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BUG 18: Hold Your Horses!’s 70 Million by L’Ogre

Monday, 15. March 2010 - 2:56 pm

Ingenious, witty, life-affirming, low budget and a total joy to behold, the new four-strong directing collective known as L’Ogre have created something very special for the unsigned Paris-based indie-folk outfit Hold Your Horses!

L’Ogre – that’s David Freymond, Bruno Mendes, Olivier Tixier and Catherine Villeminot – have fashioned brilliant ‘live’ versions of some of the best-known paintings in the history of art – in fact 25 re-creations of masterpieces by Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Picasso and many others – featuring the members of the band.

This is one of those ‘why hasn’t this been done before?’ ideas which, although made for the cost of a few plates of steak-frites, has been executed with a wonderful combination of painstaking accuracy and creative licence. And a lot of love.

Marvellous stuff, that not surprisingly went down a storm when it kicked off BUG 18 last week.

Hold Your Horses
70 Million
Prod co: L’Ogre
Director: David Freymond
DoP: Eugenie Marcland

Catherine Villeminot of L’Ogre on the making of the video for Hold Your Horses!’ 70 Million

• Who are L’Ogre?
Catherine Villeminot: L’Ogre is a production company created in 2009 by four associates – David Freymond, Bruno Mendes, Olivier Tixier and myself. Our activity is based on creating and directing videos for advertisements, music videos, and fictional films.

• How did you arrive at the idea for the video? And why those paintings – how did you choose them?
David had the idea for the music video when we were brainstorming all together for ideas for this particular song. Choosing the paintings was a difficult exercise as there were so many to choose from. We wanted to choose paintings that were known, and easily recognizable, all the while re-creating paintings of painters that we were particularly fond of.

We also wanted to give ourselves a challenge and re-create different styles from different periods so as to give us the chance to experiment different lighting and different ways of portraying the paintings. However there were many painters and paintings which we regrettably had to leave out because we thought people would not recognize them that easily – like work by Degas, El Greco, Van Dyck, and Lucian Freud.

• Can you name the paintings that you have recreated for the video?
Leonardo – The Last Supper; Botticelli – The Birth of Venus; Rembrandt – The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp; Vermeer – Girl With a Pearl Earring and Holbein le Jeune : Henry VIII; Géricault – The Raft of the Medusa; David – The Death of Marat; Michaelangelo – The Creation of Adam; Magritte – The Son of Man; Mondrian; Frida Kahlo – Self-Portrait; Munch – The Scream; Picasso – Portrait of Dora Maar; Van Gogh – Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear; Warhol – Marilyn; Unknown artist (Fontainebleau school) – Gabrielle d’Estrées et une de ses soeurs; Cenni di Pepo, dit Cimabue : La Vierge et l’Enfant en majesté entourés de six anges; Caravaggio – Salome with the Head of John the Baptist; Manet – Olympia; Delacroix – Liberty Leading the People; Otto Dix – La journaliste Sylvia von Harden; Klimt – The Kiss; Chagall – La Mariee; Velazquez – Las Meninas; Van Gogh – Sunflowers

• How long did it take to make them? The colours and the lighting are particularly good on the paintings – was that the hardest part of the job?
We had two weeks to prepare the shoot and then we shot it in four days – over two weekends. Eugenie Marcland was the director of photography, and yes this part took a lot of time and preparation. But the hardest part of the job was to direct non-professional actors, being that they are musicians.

• Which were most difficult artworks to achieve? Were there any paintings that you had to leave out of the final video?
The hardest ones to make were the wide shots. We shot this in a garage in December, and all the musicians and the technicians were very cold. Also getting the right amount of distance from the subjects was not always easy. But since we had such a short time to shoot we knew in advance which painting we wanted at which part of the song, so we therefore didn’t leave anything out.

• Your personal favourites?
David’s favourites: Manet, Death of Marat, Otto Dix
Catherine’s favourites: Botticelli, Gabrielle d’Estrées et une de ses soeurs, and the Caravaggio.
Bruno’s favourites: Marat, Leonardo, Otto Dix
Olivier’s favourites: Caravaggio, Klimt, Delacroix