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SPEED TALE

'Speed Tale' tells a story of two brands that are driven by passion. It is a vision of pleasure: a wild ride on desert roads, at the wheel of exceptional cars. The film’s director, Guillaume Mille, is a huge fan of music videos and this film is a tribute to one of his favourites – Jamiroquai’s Cosmic girl. It’s a salute to the forms, the styles and the fashions of his childhood.

My goal was to illustrate a unique complicity between man and machine. I wanted to show how Richard Mille and McLaren, both driven by passion, have managed to sustain a sense of authentic emotion, each in their respective domain.

I’d say the film bears witness to a certain conception of what makes life worth living—who amongst us has never dreamt of tearing across desert roads into the sunset at the wheel of an exceptional car? Seize the moment—such is our credo and that of all who share our philosophy.

I’m a huge fan of music videos and I really wanted to approach this film as an homage to one of my all-time favourites, Cosmic Girl, by Jamiroquai. It’s so much a declaration of love for the automobile on the part of Jay Kay, who leapt on the chance to make his Lamborghini Diablo the star of the song, its Cosmic Girl. We too headed for Spain to shoot on the same roads Jamiroquai used as a way of recapturing the feel of the video.
The 1990s, which were the decade of my childhood, definitely had a certain craziness and freedom of expression that we tried to imbue some of the sequences with. For instance, using time-lapse and telescoping zooms on purpose instead of drone footage to preserve the ‘period authenticity’. So, it was an old-school shoot, but with today’s considerable technical means.
There is a current of inspiration from ’90s video games as well. We did all the pre-production for the film on Forza Horizon 4 from Microsoft Studios, also a partner of McLaren's.

Showcasing the beauty of the products involved is pretty easy when you’re talking about brands like ours because their lines invite contemplation. What’s much more complicated to express in visual terms—if you want to do so subtly and accurately—is the emotions they elicit. Wearing a Mille watch or driving a Speedtail is an extremely powerful and unique experience. That was the challenge.

For a number of years now, we have worked in total symbiosis with Pierre Edelmann, who is quick to understand what direction to take things in and knows how to translate my ideas visually. I have absolute faith in him, because I know that he will go above and beyond my expectations every time. Working with him and Northstar, I knew for certain that we had brought together all the ingredients needed to create the perfect short film.

The film is my homage to an attitude towards cars that is unique to “Generation Y,” those who discovered the world of racing virtually and were able to experience the technicity and pleasure of driving in this form. It is through our screens, joystick in hand that we discovered the most amazing inventions of automotive constructors. Today, we pay tribute to this aesthetic by transposing the experience to film.

It’s retro and immersive vibe seeks to shake off the established codes of promotional films. Under the circumstances, not foregrounding the RM 40-01 might seem like worst-practices in action… but it is also a luxury of sorts! Its appearance in the film, which the Speedtail driver pulls off with total naturalness, rightly makes it feel like it utterly belongs. As Mike Flewitt (CEO of McLaren automotive) proudly affirms, these cars are made to be driven, they come alive on the road… The same holds true for a Mille watch—they are unaffected in their natural environment—playing an active role in real life.