Customer Reviews

Lagerfeld Confidential

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Karl Lagerfeld is that rare narcissist whose narcissism seems entirely justified. He probably is almost always the most interesting person in the room. His reference points are usually his own thoughts and events in his life. He seems to be his own best friend.

"Lagerfeld Confidential" is all about Karl Lagerfeld or more precisely, it's all about Karl's views on everything. The visual focus is on the beauty and drama that seem to surround him wherever he goes. The entire film seems to have been filmed either at night or in the partial sunlight of dawn.

We see him in his Parisian Chateau rearranging his books and drawing a dress. Then he's on a corporate jet on the way to Monaco. Then he's at a modern dance performance. Several times we see him at fashion shows completely unperturbed by the hysteria swirling around him. He's not a detail guy. The fashion show that he dreamed is especially thrilling and gorgeous. And there's lots of footage of him in cars always in the right hand front seat and never driving. We don't have to be told that he would never waste his beautiful mind on something as trivial as driving. Then he's suddenly in Italy greeting the house staff in Italian but he sticks mostly to French with the occasional greeting or command in English. We never hear him speak German.

From the photo shoot footage, we can presume that he prefers early morning light and young, thin, slightly muscular male models. The only things he seems attached to are books and, we see stacks of them everywhere. His Parisian Chateau is especially full of books but he apparently has warehouse space for his library and other papers. The final journey is to New York where we find out that he's bought a house that's "not ready yet." Will he live there? "My home's wherever I am."

The playful relationship he has with Rodolphe Marconi is sweet and fun to watch. The basic rhythm between them is that Rodolphe asks a question. Karl then makes a poke at the question or the way it was asked and, we start to think he's not going to answer it. But then he starts to dance around it and eventually starts digging until he makes a final point that is often quite profound and memorable. We hear his views on people who cannot be alone (he cannot tolerate them), co habitation (it's not for him), marriage (pathetic) and prostitution (a good and perhaps necessary thing.)

He talks about being sexually active at 11 or 12 and then being "assaulted" at the age of 13 by both a man and a woman. When he went to his mother about this she blamed him, essentially telling him that it was his fault for acting like a tart and, he should tone it down. He seems to have thought at the time that she was right and his views have not changed on this matter. We don't find out if he stopped acting like a tart. One of many lines of questioning that I wish had been followed a little farther.

We hear about his idiosyncrasies such as needing to hold the pillow (now in a protective cover) that his nanny made him when he flies. Yes this is a very old pillow. His drawings are always finished with a frame drawn around the borders of the paper.

We gather that he would be a generous and entertaining friend but shouldn't be surprised if he suddenly stopped returning our phone calls. Ditto for business associate.

Karl always gives the crowd the legendary Karl Lagerfeld when the time is right and does a full leisurely strut down the catwalk and back. His disapproval of the sort of designer who in T-shirt and jeans sheepishly peeks out from behind the curtain at the end of a show probably also sweating, looking frazzled and holding a pincushion seems entirely right. Why should the designer get away with making an anti fashion statement with his personal appearance?

Karl is so thoroughly engrossing that one could almost forget how well done this movie is. It is in fact very well done. Marconi has a great eye for the minutiae that surrounds Karl and for organizing the movie visually around the themes his questions suggest. If we're not listening to the playful back and forth between Karl and Rodolphe, we're listening to all sorts of wonderful music. And ultimately we're left feeling and seeing that Karl's life is about beauty and art, both creation and appreciation, rather than just fashion.