Spike Jonze Directed a Delightfully Absurd Kenzo Perfume Commercial (Video)

What do you get when you add together Spike Jonze, Jill Garvey from HBO’s “The Leftovers,” Sia’s choregrapher, and multiply it by Sam Spiegel and Ape Drums (featuring Assassin)? 

Yes, Jonze’s latest directorial effort is technically an ad for Kenzo perfume, but the three-minute “ad” is more music video than anything else, with just one mention of the product ostensibly being hawked, right at the very end.

The video starts with Margaret Qualley, who was a dancer before she was Jill from “The Leftovers,” bored at a gala.

[...] Spiegel and Ape Drums’ “Mutant Brain” kicks in, and Qualley shows off her mad dance skills, which run the gamut from hyperstylized robotic movements, to classic ballet-type acrobatics, all the way to full-on gymnastics with a hands-free cartwheel.

With the Kenzo spot (if a three-minute video can be called a “spot”), Jonze gets back to his music video roots — from The Beastie Boys to Daft Punk to Björk, you can always count on Jonze to bring his A-game.

Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein directed a video for the company’s fall and winter fashion lines (featuring Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon), and David Lynch helped design Kenzo’s AW14 show in 2014.