Tudor “Tango”

As we all know well by now, dance can be a seductive visual vehicle when put to excellent use in embellishing music videos, features, and commercials. With its poetic lyricism, especially when augmented by beautiful looking and talented young dancers, it can make for a successful device in the selling of products. Couple this with the trained hand of a good director, who not only understands dance but whose vision extends into the use of movement as it relates to space, props, and editing, and you’ve likely got a winning combination of elements.

A dancer undulates in Tudor
A dancer undulates in Tudor “Tango”

I’ve long been a fan of American born and France based Dominique Palombo (in a previous article for ScreenDance Diaries I’ve featured his gorgeous short, “Seeing Red”), and every so often I visit his website to see what’s new. This go round, I found this commercial for Tudor watches, Tudor “Tango.”

European commercials are longer and stylistically more nuanced (and frequently much more out there) than their American counterparts, and the one featured herein is the director’s cut so it may be dynamically different from what was approved for airtime. And while I love Palombo’s non-commercial shorts most of all – as in those not selling specific products – I really admire this commercial’s use of black and white tones, the location, the alternating of focused and blurred images, and of course the Tango music with mostly contemporary dance. And notice the clever snaking of the accordion as it relates to the undulating movements of the dancer, and the use of foreground and background props to create depth of field.

Enjoy.

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