Hippopocampe

Chevrolet presents The American Look (1958). Beautifully presented objects and environnements of the fifties in America. The slow pace of the film is quite refreshing. There is however a few things you need to know when watching this short film. Firstly, it was made in 1958, a year after the russians launched Sputnik. The technology race has begun between the US and the USSR. “This precipitated a crisis in America’s confidence in its technological superiority, which is reflected in the orgy of over-compensation that we see in this film. To viewers at the time, the array of consumer objects with the “flowing lines and graceful shapes that we Americans enjoy” that reflect the “ease and grace and gaiety of American life” were meant to contrast with the widely publicized shortages of consumer goods and drab quality of everyday life in the Soviet Union.” Secondly, its in the last-third of the film that we truly understand where this is going: showcase the new delta-wing rear-finned 1959 Chevrolet Impala. “The American Look is nothing more than a build-up to exercise our American freedom of choice to buy a Chevrolet.” Read more comments and critics of the film here. (merci Papa)