PARIS.- After Balenciaga y The New Lookthe parade of series about haute couture continues with the arrival on Disney+ on Friday of Becoming Karl Lagerfelda highly anticipated production about the rise of the fashion star.
Adapted from biography Kaiser Karl from Le Monde journalist Raphaëlle Bacqué, this six-episode miniseries follows the designer’s first steps, initially without a ponytail, in Paris in the 70s, when he was a ready-to-wear mercenary, before becoming the iconic designer from the house of Chanel.
Embodied with subtlety by the Spanish-German actor Daniel Brühl, the character rises dizzyingly in the competitive world of fashion thanks to his collaboration with Gaby Aghion (Agnès Jaoui), the founder of the Chloé brand.
But the series also openly presents his rivalry with Yves Saint Laurent (Arnaud Valois), the protégé of Pierre Bergé (Alex Lutz)… and above all his relationship with the dandy Jacques de Bascher (Théodore Pellerin), the great love of his life.
An opportunity to reveal part of the mystery that Karl Lagerfeld, who died in 2019, liked to cultivate and that for the first time is at the heart of an audiovisual fiction.
“He fascinated the whole world,” without really knowing the man behind the facade he had created, Daniel Brühl, who did not hesitate to accept this role, explained to AFP in March.
The designer “Matador”
Eager not to fall into caricature, the actor, who trained speaking French with a German accent, says that he had a revelation when trying on his character’s high-heeled shoes, which made him think of flamenco and bullfighters, allowing him to cling to the image of a “matador” before each shot.
Directed by Jérôme Salle and Audrey Estrougo, this French production was announced in 2021 by Disney, a year after the platform was implemented in France.
Filmed between Paris, Monaco and Italy, the series brings together more than 2,200 extras on more than 40 sets, with a total of 3,000 costumes, of which 160 were created expressly for the production.
From the outfits to the makeup, there is no detail that is left to chance, Jeanne Damas, founder of the Rouje brand and performer in the series by creator Paloma Picasso, told AFP during the Canneseries festival.
“Patrimony”
This launch occurs just months after the Spanish Balenciaga (Disney+), dedicated to the designer of the same name, and the American The New Look (Apple TV+), about the rise of Christian Dior.
“We are in a moment in which fashion is a heritage” and where “we can comfortably look back” to create stories, estimated Alex Lutz to justify this trend.
“It is a very attractive world” but also an unhealthy one where glamour, advertising, pretension but also tragedy, drama and emptiness coexist, added Daniel Brühl.
The representatives of the sector have become their own characters, Arnaud Valois told AFP, which is inexhaustible material for the scriptwriters.
It is also a way for platforms to feed their catalogs with local productions, while crossing borders thanks to figures known around the world.
At the end of 2022, the American actor Jared Leto also announced that he was working on a biopic of Karl Lagerfeld.
Source: AFP
