Reviewed by Beth Squires
Stars Karl Lagerfeld, Nicole Kidman, Baz Luhrmann,
Anna Wintour, Princess Caroline of Monaco
Written by Rodolphe Marconi
Produced by Gregory Bernard & Matthieu Warter
Certification UK 12A
Runtime 89 minutes
Directed by Rodolphe Marconi
Karl Lagerfeld is an icon of the fashion world. Even if you can't place the name, you will surely recognise his mostly monochromatic signature style, the grey ponytail that sits at the nape of his neck, and the ever-present sunglasses that serve to make him appear even more enigmatic. Fittingly, on Day 3 of London Fashion Week, I attended a screening of Rodolphe Marconi's documentary on this stalwart of the international fashion industry, in the hope to learn more about the man behind Chanel's creative direction.
Opening within Lagerfeld's cluttered Parisian apartment, Marconi scuttles around with his camera as Karl prepares for the day; delving into large bowls of heavy silver rings and huge drawers of stiff white collars, while avoiding the piles of books and magazines threatening to fall off every available surface. He speaks about his distaste for nostalgia and how his love of futurism and constant change is well-served in the six-monthly cycles of the fashion world. It is clear he loves his job, and watching him create the familiarly styled sketches or viewing archive footage of his first Chanel show and an innovative recent catwalk moment is a thoroughly enjoyable experience for a fashion lover.
Marconi often seems in awe of Lagerfeld; when he dances around asking about Lagerfeld's homosexuality an impatient Karl asks him to either spit it out or change the subject, drawing laughs from around the screening room. His acerbic humour litters the documentary, often emerging when Lagerfeld speaks about his family and past, which provides regular slivers of interest in a documentary that, due to Lagerfeld's self moulded and well protected image, could have seemed rather uninformative. To this end I truly hope he had a hand in the 'Pissing everywhere isn't very Chanel' sign that hangs in the men's toilets at the Chanel office. Marconi succeeds in his task to unmask the icon to some extent, yet I am not sure if that is because we know so little that any slight hint is interesting to those of us who are regular Vogue readers.
Having always seemed aloof and pretentious, posed between pale, gamine models, it is a breath of fresh air to hear his no-nonsense quick wit regularly come to life on the screen. Whether photographing his pet American male model at his favourite time of day, or planning Nicole Kidman's appearance on the catwalk, Lagerfeld is careful to keep a planned distance between himself and the filmmaker. He offers morsels to keep Marconi happy, and then contradicts them in the next sentence. Or he lets us in on the odd bit of childhood 'trauma' and then dismisses it with a joke. For any fashion lover this is a must-see, however, I suspect that we shall only discover who the man behind the sunglasses truly is when Lagerfeld finally publishes his memoirs.