On My Radar: Remi Besse

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

I like how some brands are embracing new ways of communicating through digital. You can feel that approval processes are lighter, which makes the work more radical and raw. The teams around Georges Mohammed-Chérif at Buzzman are particularly strong at that.

What website(s) do you use most regularly?

Lately I’ve been quite focused on managing my time properly, between directing, writing, running my photo studio and working on our media channel. I started using Notion mainly as a place to communicate and exchange ideas. It helps keep everything moving smoothly.

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

On set, we now have video feeds that go straight to our iPhones, alongside the monitor. Pretty cool setup.

What product could you not live without?

My bike. It’s a Japanese one, made of fully chromed steel and very light. I ride it everywhere across Paris.

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

I recently rewatched an excellent film, The Minister, by Pierre Schoeller. A real banger, both in the performances and the storytelling.

What film do you think everyone should have seen?

The first one that comes to mind is Burn After Reading by the Coen Brothers. The characters are completely unhinged, the twists are wild, and it’s incredibly funny. It’s aged really well; a brilliant comedy.

What’s your preferred social media platform?

Probably Twitter, now X. I keep a private account where I follow journalists from all over the world, media outlets, film clips and random people with strong points of view. It feels like a giant agora to me. That’s where I go to catch what’s happening.

What’s your favourite TV show?

The Sopranos.

What’s your favourite podcast?

I like the podcast from the fashion magazine I direct films for, L’Étiquette. It’s called Habitudes.

What have you been most inspired by recently?

Yesterday was the presentation of Demna’s new collection for Gucci. The direction for the house sits at the intersection of creative audacity, heritage and business, when an entire luxury group depends on those artistic decisions, nothing is left to chance. The fact that he brings in filmmakers like Spike Jonze [below] or Jonathan Glazer to build narratives around the house fascinates me. It’s interesting to see how a fashion brand can become a playground for so many different forces.

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

It would probably come down to Jul or Antonio Vivaldi.

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

There’s something common in advertising, and also quite terrifying: the fear of the new. We’ve somehow accepted that an idea has to exist in a moodboard or a reference reel before it can even be considered. But if an idea is already that tangible, that concrete, it probably means it’s already been done, and we’re just recycling what already exists.

Who or what has most influenced your career?

I was ten when YouTube launched, so by the time I started developing a visual culture as a teenager, it was already everywhere. I’m part of that generation of directors who didn’t grow up with MTV, but discovered music videos online. I still remember gems like the videos Megaforce directed for Is Tropical.