8.2 seconds is all it takes for Michel and Olivier Gondry to capture the act of falling love

Academy Award-winner Michel Gondry and his brother Olivier, both acclaimed directors, have collaborated on a new, cinematic, surrealistic series of (very) short films, part of a new campaign for Las Vegas resort Park MGM by Virtue. Each of the six “Las Vegas Love Stories” shows a single vignette of a relationship between people in Sin City. But each tale is just 8.2 seconds long, the length of time some studies say it takes a person to fall in love. The films in their entirety run for 30-seconds, but the majority of that time is dedicated to titles and credits. The films are being treated like cinematic releases, complete with billboards on Sunset Boulevard, a trailer (top) and IMDB entries. Both Michel and Olivier Gondry served as creative directors, while the latter brother also directed the films. Their dreamlike sensibilities are apparent in the spots, which utilize quick cuts, repeated frames and heavily metaphorical imagery to tell a full story in a few blinks of an eye. No really, don’t blink or you’ll miss the plot, and several rewatches are a must. The films were produced out of Partizan. In “It Is Decidedly So,” newlyweds inspire passing strangers to imagine a rollercoaster of emotion. In “Room 802,” an errant hip bump sparks an unplanned rendezvous. “The Big Eight” finds a couple meeting a third at the craps table. In “No Ordinary August,” lovers literally fall into love, and a pool is there to catch them. Curbside dropoff becomes a game of bumper cars that propels a pair into each other’s arms in “Night of the Scorpio.” And a relationship has no clear outcome in “Our Infinity.”

8.2 seconds is all it takes for Michel and Olivier Gondry to capture the act of falling love

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