We move our shoulders back, that’s good, we raise our chin, like that, yes, and we give off our most beautiful pouting pout. Because miniseries about fashion designers parade at a pulsating and sustained pace on online TV platforms. Work!
After Balenciaga (Disney+), Halston (Netflix) and The New Look (Apple TV+), the turn of Becoming Karl Lagerfeld to rustle and strut in our living rooms with its powdered Parisian nights, its extravagant outfits and its petty rivalries worthy of Game Of Thrones, but in Haussmannian apartments. I saw all six one-hour episodes of this French production – as the title suggests, hello! – what Disney+ offers to its subscribers.
And I’m writing it right away: the star of Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, it is not the German designer of the title of the series, but Théodore Pellerin, the Quebec actor who plays Lagerfeld’s lover, with whom he will develop a toxic and destructive relationship. Worthy of an American afternoon soap opera.
Rising star of the screens, Théodore Pellerin shines in the role of the courtier Jacques de Bascher, a bourgeois from the suburbs who dreams of infiltrating the jet set of the left bank, in the early 1970s. Thirsty for glam and champagne, Jacques, 21 years old, seduces the austere Karl Lagerfeld (Daniel Brühl), 38 years old, who opens the doors to the most exclusive parties in the City of Lights.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY DISNEY+
Daniel Brühl and Théodore Pellerin in Becoming Karl Lagerfeld
Becoming Karl Lagerfeld tells how the character of the Kaiser of fashion was constructed, but is more interested in the strange emotional bond that united these two completely different men. Jacques is hedonistic, charming, carefree, petulant and carnal. Karl Lagerfeld embodies the complete opposite: a lonely, jealous, psychorigid, careerist and asexual designer, who lives with his mother, Elisabeth Bahlmann, an authoritarian and mean woman.
It’s difficult to embark on a series whose main character turns out to be so cold and unlikeable. Karl Lagerfeld doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t do drugs and goes to bed early, which doesn’t make for quivering TV. I actually almost turned off the lights on the bridge after two episodes.
Fortunately, the magnetic Jacques de Bascher and Lagerfeld’s great rival, Yves Saint Laurent (Arnaud Valois), will inject high-level drama into the series.
Initially friends in their early days, Karl Lagerfeld, known as the ready-to-wear mercenary, and Yves Saint Laurent, aka the genius designer, hated and envied each other for a long time. Jacques de Bascher, whom Lagerfeld houses and feeds, will stir up hostilities by repeatedly sleeping with Yves Saint Laurent, uh-oh, hello atmosphere at social evenings.
If not passionate, the relationship between Karl Lagerfeld and Jacques de Bascher is, at best, transactional. Jacques takes advantage of Karl’s money and status. And Karl buys himself, in a way, a companion, who connects him with the golden youth of Paris. Did these two really love each other? It’s difficult to detect it over the course of their volcanic quarrels and their platonic reconciliations in a decaying castle in Brittany.
Becoming Karl Lagerfeldwhich derives from the book Kaiser Karl from the journalist of World Raphaëlle Bacqué, covers (mainly) only the 1970s portion of the German couturier’s prolific career. It was in 1983 that Lagerfeld moved to Chanel, where he revived the famous brand with intertwined Cs.
The most fascinating part of the episodes is witnessing the ball of celebrities who swirl around Lagerfeld and Saint Laurent, including the American artist Andy Warhol (Paul Spera), the reclusive actress Marlene Dietrich (Sunnyi Melles) and Paloma Picasso (Jeanne Damas), daughter of the famous Spanish painter Pablo Picasso.
Young Thierry Mugler and Jean Paul Gaultier show up at the end of the course and the five Fendi sisters, met briefly in Italy, deserve an entire series because they are so entertaining.
Two other pivotal characters define Lagerfeld’s trajectory, namely the ally Gaby Aghion (excellent Agnès Jaoui), his boss at Chloé, as well as the villainous Pierre Bergé (Alex Lutz), the partner of Yves Saint Laurent who despises him and blocks the road to success.
What’s missing from the miniseries? Of fashion. Parades. Flamboyant outfits. We don’t see much of the work of Lagerfeld and Saint Laurent and that’s a shame.
Also, Becoming Karl Lagerfeld shows little of the stylist’s cruel character and obsession with thinness. The screenplay touches on Lagerfeld’s eating disorder, without dwelling on it. We can barely see through the armor that the designer has assembled before our eyes, over six episodes.
First he shaved his beard. Let his hair grow. Tied them up with a ponytail.
He hid behind black smoked glasses. Gradually eliminated colors from her wardrobe. And drew the fan. But why does he refuse to share his privacy? Mystery.
Elegance is when the inside is as pretty as the outside, said the chic Coco Chanel. The problem of Becoming Karl Lagerfeldis that its protagonist is neither beautiful “inside” nor attractive outside.
And without wanting to, the series perpetuates Karl Lagerfeld’s worst nightmare, that of living eternally in the shadow of Yves Saint Laurent, much more interesting in its excesses and its intensity, sorry.