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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

New Golf GTI advert

15:40 / 30.01.05

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-video/Media/video/2005/01/27/golfgti.mov

Just, oh my God. That is the BEST THING.

NEW YORK (CBS) A new take on Gene Kelly's famous Singin' In The Rain scene hits TV screens as part of a new advertising campaign for Volkswagen.

One of the most iconic scenes in the history of cinema has now been changed to show Gene Kelly rapping and breakdancing to a club-mix of Singin' in the Rain.

Makers of a new car advert received permission from the Gene Kelly Foundation to give the rain-soaked scene a new twist which features three break dancers and body poppers performing a number of modern dance moves against the same backdrop as the 1952 original.

The original star's face was then mapped on to that of the dancers, who follow the same route Kelly takes in the street, with the aid of computer wizardry.

Now the late Hollywood star appears to be somersaulting, body popping, and break dancing.

The TV and cinema advert has been made to promote the latest Golf GTI, an update of the original.

The song which accompanies it is a remix of the original, created by dance music duo Mint Royale.

Designers created replica streets to look exactly like they did in the film, which was set in the 1920s, and cranes were used to match the camera angles.

Volkswagen communications manager Catherine Woolfe said: "The idea behind the commercial is all about the fact that the new Golf GTI is the original Mk I, but updated for 2005.

"The latest Golf is seen as a classic and iconic car and we really wanted to show that in a very unusual and memorable way."

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

00:46 / 31.01.05

Fucking Mint Royale! Download "Show Me" w/ De La Soul, for further examples of their fabness.

07:10 / 31.01.05

Amazing. When I die I want to be made into an advert!

Tryphena Absent

07:17 / 31.01.05

I showed it to my mum yesterday, it started and she was like 'god I've seen this so many times.'
I was like 'trust me mother, you've never seen this before!' She thought it was fantastic. You'd have to be a crazy person to dislike it.

08:10 / 31.01.05

"I'm spinning in my grave,
Just spinning in my grave..."

10:24 / 31.01.05

VW must be pleased they had another ad to get people talking about them in a positive light after the suicide Bomber fiasco- talk about timing!

yup its pretty great- anybody know who directed it?

12:05 / 31.01.05

The campaign was written by Loraine and art directed by Steve Jones. It was directed by Jake Knight and Ryoko Tanaka, who work under the name NE-O. Their short film 'salaryman6' has won numerous awards at the Soho Short Film Festival and the London Film Festival. 'Singin' in the Rain' will be Volkswagen's first interactive ad, with the interactive environment launching in late February. Designed and produced by Tribal DDB

There's supposed to be a DVD for the Golf GTI mit the advert on it. It makes me want to backflip over the moon as it explodes.

17:57 / 31.01.05

Yes, it's very clever and the cgi mapping of his face is well done, but does it make me curmudgeonly old man to think that the music and the new dancing just aren't as good as the old versions? Honestly it's not the style, I just think that in their genre they're not much cop whereas Kelly and the MGM arrangers were at the top of their game.

It does? Oh, bollocks.

miss wonderstarr

21:25 / 31.01.05

I agree to an extent. Nobody could deny it's "clever" but watching Kelly's original routine, you know he is really doing that technically fantastic dancing as a pre-digital camera rolls and records his actual skills on celluloid.

Because the CGI inevitably has that rubbery look about it, there is no sense here that any real dancers have shown "live" ability. The body moves themselves could be CGI for all we know. It is not about one individual whose technique and style was exceptional -- a single man who you could just film doing the stuff he sparkled at -- but a whole crew devoted to blurring the boundaries between reality and simulation.

The trouble with CGI is you don't know what to admire, the performance you're seeing or the post-production it took to fake it to that standard.

23:14 / 31.01.05

So...you're forced to admire the image on the screen or nothing at all?

00:33 / 01.02.05

The body moves themselves could be CGI for all we know.

There is one moment in there, where the hands go all squiffy, flickering about in a not-sure-the-human-body-can-do-that-naturally manner, that breaks the illusion.

Well, that and the huge mutant face.

miss wonderstarr

10:38 / 01.02.05

Well Bio, as a contrast I was watching West Side Story this morning, and I know the actors really did perform those moves with that grace on a real set, in front of a camera. To me, that leads to a different level of appreciation and admiration, when compared to, say, the CGI fanfilms of breakdancing Transformers that were circulating online recently. One is admiring someone's trained ability with their body; the other is admiring someone's skill with computer graphics. Maybe they are both equally valid, but they're different.

12:26 / 01.02.05

Anyone else think this was influenced by The Invisibles?

12:58 / 01.02.05

Sax: this is the Invisibles. :|

I don't know, I thought it was kinda cute and clever, but it didn't really work for me. I mean, I love anarchronistic reimagining of classic images (most of my own art is based around that), but like (hold on - *checks*)Orr said, the new music and dancing just doesn't seem up to the standard. To put it another way, before I watched this I read the description (and enthusiastic response) and imagined Gene Kelly-quality dancing in a modern style. I don't think we got it.

That said, it was a cool little thing, and I wouldn't say that I object to it in any strenuous way (at the moment - talk to me late at night when I'm maudlin for the rest of the story).

~L

03:09 / 02.02.05

That was painful to watch. It reminded me of the villains from the 'Hush' episode of Buffy for some reason.

09:14 / 04.02.05

(sorry - dont seem to be able to register a new user, so had to use this name)

the guy doing the dancing seems alot like a lad in this video.

http://www.boreme.com/bm/SEP03/a/m_robotdance/fr.htm

"David Elsewhere" i think. He's the third guy on the clip (red jumper) so the dancing on the advert's real. Think he was also in an advert for 7-11 or slush puppy...

the guy freaks me out...
http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/13782/

Paul

12:31 / 08.02.05

That's the boy. The funny thing is he's actually CGI in real life, so all of the above criticisms are valid. Ha ha.

More here.

I absolutely love the music for this and will buy the VW-branded single/DVD at the first opportunity.