Title: Lagerfeld Confidentiel
English Title: Lagerfeld Confidential
Country: France
Language: French
Year: 2007
Cast:
- Karl Lagerfeld
- Nicole Kidman
SYNOPSIS
An up-close-and-personal portrait of the fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld.
REVIEW
Lagerfeld Confidentiel is an interesting documentary on iconic fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. It's in interview format, and although it is intimate enough because he shares many of his views in the film, there's also some distance because he remains tight-lipped on very personal matters.
Karl is a fascinating individual, and I think he has very compelling opinions. I find his views on friendship particularly intriguing.
Karl Lagerfeld: What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce. There's an almost melancholic, ephemeral, fixed aspect to it. It's what makes photography so captivating. But that's for a certain kind of photograph. Otherwise it's a commercial image.
Karl Lagerfeld: I can't plan six months ahead. We might be dead by then.
Karl Lagerfeld: People with turbulent lives who spend their time on the phone are sexual freelancers.
Karl Lagerfeld: I like it to go well for all the people who have worked so hard.
Karl Lagerfeld: I love being in a crowd, I love being alone. But I need time to myself, to recharge my batteries. I can't be with people 24 hours a day. I'm not cut out for conjugal life. At some point I need to be alone, which is fine. I hate people who can't be alone.
Karl Lagerfeld: Fashion is ephemeral, dangerous and unfair.
Karl Lagerfeld: There's a German proverb that says, "You can't borrow on your past." Each collection is the first and so, luckily for me, not the last. I can make up for my mistakes next time. I love the futurism aspect of the job.
Karl Lagerfeld: I don't remain friends come what may. I have a view of things. Friendship is like love. You can't take things for granted. You need a sword of Damocles hanging over a relationship. Both of us have to make an effort. Because indifference is just... Friendship is often used to describe something you're indifferent about. You mustn't trivialise these things. With people you really care about, you need a certain tension in the day-to-day relationship, otherwise it becomes trivial and I don't want that.
Karl Lagerfeld: But I hate hard workers. Things must appear to be casual. You have to be serious but don't flaunt it. Like being politically correct: be so but don't go on about it.
Karl Lagerfeld: I'm rather pernickety (persnickety) but I like disorder at work. I'd freeze at a tidy desk, not that it's likely to happen...
Karl Lagerfeld: It has to be that way. The sword of Damocles has to be hanging over people. As soon as evolution ceases, as soon there's an unforgivable act... Forgiveness isn't something I'm preoccupied with. I didn't have a Catholic education, so turning the other cheek isn't my trip. The curtain falls, an iron curtain.
Karl Lagerfeld: Success nullifies. You have to do it again, only better. Preferably differently.
Karl Lagerfeld: If things used to be better, you may as well give up. Why bother if it's worse?
Karl Lagerfeld: It has to be different, you must adapt to changing times. It's not "Elegance isn't what it was." Notions, concepts and visions change.
Karl Lagerfield: People say, "It's not my scene." I have no scene. I go everywhere, I adapt.
Karl Lagerfeld: Loving someone is fine but the person has to love you back at the same time. It's not a one-way thing.
Karl Lagerfeld: Right now, I have no desire to own. It's all in my head. It's better that way. You can carry it everywhere.
Karl Lagerfeld: Possessions are burdensome. You mustn't get attached to things. They're burdensome.
Karl Lagerfeld: … I have a life that suits me, which is the right one. Some other life isn't necessarily the one for you.
Karl Lagerfeld: As my mother always said, I live wherever I am. I don't like the notion of living somewhere. I have no roots. I'm transportable, transformable, whatever. I don't have roots, that's all bullshit. I just want to stand on my own two feet, which means not having roots.
Karl Lagerfeld: I don't want to be real in other people's lives. I want to be an apparition; I appear, then disappear. I don't want to have reality in anyone's life because I don't want it in mine. That's the secret of it all.
Karl Lagerfeld: So many of the things I do, such as reading, can't be done in the company of others… I might want to read at any time so I'm for everyone having an independent life.
It's ironic that he says possessions are burdensome, but he has countless silver rings and many racks of designer clothes. I wonder how much he has actually read of his seemingly endless piles of books and magazines.
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Lagerfeld Confidentiel
