Let the real Vincent Cassel stand up!

Yves Saint Laurent parfums chose Vincent Cassel for their campaign for their latest masculine La Nuit de L'Homme (haven't tried it yet). The clip is short and to the point with the emphasis firmly on the attractiveness pulse of joli-laide Vincent (thanks to the scent, we're led to wishfully think).


music : remix of "Suite Espagnole,op 47,n° 5 : Asturias" by Isaac Albéniz *
director : Gaspar Noé
actors : Vincent Cassel, Eliza Cumming, Sarah Freitas
production : Paranoid Projects
location : Grand Palais, Paris, France

*You can hear the original Albeniz suite here. (I have been fortunate to have accompanied this on the piano alongside a famous guitarist and it's as beautiful and as fiery as you'd guess from the recordings).

Personally I much prefer Cassel (whom I consider one of the very best) in darker, more nuanced roles than the smirking, alluring, self-mocking almost play-boy character. His charisma is so palpable you can't take off your eyes off screen despite him not being the prettiest of men. Or is it because of it? In any case, since I am not the only one to find him a prime material for darker associations, I decided to ask you what you would choose to have him front and present two clips.
First here is a little video made by a fan I found on Youtube with the appropriate tagline "Sometimes villains can be so much more fascinating than heroes" (That's when a great actor has been chosen instead of those "wooden" mannequins with the crew cut they often use is my guess!). The chaacter of Jean-François de Morangias as enacted by Cassel comes from the movie Le Pacte des Loups/Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) and the song "Behind Blue Eyes" (a cover of the original Who song by Limp Bizkit) aptly highlights the strange allure of Vincent's baby blues...



In the more profound, thought-provoking and very distrubing (yet compelling) film of director Gaspar Noé (again, what a change of pace!) Irreversible, he is the tangibly real, tormented hero of acts that cannot be undone. The film unreals in reverse chronological order, acting as a study on the destructive nature of cause and effect, and how time does not allow things to go back. Highly recommended viewing, the same way Un Chien Andalou is, that is it definitely throws you out of your comfort zone (it's one of the most walked-out films in the history of the Cannes Film Festival) or might even traumatise you for life. The clip only gives a glimpse of what happens (so you're safe! do take a peek)



I realize cinematic art and commercials cannot be compared, but I will continue to lobby for the merging of the two...

La Pacte des Loups clip by pommekitty, Irreversible trailer clip by onomkeerbaar on Youtube.