The reassuringly expensive Belgian beer, Stella Artois, was promoted last year with a surreal short film, “Le Sacrifice”. To the sounds of Clara Rockmore playing Tchaikovsky’s Valse Sentimentale on the theremin, the title appears in black and white: “Le Sacrifice – Une histoire surrealiste”. Three men huddle around a barrel, their eyes on a vintage bottle of Stella Artois. On the other side of the barrel a well dressed man sleeps in his chair. Another chair is empty. The sleeping man awakes. We see that the empty chair is in fact occupied by a violin. An old bearded man appears in the trees. One of the men on the bench succumbs to the temptation – he takes a swig from the bottle and promptly turns into an egg. The egg cracks and eggs crawl out.
On the bottle there’s a drip pouring down the side. A woman removes her mask. The well dressed man grabs the bottle and drinks, turning into an ostrich. The bottle rolls down the hill and turns into an apple. In the moonlit darkness a man runs up to the camera and motions to the audience to keep the secret. The super: “Stella Artois: Reassuringly Elephants”. Click on the image below to play the video.
Credits
The TV ad is made in the style of 1920s European surreal film as developed by Friedrich Murnau and Luis Bunnuel.
‘Le Sacrifice’ was created at Lowe UK by creatives George Prest and Johnny Leathers with agency producer Jane Rattle.
The Stella Artois film was directed by Frank Budgen via Gorgeous Enterprises, London, with producer Flora Fernandez Marengo.
Post production was done by Tom Sparks at Alteration Services, London. Sound was produced by Andy Humphreys at 750MPH, London.
Editors were Angus Wall and JD Smyth at Rock Paper Scissors.
Soundtrack
Clara Rockmore’s recording of Valse Sentimentale can be heard on the album, “Art of the Theremin”. The theremin is an electronic instrument that has been used to create spooky effects in movies. Clara Rockmore was able to use it to peform classical pieces of music, producing a sound somewhat like a mixture of violin and human voice. The sound of the theremin is produced by moving one’s hands closer or further away from the antennae of the instrument.
This music was also used in Spoilsbury Toast Boy.
http://www.fat-pie.com/spoilsminus2.htm
(nsfw)
Hello
Saw the ad the other night, Thank goodness some people have the imagination to put something out there that is interesting to watch. TV is so dull these days programmes are so s**t. There used to be some great ad’s around twenty years ago, Things like ‘Le Sacrifice’ need and must gain awards just for the balls to make them in the way they do.
Good luck to Ya…..!
i think this is a very cool advert. im an ametuer flash animator, and tryed to recreate it in cartoon form. it was hellish.