Lancôme celebrates 80th birthday with beautiful new short film

Makeup brand Lancôme is celebrating its 80th birthday with a short film entitled Ceci n’est pas une rose.

Released on February 20, the video features a number of big stars, including Penelope Cruz, Lily Collins, Julia Roberts and Kate Winslet, all of whom have be a Lancôme Ambassador in the past.

Winslet, who was the face of the Trésor perfume campaign said that “when you look at the women who have represented Lancôme, their beauty penetrates to a deeper level, an emotional level, as opposed to just being about the façade.”

The short film shows a series of scenes showcase the elements that compose the “House with the rose”, as if in a beautiful dream. There’s an interplay of “unprecedented combinations that pay no heed to scale, chronology or tone.” Images presented are from the past and present, ambassadresses with delicious red smiles alongside the black-and-white figure of Lancôme founder Armand Petitjean, roses and architectural elements, bottles and jewel cases borrowed from the House’s fabulous heritage collection and iconic products from today and tomorrow.

It short film to 200 hours of work to hand-cut the 50 elements that compose the various scenes. Assembled on a set measuring 800 square metres, they were animated and filmed in real time in a clever ballet, on a millimetre scale, during a shoot that lasted over 30 hours.

Lupita Nyong’o, currently appearing in Lancôme ads, told The Telegraph that “Lancôme celebrates beauty of all backgrounds. Its ambassadors are all individual women whose beauty goes way beyond skin-deep.”

As part of the birthday celebrations three new hues of L’Absolu Rouge, Lancome’s super-moisturising lipstick, are being released, as well as a book to mark International Women’s Day on March 8 by French author Stéphane Guibourgé and limited edition sets of the brand’s icon products.

You can view a clip from the short film as follows: