Daniel Brühl doesn't play Karl Lagerfeld and it's great (review)

Ten years in the Parisian life of the German designer, trying to be accepted by French Haute-Couture. Less of a biopic than a great, dazzling love story.

We can completely lose interest in Haute-Couture fashion shows, the world of fashion in general and Karl Lagerfeld in particular, and get excited about the new Disney Plus series which comes out this Wednesday. The adaptation of the book by Raphaëlle Bacqué, Kaiser Karldoes not veer into a glorifying biopic, seeking to show the spectacular rise of a genius, but rather borders on a sentimental romantic drama, in a 70's Paris more vibrant than life.

Besides, Becoming Karl Lagerfeld is as much a series devoted to the German fashion designer as to his lover Jacques de Bascher, the great love of his life. It is through him that we enter the cozy world of French Haute-Couture and that we meet Karl, an enigmatic character from the Maison Chloé, who is looking for his place in the fashion of the time, dominated by Yves Saint-Laurent to whom he was very close. A ready-to-wear designer still unknown to the general public, despised by his peers, Karl will meet Jacques, a dandy from a good family fascinated by the personality of this austere prodigy, allergic to physical contact and still living with his mother…

Théodore PellerinCanadian actor crossed in Lafayette on Apple this year (in Franklin), is a moving Jacques de Bascher, a hedonist with a small mustache who will electrify all the fashion stars of the time. The Disney Plus series is thus seen as the chronicle of her love story with Karl. Six episodes of wild romanticism, describing Lagerfeld as a cold creative, incapable of showing his feelings and managing the epicurean madness of his young stud. Daniel Brühl is astonishing, almost unrecognizable, in the skin of this German lost in Paris, who will never lose his composure and who will little by little find his way, his strength, his style (ponytail, glasses, scarecrow only appear towards the end), especially thanks to Jacques.

Their devouring, intoxicating passion – in a French society where the “crime of homosexuality” still existed – gives all its strength to this biopic polarized over a single decade and which embraces its fiery vision. A romance against all odds, which will see obstacles named Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé stand before it. Arnaud Valois And Alex Lutz are as spectacular as their comrades. I have to say that Becoming Karl Lagerfeld knew how to avoid all the pitfalls, all the caricatures, to deliver a romantic story in which the cast fully blossoms. A French success.

Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, in 6 episodes, available for streaming on June 7 on the Disney+ platform.