A few months ago I wrote a blog post From product placement to short movies where I described American eyewear manufacturer Oliver Peoples’ use of short movies for the promotion of its collections. They have decided that classic advertising campaigns are not the right thing, so they shot the first movie for the celebration of its 20th anniversary in 2008.

For their first movie they’ve collaborated with famous producer Robert Evans and created “Mind Games”. The second movie “Catch a Tuesday” followed a year later. That time they collaborated with actress Zooey Deschanel. The third short movie was called “Les enfants sennuient le dimanche” (The children are bored on Sundays) and involved Shirley Manson of Garbage and Elijah Wood. They’ve played a couple who sip rosé, play golf (kind of), swim (kind of), kiss (kind of), and fool around in retro suits and skirts, while wearing Oliver Peoples’ latest models.

A couple of weeks ago the fourth short movie “Devendra Banhart’s Love-In” premiered. It was created by former fashion editor and now photographer Lisa Eisner. The movie features folk musician Devendra Banhart and his real life partner Rebecca Schwartz. Devendra Banhart is an American psych folk avant-folk/freak folk/Lo-Fi/alternative folk singer and songwriter.

The short movie/ad is some sort of homage to like Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave classic Une Femme Mariée (A Married Woman) – Eisner wanted to have a real couple in her movie, because she thought that a genuine couple could bring out such chemistry which can’t be achieved by actors.

The movie was shot in Garcia House (The Rainbow House), somewhat famous house created by architect John Lauter in 1961. It is located on Mullholland Drive in Los Angeles and was also included in the movie Lethal Weapon 2. The song used in the movie is Brindo by Devendra Banhart, from his 2009 album What Will We Be.

Garcia house (The Rainbow house) by architect John Lautner


“Devendra has a discoverable quality that completely aligns with our brand’s core values,” said Michelle Walnum, Senior Director of Marketing and Brand Communication. “Just like Oliver Peoples, if you have discovered him, you know how fascinating and genuine of an individual he is.”

Lisa Eisner said “We really wanted to find a couple who were in love and would allow us to be voyeurs in their relationship. Most people are not interested in having their intimacy on film. Devendra and Rebecca were beyond perfect, beautiful and fun together. They were not pretentious or guarded – they were real!”

Well, the movie is brilliant. Eisner created an intimate, romantic, summery atmosphere where we could enjoy in the company of Devendra, Rebecca and beautiful selection of eyewear. Yet again, fantastic stuff by Oliver Peoples!


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