The Brits were on top of the world in the seventies. Ridley, Tony, Alan Parker, Hugh Hudson were doing mind blowing commercials. The reason they were so great was that they were being done for cinema since there was no commercial television in England then. The commercials competed directly with the films that were showing and Geoffrey said that many people were sure to get to the cinema early to see the commercials.
Adrian Lyne was one of the guys as well and his work blew me away. I had no idea how he got away with some of the stuff. It was close to the work of Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton. Some of it was so erotic and provocative I wondered how it got broadcast. He was a supreme visualist as well. The opening shot of his film, FLASHDANCE, blew me away, a lot because he saw my hometown, Pittsburgh, in a way I couldn’t have imagined.
We met when we were both working on a Coca Cola campaign. He liked what I did and I liked what he did. I think that each of us would have liked to do the other’s spot.
Adrian did FLASHDANCE, a film that changed Hollywood history because of its success. Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, the producers, went on to become a force in the industry.
I’ve often wondered why Adrian hasn’t done more films since he was so talented. I thought of him when I was doing the Madonna Pepsi spot. I used a bunch of schoolgirls from the Lycee Francaise and was sure to use his daughter’s class, I guess a bit of an homage.