Martin Scorsese is laughing right in the face of everyone (ahem, Joe Russo) who’s ever called him a pretentious snob, or someone who doesn’t know how to actually make money, or a one-trick-pony who can only turn out three-plus hour-long cinematic epics. Forget Killers Of The Flower Moon. Scorsese’s real Everest this year was a 60-second perfume ad starring Timothée Chalamet.
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Yup, you read that right. Six months after the Wonkacavorting around New York City with the legendary director, the fruits of their labor have finally arrived. Behold Martin Scorsese’s “most difficult” project to date: this very short ad for Bleu de Chanel cologne.
“To think in terms of telling a story in 60 seconds, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been making pictures and how long you’ve been trying to tell stories, this is a real workout,” Scorsese said in a behind-the-scenes look at the commercial. “It is probably the most difficult thing to do.”
Killers Of The Flower Moon this is not. While the director’s magnum opus tells a sweeping tale of greed and genocide over the course of decades, Bleu de Chanel starring Timothée Chalamet is a slightly pithier story. The brief spot sees the young star get swept away from a life of fame and talk shows Matrix-style by an ingénue played by Havana Rose Liu. But it sure is stylish!
Despite how silly all of this is, it seems like it was a fun challenge for the director, who has more than earned the right to make whatever the hell he wants at this point. It also sounds like it was an incredibly eye-opening experience for Chalamet, who called working with Scorsese “an enormous education” in an interview with GQ, during which he also said the director had specifically asked him if he’d seen the 1968 Fellini short Toby Dammit in preparation for the shoot. (He hadn’t.) “It should’ve occurred to me sooner that I try to find something to work on with him,” he added.
Who knows: maybe this exercise will convince Scorsese to abandon the 206-minute movie altogether. At least pee breaks won’t be an issue anymore!