Marjut Rimminen

Madame

1999 · Commercial · 15 seconds

A-lehdet / Creator-Grey

Live action shot in a white studio and stacked three deep in long dissolves, so a laughing face floats over a staircase and a woman in black stands inside her own brand name at the same time. There is no animation in it and no drawing; the invention is all in the optical layering and in the type, which is composited into the stack so that figures pass in front of and behind MADAME in large red capitals. The run from women in pale suits arranging red suitcases to a leopard snarling straight down the lens, under the line 'tekee mitä tahtoo' [does what she wants], is the whole proposition delivered in one cut. The soundtrack is a single word sung over and over with no other voice on it. The product never appears as a cover held up to camera, and the red word held across nearly every shot is left to do the job of the pack shot.

A woman in black crosses a white studio, doubled by a dissolve, red letters behind her Blonde woman laughing in front of a slatted blind under the caption tekee mitä tahtoo A leopard snarls with its mouth wide open, spotted head filling the frame Women in pale suits among red suitcases and a red table, one reading a newspaper The same studio group under the caption aikuisen naisen lehti, MADAME in red across the foot A woman on a staircase dissolving into a close-up of a smiling blonde face, MADAME in red

What is said: Madam, madam, madam, madam, oh, madam, madam.

Get in touch

For festival and screening enquiries, teaching, masterclasses, or correspondence:

marjut.rimminen@gmail.com