expand on in Opera, (which I'm going to watch for the first time on my 28th birthday on February 9th) whilst Hugh Hudson reveals an ultra-stylised eye in his slippery Fantasy yarns.

Final view on the film:

A fun documentary, which gives the audience a chance to see everything that some extremely famous directors have made.

Something different

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 15 November 2022]

A rare and pretty interesting collection of TV adverts directed by famous directors. There's generally a European slant to these although Scorsese makes a brif appearance. This is a hard one to see and the copy I saw was taken from a Dutch VHS which excised the David Bailey advert, presumably for copyright reasons. These are all dated to the late '80s which makes them, well, dated, but I found them highly artistic and enjoyable to watch. Some are generally good, some are genuinely funny, and others are downright weird. Hugh Hudson's work stands out here although Italian auteur Dario Argento's work is an unremarkable car advert.