On My Radar: Julien Vallon

What’s the most creative advertising idea you’ve seen recently?

Coca-Cola Masterpiece. 

What website(s) do you use most regularly?

I love lacinetek.com, where the biggest directors share their favourite films. You’ll find lists from Scorsese, Costa Gavras, James Gray, Kore-eda and more. The second is a wonderfully entertaining collaborative site: radiooooo.com, the musical time machine where, unlike other streaming platforms, you choose music from a world map and a period in time… the best way to discover hidden gems from countries we often overlook.

What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought?

For me, the older something is, the more interested I am. I tend to look for old school film cameras or an imperfect lens. I think there is a real connection to be found between ultra technology and old methods that have stood the test of time.

What product could you not live without?

My skateboard (and I really need to learn how to use it).

What’s the best film you’ve seen over the last year?

I adored Alejandro Landes' Monos. It's a journey to the brink of chaos and of the human soul, a film with magical realism.

What film do you think everyone should have seen?

Jacques Tati's Playtime [below]; a visionary masterpiece with tremendous comic finesse and an extreme precise artistic direction. Tati's approach to the body, gesture, and movement is dizzyingly creative.

What’s your preferred social media platform?

The courtyard of my apartment building here in Paris is hands down my favourite social network.

What’s your favourite podcast?

La Gène Occasionée, with French author and actor François Begaudeau. He analyses and deconstructs films, delivering a fascinating interpretation of different works, be it Batman or a Terrence Malick film. 

What show/exhibition has most inspired you recently?

Not long ago, I discovered the Fernand Léger Museum in the south of France. His work is very humanistic, with a sublime use of body movements, composition and colours. He made paintings, stained glass, sculptures, tapestries and more… his expression had no limits in terms of medium or form.

If you could only listen to one music artist from now on, who would it be?

Al Green, without a doubt. A musician a world apart, with no limits, funky and with love throughout.

If there was one thing you could change about the advertising industry, what would it be?

I think storytelling in advertising is starting to disappear. There’s a need for a big, captivating idea to really tell something, and to immerse people in the idea. We compile beautiful images, stunning shots, sublime muses, but they should say more. I really hope that the era of storytelling makes a comeback and whisks us away. 

Who or what has most influenced your career?

Comics have always been very important to me. Like Moebius with The Incal, for example. It brings a lot of things together: a way of telling a story, of staging it, framing characters, linking actions. It's a very complete art.