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Cartier, the famous french jeweler is revealing this week a beautiful cinematographic film about the brand. It is a beautiful movie-retrospective of 165 years of creation. It is a 3,5 mn of pure dream in which they used a cutting-edge special effects. The Brand wanted this project to be treated like a real movie, not only in terms of visual aspects but also in terms of budgets. The film was directed by Bruno Aveillan, a multi-rewarded advertising movie director who has been successfully working for Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Guerlain, Paco Rabanne, Jaguar, Samsung, Nike…. He got several prices, from Golden Globes up to being considered as in the top 3 best french advertising directors in 2009.

The filming requested more than 50 high special effect technicians on location and more than 6 month of post-production. To lift the ambiance, Pierre Adenot (french famous music “arrangeur” for Charles Aznavour or Stephan Eicher), did the soundtrack, especially dedicated for the film.

The entire film follows the “adventures” of the iconic Cartier Panther throughout the world, in which the glamorous feline goes to St Petersburg in winter time, to China where he comes face-to-face with a golden dragon in the majestic great wall, to an amazing and imaginary Indian palace built upon a huge elephant’s back and filled with glittering animal jewellery (many pieces of which reside in the Cartier archive), before leaping aboard the wings of and identical replica of the airplane built by Alberto Santos-Dumont, to showcase the classic Cartier Santos watch (first commissioned by the Brazilian aviation legend in 1904). The panther finally lands in Paris, the birthplace of Cartier, on Place Vendôme where he meets supermodel Shalom Harlow at the Grand Palais. She wears a sculptural red dress, a special creation by chinese designer Yiqing Yinwith. In order to protect the Panther, a total amount of 3 different animals were used during the entire movie shooting. The film itself was shot in Prague, Italy, Spain and Paris. It took 2 years to have all in film. Check here the result. Just sublime.

The film is a beautiful state of art. It costed about 4 million euros… for 3,5 minutes, this brings it around 20,000 euros per second… not bad. Bernard Fornas, Cartier CEO explains that they did this movie for a sort of revival of Cartier’s story. The brand wants to capitalize on its heritage and timeless elegance away from fashion trends.

I think it is very high-end in deed. The only thing it is missing is some short information in the film because basically, if you do not know the Cartier Story, you will not understand a dam thing. Why a Panther? People might not know that “Panther” was the nickname of legendary Cartier Jewelry designer Jeanne Toussaint (appointed as leading designer in 1033). She created the first Panther jewels for the Duchess of Windsor in the 50’s and since then, it became the symbol of the Brand.

Why this strange plane? Well, not everybody would have recognize the Brazilian legendary pilot, Alberto Santos Dumont. He made the first European public flight of an airplane on October 23, 1906. Designated 14-bis or Oiseau de proie (French for “bird of prey”), the flying machine was the first fixed-wing aircraft witnessed by the European press and French aviation authorities to take off and successfully fly. Santos-Dumont is considered the “Father of Aviation” in Brazil, his native country. His flight is the first to have been certified by the Aéro Club de France and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). And because he always complained not being able to see the time during flight, Cartier created the first wrist watch, dedicated to the brazilian pilot, that still is called “Santos”.

So see, you need some decoding here to appreciate the heritage highlight in this movie. I would personally have added some dates and some key short information about some elements and facts, so that this beautiful film would reach a broader audience. Nevertheless it is a magnificent film. With the latest Opium, Yves Saint Laurent fragrance ad, Cartier L’Odysée is a beautiful TV spot.

What do you think?
LA 

 

Info sourced at Daily telegraph, Cartier official website and youtube channel. All images are copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.