The iconic Guinness advert directed by Jonathan Glazer
The 2024 Oscars ceremony saw Jonathan Glazer win his first Academy Award for The Zone of Interest, taking home ‘Best International Feature Film’. The movie was one of 2023’s most harrowing pictures, utilising intricate sound design to convey the horrors of Auschwitz, focusing on a family who live next door to the camp, seemingly unbothered by the atrocities happening over the fence.
The Zone of Interest was Glazer’s fourth feature film, but it has well and truly established him as one of Hollywood’s most controversial filmmakers. He received significant attention after his Oscar acceptance speech drew parallels between the Holocaust and the conflict between Israel and Palestine, with some people criticising him while others praised his fearlessness.
The director has always polarised audiences, such as when he released the 2004 effort Birth. The film contained a scene which made many people believe that Nicole Kidman was bathing naked with a child, although they were actually wearing skin-coloured swimsuits which simply weren’t visible on camera. Audiences were also shocked by the subject matter – Kidman’s character is faced with the reincarnation of her husband in the body of a ten-year-old boy, and the fact they shared a kiss made many people uncomfortable.
In 2013, Glazer’s film Under the Skin also received significant attention due to its unconventionality. Scarlett Johansson starred as an alien who entices men to their deaths, with many of the supporting cast consisting of non-actors. It has been hailed as one of the best British films of the 21st century, proving Glazer’s ability to make transgressive yet beautiful pieces of cinema.
However, before Glazer made his feature debut with 2000’s Sexy Beast, he honed a successful career as a director of music videos and advertisements. One of Glazer’s most recognisable commercials is called ‘Surfer’, which advertised Guinness. First shown in 1999, it quickly became highly acclaimed, with many people calling it one of the best adverts ever made.
Inspired by the painting ‘Neptune’s Horses’ by Walter Crane, the short black-and-white clip shows a group of surfers taking on some big waves that transform into horses. In the end, only one man is successful in mastering the waves, celebrating at the end in a freeze-frame montage that feels like it takes cues from a French New Wave film.
The advert is soundtracked by electronic outfit Leftfield and features a monologue that references Ahab from Moby Dick, with the man saying, “Here’s to waiting,” before an image of a glass of Guinness appears on the screen. Interestingly, the male voice is provided by Louis Mellis, who went on to co-write the screenplay for Glazer’s Sexy Beast with David Scinto, which was released the following year.
The advert is one of many Glazer directed before he entered the world of cinema and arguably his best.
