“I got your picture hangin’ on the wall
It can’t see or come to me when I call your name
I realize it’s just a picture in a frame.
I read your letters when you’re not near
But they don’t move me
And they don’t groove me like when I hear
Your sweet voice whispering in my ear …”
Marvin Gaye
Ain’t Nothin’ Like the Real Thing is a promotional short directed by Bruce Weber, featuring the YSL Autumn Winter Collection Homme 2010-2011 designed by Stefano Pilati. It was titled after Marvin Gaye’s song. Bunny Yeager, the American pin-up who after leaving modeling found a career as a photographer was an influence on Weber’s concept. “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose” a line from Me and Bobby McGee, the song composed by Kris Kristofferson, is recounted in the spoken lines.
In one scene, we see someone ironing a T-shirt with an ancient Tahitian proverb printed on it: “Nehenehe Oe,E Amu Ite Oraraa E Na Te Oraraa E Amu Ia Oe” (“You can eat life or let life eat you”). The same line was quoted by Tarita Teripiia in the fourth motion picture version of Mutiny on the Bounty (Lewis Milestone, 1962). Tarita was the third and last of Marlon Brando’s wives. Tarita and Brando met on the set of the film.