• by Barbara Lippert , Columnist, March 21, 2025

“Everything is connected,” says actor Adrien Brody, the two-time Oscar-collector with the soulful 19^th-century face, in a campaign for Monos, a new-ish Canadian modern luggage brand.

Certainly, Brody connects. Aside from brilliantly playing tortured Holocaust survivors in both “The Brutalist” and “The Pianist” (for which he won the two Academy Awards) he’s also known for his lighter, comedic role as one of the brothers in Wes Anderson’s 2007 cult hit, “The Darjeeling Limited.”

Anderson has long been obsessed with suitcases, which end up as great props in that film. The actors schlep -- I mean carry -- choice, redone antique Louis Vuitton pieces across India.  The luggage becomes central to the plot, perhaps symbolizing psychological baggage, too.

Meanwhile, in “This or That?” a 30-second clip about the actor’s travel style, now appearing on Insta and TikTok, Brody shows up seated against an exotically tiled wall of what seems like a hotel or train station in Tangier.

Wearing a timeless brown, drapey suit, with his hand unselfconsciously perched over the handle of his Monos Carry-On Pro, he tells the off-camera interviewer that he prefers a “long layover” to a shorter one.

 “A long layover is nice, I don’t like to rush, anymore” he says, which elicits a laugh. He tells us that he “lives out of a suitcase” and “if I’m on my own, I’m a light packer,” again evoking laughter.

Perhaps he was alluding to his companion, the fashion designer Georgina Chapman, to whom he famously threw his wad of chewed gum on the way to accepting his award for “The Brutalist.”

With his mouth thus cleared, he gave the longest Oscar acceptance speech in history (5 minutes, 36 seconds) though the orchestra started playing him off after 30 seconds.

By contrast, this charming, fluid and understated video proves that 30 seconds is the perfect length for most communications.

But here it serves as a prequel, or tiny bonus, for the main act: a three-minute Monos film, titled “Kismet,&rdq uo; a poetic ode to Moroccan travel, directed by Mexico City-based filmmaker and photographer Alexis Gomez.

To the backdrop of moody music and scenery, Brody is first seen asking “What do I know?” as he rides in a train, absorbed in old books and postcards. This time he travels with a swankier, wheeled aluminum case, taking in the bucket-list-worthy sights and orange scents of Tangier.

He then takes a contemplative car trip outside the city with a grizzled local driver who tells him “We can go to the moon if you like!”

He arrives at a place that could be the moon, except for a herd of sheep huddled under an ancient archway. Brody lifts his lightweight case over his head, “King of the world” style, to pass through the ewes.

This is the most interesting part.

After a keydrop from a window, he arrives at a white-washed spot and takes a seat. “What do I know?” he repeats, and taking his time, he answers “I know that everything is connected.”

Except that little connects in this film.  Everything is exquisitely shot, but in the end it’s an abstract collage of sights and sounds that don’t evoke much emotion or meaning.

Save for his suitcase, Brody seems very solitary, which made me a bit sad.

In addition, the campaign includes artful print: photo spreads show Brody standing in Tangier among the various handsome upright cases in the Monos aluminum travel line.

I do get a good feeling about this minimalist brand. Still, the campaign goes to show, as it does with the Monos design ethos, that “less is more.”

 I think some famous architect said that.  Everything connects.