Chanel Backs Slate of Prestigious Initiatives at Cannes Movie Competition

PARIS — Chanel’s relationship with cinema runs method deeper than the pink carpet.

After dressing the likes of Penélope Cruz, Lupita Nyong’o and Lily-Rose Depp for the Oscars, the French trend home hopes to snag the highlight once more on the Cannes Movie Competition — however this time, for movies as a lot as trend.

Lately, Chanel has expanded its assist for cinema, which now encompasses the whole lot from costume design to movie restoration, along with initiatives geared at fostering the following era of film administrators.

“Cannes has magnified the pink carpet with the climbing of the steps. It’s fairly distinctive, however it’s not a very powerful factor. What’s most vital for us is actually the content material,” Bruno Pavlovsky, president of trend and president of Chanel SAS, instructed WWD.

“The pink carpet is a present second, however a fleeting one, whereas a movie is one thing lasting that demonstrates the home’s dedication to this artwork kind. That’s why it’s vital to not focus simply on the pink carpet,” he added.

In Cannes this 12 months, Chanel is concerned in 4 tasks.

The model created a key look and equipment for Zoey Deutch, who performs actress Jean Seberg in Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Imprecise.” The French-language characteristic chronicles the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s basic movie “Breathless” and the beginning of French New Wave cinema.

Underscoring its prolonged relationships with its model ambassadors, the home will even assist Kristen Stewart’s characteristic directorial debut “The Chronology of Water,” which may have its world premiere as a part of the pageant’s Un Sure Regard part. The actress has been a face of Chanel since 2013.

As well as, it labored with costume designer Virginie Montel on predominant competitors entry “Eagles of the Republic,” that includes one other model ambassador, Lyna Khoudri.

Lastly, Chanel is backing “Arco,” French director Ugo Bienvenu’s debut animation characteristic, set to bow in a particular screening. His animation and manufacturing company Remembers has labored on brief movies for Chanel reveals, in addition to a marketing campaign for its Coco Neige line.

Pavlovsky famous that whereas Chanel has partnerships with almost a dozen movie showcases worldwide, together with the Deauville American Movie Competition and the Tribeca Movie Competition, its presence in Cannes is extra low-key. The occasion’s official sponsors embrace luxurious group Kering, jeweler Chopard and wonder model L’Oréal Paris.

“When Chanel is current on the pageant, it’s at all times within the background. It’s both to assist a movie premiere, or to have fun an envoy,” the chief stated of Cannes.

Style Meets Leisure

As impartial movies compete for financing in a quickly evolving panorama, trend manufacturers have stepped into the breach by changing into producers, cementing their cultural aura and solidifying their relationships with key skills, from actors to administrators.

Saint Laurent scored a notable win final 12 months with three movies in competitors in Cannes. Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” scooped the Jury Prize and the joint Finest Actress Prize. 

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton final 12 months shaped a brand new division named 22 Montaigne Leisure in partnership with Superconnector Studios to discover prospects for its 75 manufacturers, which embrace Louis Vuitton, Dior, Tiffany & Co. and Moët & Chandon.

In the meantime, French billionaire François-Henri Pinault’s household funding firm Artémis in 2023 acquired a majority stake in Artistic Artists Company, or CAA, the powerhouse expertise agency whose purchasers embrace Zendaya, Brad Pitt and Tom Hanks.

With movie ties relationship again to the ’30s, when founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel headed to Hollywood on the invitation of Samuel Goldwyn, Chanel had a headstart on the competitors, although it doesn’t fancy itself as a mini-studio — in the meanwhile.

“I can’t say what the long run holds, however proper now, our strategy is slightly completely different. We’re not attempting to interchange anybody. Our intention is to assist skills and filmmakers of their artwork,” Pavlovsky stated.

“That’s maybe the distinction between us and different manufacturers’ initiatives. There’s room for everybody. What’s vital is to have a powerful particular person imaginative and prescient that’s in step with our model values,” he added.

Chanel’s first foray into manufacturing got here in 2014 when it helped to finance “Clouds of Sils Maria,” a automobile for Stewart that additionally starred Juliette Binoche and Chloë Grace Moretz.

The home not solely equipped the actresses with garments, jewellery, equipment and make-up, but additionally offered a portion of the price range to permit director Olivier Assayas to satisfy his dream of taking pictures the film on 35-mm movie as an alternative of digitally.

Since then Chanel has collaborated with main filmmakers together with Sofia Coppola, Pablo Larraín and Leos Carax, a part of a deep bench of expertise cultivated by Elsa Heizmann, its world head of trend’s relationship with cinema.

Previously world head of VIP relations for 16 years, she was named head of a brand new devoted movie division at Chanel in 2022. Whereas the home has professionalized its strategy to the sector, the method stays natural, with tasks funneled by means of a community of producers, costume designers and PRs, she stated.

“Already by means of VIP relations, we had initiated a number of relationship growth, movie assist and patronage,” Heizmann instructed WWD, citing Chanel’s assist of the Cinémathèque Française.

“By creating this division, the thought was to deepen these relationships and even develop hyperlinks with folks within the movie business that aren’t essentially within the highlight, equivalent to costume designers,” she defined.

“The thought is to respect them, assist them and join them to the model in order that they nourish us. There’s a type of change of creativity,” she added. “Initiatives come to us very naturally. We flip down only a few, as a result of we’ve spent years growing this ecosystem, this community of individuals.”

A Hollywood Connection

Usually the movies it backs characteristic its model ambassadors, like Larraín’s “Spencer,” starring Stewart as Princess Diana, or Joshua Oppenheimer’s musical “The Finish” with Tilda Swinton. Usually, Chanel will even present objects for the celebrities’ wardrobes.

Different instances the model’s assist is invisible, as was the case for Mona Achache’s 2023 Cannes entry “Little Lady Blue,” a ardour challenge for star Marion Cotillard.

The model produces promotional content material, like a brief video of movie legend Catherine Deneuve in dialog with director Christophe Honoré marking the premiere of their movie “Marcello Mio” on the movie fest final 12 months. The next month, Honoré devised the scenography for Chanel’s fall 2024 high fashion present on the Paris Opera.

“Every time we work with a director or an actor, it’s an distinctive expertise that fuels the evolution of the model,” Pavlovsky stated. “It’s at all times an amazing shot of adrenaline.”

These free-flowing relationships are impressed by the home’s founder, whose welcoming occasion on the Los Angeles practice station in 1931 included Greta Garbo. Chanel would create appears to be like for Hollywood stars like Gloria Swanson, however her influence was most keenly felt in European cinema.

She memorably costumed actresses starting from Jeanne Moreau in “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” to Delphine Seyrig in “Final Yr at Marienbad.” Romy Schneider credited the designer for serving to her to shed the starlet picture she solid by enjoying Empress Elisabeth “Sissi” of Austria in a vastly in style trilogy of movies within the Nineteen Fifties.

Chanel met the Austrian-born actress by means of Italian director Luchino Visconti, who requested the couturier to create the wardrobe for his phase of the comedy anthology film “Boccaccio ’70,” launched in 1962. From then on the home dressed Schneider on- and off-screen.

“Chanel was buddies with many proficient actresses and administrators. She supported Visconti and helped launch the movie profession of Robert Bresson. He was a younger photographer who shot press kits for her, and he or she later inspired his ambitions to change into a director,” Heizmann recalled.

Likewise, beneath subsequent artistic administrators Karl Lagerfeld and Virginie Viard, Chanel has fostered a expertise pool that feeds into its picture division — one thing that Matthieu Blazy, who took over as creative director of trend actions on April 1, is predicted to proceed.

“We prefer to develop these relationships as a result of we love artists and movie skills, however we additionally love to attach them by means of our occasions and to generate new tasks,” Heizmann stated.

For instance, after Chanel supported the restoration of “Paris, Texas” to mark the fortieth anniversary of its Palme d’Or prize win at Cannes, Wim Wenders expressed an curiosity in working with Swinton. The model gave him carte blanche to direct her in a teaser for its Métiers d’Artwork present in Hangzhou, China, final December.

An everyday presence at Chanel trend reveals, Coppola has additionally directed a number of campaigns for the model, most just lately for its cruise present on Lake Como. In flip, the model labored with the director on “Priscilla,” creating the marriage costume worn by Cailee Spaeny within the title position of Priscilla Presley.

Somewhat than faithfully reproduce the costume, Heizmann requested Coppola what she needed the look to convey. The tip end result incorporates parts of Chanel’s spring 2020 couture assortment. “It was a collaboration with Sofia and her costume designer, and that’s what made it attention-grabbing,” Heizmann stated.

Constructing the “Icons of Tomorrow”

Equally, it made sense to staff with Linklater on “Nouvelle Imprecise,” since Seberg wore Chanel in actual life. The home labored with costume designer Pascaline Chavanne on appears to be like for the character, in addition to singer Juliette Gréco, performed by Alix Bénézech.

Deutch, sporting a peroxide pixie reduce, seems in a copy of an archival bustier costume fabricated from striped taffeta and dotted organza, drawn from the spring 1956 high fashion assortment. She’s anticipated to put on Chanel on the pink carpet too.

“She’s great within the movie,” Heizmann enthused. “The film doesn’t characteristic any of our model ambassadors, however [we liked] the theme and the way in which it was approached. Richard Linklater is a significant film buff.”

Chanel’s movie actions are a part of its total communications price range, alongside its partnerships with the Paris Opera and the Palais Galliera, the French capital’s trend museum, Pavlovsky stated. “We create extra influence right now with movie, dance and different cultural actions than within the cluttered media and promoting area,” he famous.

“We’re not in search of a return on funding. We’ve been working with administrators and actresses for years. They’ve had enormous successes and lesser ones. It is determined by the character of the movie: some are extra area of interest, others extra mainstream. For us, what issues is the overall picture they convey,” he added.

Chanel’s ties with movie have change into each a model trademark and a advertising and marketing device, as with final 12 months’s brief movie by which Brad Pitt and Penélope Cruz reenacted scenes from Claude Lelouch’s 1966 film “Un homme et une femme” (“A Man and a Lady”). Screened on the fall 2024 runway present, it was the springboard for a purse marketing campaign.

Pavlovsky fortunately famous {that a} nonetheless from the cult film was used for the poster of this 12 months’s version of the Cannes Movie Competition. However somewhat than a automobile for product placement, he sees Chanel’s relationship with cinema as a long-term dedication.

“What I hope is that individuals who know the sector perceive that it’s a deep relationship over time, certainly one of assist and never appropriation of what cinema represents,” he stated.

The efforts are usually not restricted to any explicit territory. Chanel helps initiatives worldwide, such because the Tokyo Lights training and mentorship program launched final 12 months in collaboration with Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda.

It additionally backs the Atlas Workshops, an business and talent-development program initiated in 2018 by the Marrakech Worldwide Movie Competition, and just lately inked a brand new partnership with the Venice Movie Competition’s Biennale Faculty, a challenge devoted to rising filmmakers.

“It’s vital for us to be current in every of the foremost ‘Chanel’ nations to indicate that our curiosity is actually world, however cinema in China may be very completely different from cinema in Japan, South Korea or the U.S.,” he stated. “It’s at all times vital to mirror the native tradition and imaginative and prescient of movie.”

With its present initiatives, Pavlovsky hopes to burnish the model’s fable for many years to return. “Folks strategy us on a regular basis due to Chanel’s affiliation with iconic movies of the previous, but additionally of the current. That’s the explanation we have now to proceed investing right now to create the icons of tomorrow,” he stated.