The American Look
'There's a fresh look to fun in America today.'
This is one of the most beautiful (and absurd) promotional films I've seen. American Look was shot in Technicolor for General Motors in 1958, focusing on industrial design. It showcases (or, rather, screams) the American Dream of the Eisenhower era nearly sixty years ago.
The design style, particularly the architectural details, foregrounded by the film has been variously described as 'googie' or 'populuxe' – we have modernist dog kennels and Jetsons-style cars on display, while men play golf in Mad Men-era slacks and women inhabit vast ranch-style houses with acres of plate glass and jaunty-legged furniture.
Door handles, cutlery and lawn sprinklers have never been shot so lovingly, and the cars have been kept back to the end, as if General Motors wanted to suggest that they amid all of these space-age wonders, cars were the very apex of the super-capitalist American dream. And looking at the rocket-ship that doubles as a car seen driving at the end, who's to say it wasn't?
This is one of the most beautiful (and absurd) promotional films I've seen. American Look was shot in Technicolor for General Motors in 1958, focusing on industrial design. It showcases (or, rather, screams) the American Dream of the Eisenhower era nearly sixty years ago.
The design style, particularly the architectural details, foregrounded by the film has been variously described as 'googie' or 'populuxe' – we have modernist dog kennels and Jetsons-style cars on display, while men play golf in Mad Men-era slacks and women inhabit vast ranch-style houses with acres of plate glass and jaunty-legged furniture.
Door handles, cutlery and lawn sprinklers have never been shot so lovingly, and the cars have been kept back to the end, as if General Motors wanted to suggest that they amid all of these space-age wonders, cars were the very apex of the super-capitalist American dream. And looking at the rocket-ship that doubles as a car seen driving at the end, who's to say it wasn't?
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