[ad_1]
By Neil ArmstrongFeatures Correspondent
AppleTV+Covering the lives of fashion designers Coco Chanel and Christian Dior during World War II, The New Look explores what it was like to be under Nazi occupation in Paris.
Spoiler alert: This review contains spoilers for episodes 1-3 of The New Look.
The year is 1943. Agent “Westminster” is being briefed in Paris by her handler, Walter Schellenberg, head of foreign intelligence for the Nazi Party. He has a special mission for her; a task no less than ending World War II. He must deliver a secret message to the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, in Madrid, outlining a proposal for the cessation of hostilities. “If you’re successful, history will remember you for this more than any dress you’ve ever made,” Schellenberg tells the agent.
“Any dress you’ve ever made?” Indeed. For “Westminster” there is Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, the celebrated designer better known for perfumes and haute couture than for espionage and dangerous covert operations. I had to check that this strange plot, which appears near the beginning of Apple TV’s lavish new 10-part drama about Chanel and fellow designer Christian Dior and their wartime activities, was not artistic license, but no, ” Operation Modellhut”. it was real. Although, clearly, it was not a resounding success.
More like this:
– Why Band of Brothers is the last great unattractive TV show
– Women drug traffickers in Latin America
– How a TV drama shook Britain – in just one week
In fact, while watching, I frequently had to turn to Google to check the veracity of The New Look. You don’t have to be a dedicated fashion follower to be aware of names like Chanel, Dior, Balmain, Balenciaga, etc. Could they really have all worked in Paris at the same time and met each other? Yes, they could.
I was aware of Chanel’s Nazi sympathies and anti-Semitism, but did Dior, a kind and quiet man, really have links to the French Resistance? Yes, he did it. In fact, her beloved younger sister Catherine, after whom the perfume “Miss Dior” is named, He was a hero of the Resistance. When she was captured, Catherine was tortured so brutally that it is believed that she was unable to have children and yet she did not betray her comrades. She was decorated for bravery by both the French and the British.
Was Chanel really interrogated by MI6 agent Malcom Muggeridge, a British journalist who would later become famous for a memorable television showdown with John Cleese and Michael Palin over Monty Python’s Life of Brian? Yes, all true.
The show has been created by Todd A Kessler, the co-creator of the legal drama Damages, who is probably still best known for producing seasons two and three of The Sopranos and writing several episodes. It takes its name from Dior’s influential first collection for his own fashion house, which debuted in 1947, but the series begins in Paris in 1955. Chanel (Juliette Binoche), who had closed her salon at the start of the war, has returned . to the city after living eight years in exile. She has an audience with a small group of journalists. “Christian Dior ruined French haute couture and I’m back to save it,” she haughtily declares.
Meanwhile, Dior (Ben Mendelsohn) is about to be honored at the Sorbonne. He is the first fashion designer to speak at the august institution in its 700-year history and will address an audience of enthusiastic design students who chant his name as if he were a rock star.
Models take to the stage in exquisite Dior creations. The camera lingers (almost caresses) dresses of white satin, blue silk and lemon tulle. The public goes crazy. It’s clear that Dior is considered a fashion god, while Chanel might be lucky to touch the hem of her garment.
Then we return to 1943, when Dior was nobody, just another employee of a foreign fashion house, and Chanel, who lived in the Ritz hotel, was the most famous designer in the world.
Paris under the Nazis
The first three episodes (the rest of the series is under embargo) revolve around how Dior deals with the capture of Catherine (Maisie Williams) and how Chanel first becomes involved with the German occupiers and begins sleeping with an oily and sinister Nazi fixer nicknamed “Spatz” (Claes Bang, who, as we saw in another Apple show, Bad Sisters, is excellent at performing unpleasant works).
AppleTV+The New Look looks fabulous. It was filmed in Paris and great care was taken to accurately depict the French capital during wartime. As expected, the costume department has brought its best game. The accents affected by the non-French actors playing French characters are a bit distracting, but the show is packed with heavyweight acting talent. Binoche is magnificent as the manipulative Chanel, a woman willing to stab anyone in the back with a pair of pinking shears if it will help save her own skin. “Chanel can be very treacherous,” says Dior boss Lucien Lelong (John Malkovich), and he’s not wrong.
Williams is excellent as the brave Catherine, although we are barely introduced to her when she is in the hands of the enemy. We’ll see more of her later in the series. Mendelsohn’s performance is somewhat understated, and understandably so. Dior is discreetly gay, a good friend and loving brother who would probably enjoy nothing more than a quiet life. Also in the cast are Emily Mortimer, giving a glorious turn as Elsa Lombardi, Chanel’s nemesis, and Glenn Close as Carmel Snow, the powerful editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar who coined the phrase “the new look.” for Dior’s 1947 collection.
The show delves into the murky moral complexities of living in an occupied city. What exactly constitutes collaboration? Chanel did not design for the enemy, unlike Dior, but literally slept with him. Many women were violently punished – even murdered – for this “horizontal collaboration.” The show seems to want us, if we don’t exactly feel sympathy for Chanel, to certainly understand why she does some of the things she does, although it’s hard to imagine any viewer not being firmly Team Dior.
However, Chanel is easily the most vivid and colorful character, and her casual villainy is engrossing. “Happiness writes in white,” as the maxim goes, and so does decency. Dior is loyal, honorable and decent. The show’s air is slightly lost in later episodes whenever we return to the story of her business. If The New Look were a dress, it would hang a little unevenly, but it never fails to be entertaining and is tailor-made for anyone remotely interested in fashion.
★★★★☆
The New Look launches on Apple TV+ on February 14.
If you liked this story, subscribe to The Essential List newsletter – a hand-picked selection of must-see features, videos and news delivered to your inbox every Friday.
If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, please head to our Facebook page or send us a message at Twitter.