This is a Free Premiere to a Fake Movie! : It is produced by Heineken Beer as an Advertisement for their Beer. The movie is is titled Lady Violette’s Diaries. You can watch it by clicking on the live link below. I urge you to do so as it is really really bizarre! It is short so it will only require a couple of minutes for you to watch it. Please read this first so you understand what you are watching.
Being the real Lady Violette de Courcy I have to try to keep up with what is happening in the media regarding me, my image. and my name. Yesterday, quite by chance and unexpectedly, I came across this bizarre entry Lady Violette’s Diaries for a fake “romantic” movie put out as an advertisement for Heineken Beer. At first It really confused me ~ there were hundreds of entries. I couldn’t tell what it was. I could tell that it was creepy and weird and I found it disturbing.
It took a beautiful name and romantic concept and mocked it. It promoted drinking oneself into oblivion in a sleazy dirty pub as an alternative. It promoted immature and irresponsible male drinking behavior at the expense of mocking women’s desire to be inspired by something interesting and beautiful. By this I mean it endorsed wanting to go to a bar with your buddies and get drunk as super cool and being dragged out n a date with a woman to see a romantic historical movie about a woman’s life as tedious, boring and a complete drag. There was no actual movie ~ just the concept of one, and some initial credits on the screen, but the idea of what they (the Heineken Beer People and their add agency) endorsed and promoted are as I stated.
You should also note that this commercial was slickly and expensively produced. It costs a great deal to bring something like this, with the commercial production values involved, to the screen!
This is the advertising agencies scam: In their own words! To remember their consumers that it is always better going out with friends for a beer while maintaining an easy going attitude than becoming an adult and losing some sacred moment with friends. (Note this “sacred moment with friends” is a group of bawdy coworkers gathered in a smoky tavern for a few of beers – on which they are becoming decidedly inebriated. ) ~ to illustrate this point they invite many of their beer drinking consumers to a cinema, to view the opening of a new film, Lady Violets’s Diary, or Lady Violette’s Diary (It is spelled both ways!) where they trap them, creating a singular event. (Note: it is implied, with a heavy hand, that attending a romantic movie, which is also intellectual, historical ~ with your girlfriend or wife is a real drag!)
For this occasion they created a few minutes of a fake film based on a very long romantic paradoxical story. This film was shown at the cinema on one selected night. During the screening suddenly appeared the claim, “Are you still with us?” to remind their consumer that “fell in this trap” that it is always better to stay with friends in an entertaining way. (Note: Meaning getting drunk at the local rowdy tavern, ) rather than, attend a romantic, intellectual and most likely historical movie on a date with your girlfriend or wife! or any other kind of “intellectual” performance or entertainment such at the ballet, an opera or the symphony.
After sitting through some very tedious and long minutes of film credits (Note: for a film that never really happens because it is fake and does not exist! ) they offered the audience an opportunity to watch an action movie (adapted for beer drinkers!) : like G.I.Joe; The Rise of Cobra, etc!
In this commercial the totally bored beer drinking male faction of the audience who were falling asleep has suddenly perked up and found the hidden energy they lacked during the screening of The Diaries of Lady Violette! .
Note: Are the women (wives and girl friends) supposedly going to enjoy the action movie as well? This is not addressed. Personally, I doubt it. And I base this reaction on personal experience!
I had to read the ad agencies comments on this add several times to figure out what they were actually trying to achieve. I found the entire thing insulting and chauvinistic to the max!
This commercial has been shown at the Cannes Film Festival, The Art Director’s Club of Europe and The Art Director’s Club of Italy.
I will be most interested to hear your opinions on this. It certainly makes one think about naming things, the associations in names, film making, and making art. At least if your name actually is Lady Violette de Courcy! Please note: I had no involvement of any kind with this project.
Tags: Art & About, Film, History, Naming, Vintage
Yes, the Heinken ad is very adolescent, to say the least. And the commentary on that page is definitely not written by a native English speaker (“To remember our consumers that is always better going out with friends for a beer…”). Can’t imagine why this thing was shown at the Cannes Film Festival and the other venues you mentioned. It certainly reinforces the reputation of Americans as uncultured, beer-guzzling slobs!