Lagerfeld Confientiel: L'Esprit de La Mode
by Vera Brozzoni
Who said that European Film Festivals only screen depressing and hyper-serious works? This year the Berlinale opens its doors to fashion and is proud to present Lagerfeld Confidentiel
A documentary by Rodolphe Marconi that follows the celebrated fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld in his tours, witnessing his lifestyle, his spirit, his thoughts on fashion and success, and of course the birth of his creations.
 Kudos to the director, who has followed his “subject” closely enough on catwalks and at home, allowing him to gradually feel free in his presence, until Lagerfeld even accepts to be filmed and interviewed without his characteristic shades: a proof of trust, a literal “denouement” of the man behind the artist – not that the two are so dissimilar anyway.
The film opens showing the designer’s house in Paris, and how he likes to collect a large number of the same item: rings, shirt collars, iPods. Although normally collections hide, or show, the praise of the past, Lagerfeld does not found his collection-ism on that; on the contrary, it’s a way to have what he needs handy at any moment, because that same object might have no value in the future.
He is steadily attached to the present and refuses anything that does not have importance in the very moment he seizes it; a traditionally lay thought, deriving from Lagerfeld unusually liberal education: his mother, a hovering ghost whose free-thinking, free-wheeling, free-loving nature the designer owes a large part of his creativity to, let him free to choose for his sexuality and his spirituality, making him an eccentric on a very solid ground.
This also explains Lagerfeld’s extreme optimism towards the future and his anti-nostalgia attitude: in the frenzy of designing always new creations, he finds his utmost realisation. But beware: “success annihilates”, he says; but it’s not for a moralistic reason: perhaps success really brings arrogance and fatuity, but this is not a problem for the designer; what matters to him is immobility, the lack of change of thing in time.
He is incredibly at ease in a world of ephemeral elements, which means both clothes (he only wears the latest season’s fashion) and people. He loves to shoot his own models, rather than call a professional photographer: he loves to be the one who freezes the moment in time, yet not to mourn its unrepeatable passing, but to celebrate its mere existence.
This explains why such a man is devoted to beauty – not only physically speaking, it’s more of a D’Annunzio-esque way of life without the decadent aftertaste; Lagerfeld seems to master what might intimidate common people, is a personal friend of the likes of Nicole Kidman and likes to dress her up just for the sake of creating beauty.
One might think, is there an “other side of the coin” to his lavish lifestyle? And, is it mirrored by the fact that he has never tied knots with any partner? The designer refuses this tragic vision of his ways: “Now don’t start with those things about loneliness and so on! Loneliness is a victory to me!” he jokes while interviewed by Marconi; in fact, his evasive statements seem to indicate a fulfilled relational life. Despite Lagerfeld insistence that he wants his innermost personality to remain unknown to everybody, including his loved ones, this documentary is exhaustive and gives the most complete picture possible of an extraordinary man with an extraordinary talent in creating fashion.
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