'The New Look' series on Apple TV

Will there be hot hidden homo-Gestaposex?

I'm going to subscribe to AppleTV just so I can watch this.

Thats a hell of a cast.

I'm really looking forward to this. It looks like a good old fashioned mini series.

Why so many bad French accents?

I'm really looking forward to watching this series, listening to my 95 yr.old neighbor George yell "Nazi slut" and "Fucking collaborator" at Coco on screen. George was a "fighter pilot& bomber" 4 the Navy in the Pacific in WW2.

Because of you OP, I ordered & read the Chanel book "Sleeping with the Enemy", plus found another book, "The House of Fragile things, Jewish Art Collectors& Fall of France" by James McAuley.

Thanks OP just put it on my calendar.

I don't understand how Maisie Williams was cast as, or could possibly portray Catherine Deneuve.

This looks insanely good. I cannot WAIT, though it bothers my soul that Coco was a Nazi collaborator, because I love Chanel.

Absolutely awful. Has virtually nothing to do with fashion. It will be a ten episode slog through the extremely unethical and immoral behavior of Chanel, who was a known Nazi collaborator. Maisie Williams spends most of the show in a concentration camp. Is this show really trying to explicate Chanel’s behavior? I’m astonished such good actors would agree to do this mess.

There’s apparently a scene (according to a review) where Chanel yells at a Jewish Holocaust survivor about how difficult it was as a woman comparatively to save her business and won’t somebody please think of her as opposed to the Jews. Disgusting.

I gave it half an hour and stopped. And if you’re waiting for fashion shows and discussion about Dior’s work, it doesn’t happen. The first five minutes of the show and the last fifteen minutes of the finale are the only fashion you’re going to see.

Also the accents are EMBARASSINGLY bad. John Malkovich is laughable.

They had a fabulous premiere party!

It also stars Glenn Close as Carmel Snow, the editor of Harper's Bazaar.

As you might have expected, Maisie Williams grew up to be very strange looking.

Glenn is looking glamorous these days. Did she finally hire a stylist and glam squad?

R13 that’s certainly an opinion!

How was any French city "leading the world back to life" during the Nazi occupation, or even afterward for that matter? The French couldn't even defend their own homeland and would have been part of Germany if not for the U.S., Great Britain, Canada and Australia. I hardly think there was any beacon of hope coming out of France that wasn't being shined by the allies. But, whatever sells Apple TV memberships, I guess.

It’s fantastic, I love it, and fuck off R15. You sound like a Nazi. Or a Trumptard…same difference, I suppose.

I'm very leery of Apple+ shows, especially after how badly "Masters of the Air" turned out.

Disney+ recently released a series about Balenciaga in Europe. If you can track it down online, I highly recommend it. Dior, Chanel, and Givenchy are all minor characters in it. It's only 6 episodes and is very well done.

[quote] Is this show really trying to explicate Chanel’s behavior? I

I thought the show was pretty explicit in showing Chanel as an amoral, selfish cunt, who would have hooked up with Satan himself if it would have helped her get ahead. She comes across as a sociopath.

R15, you are correct! The French did nothing to help themselves in WW2. The Maginot Line on the border with Germany, they stopped building it at Belgium (ran out of $$$) This great defensive barrier against new German invasion. The German Army went around it, alot of good that structure did to defend France. "OMG" you can't bomb Paris, lets surrender the city to Hitler. France was a "raped out, weak old hag" who couldn't& didn't want to fight. But we saved Paris& our cultural heritage. while the French people were robbing the wealthy Jews& reporting them to the Nazis.

Gosh, they’re still finding unexplored ordinance from WWI which was fought…guess where. Is it no surprise that they weren’t thrilled to repeat that experience twenty years later?

Maisie Williams has shown she can handle action scense, but who thought glamming her up was a good idea?

She looks fine

She looks Ottoman.

What would the world have done without Christian Dior and the New Look to bring it back to life?

I had already committed to streaming this.

Did not realize it is already available. Checking it out asap for the rainy weekendweather.

Will there be scenes of Coco getting some good Nazi dick?

Nazi ideology denounced Paris fashion and the slender feminine bodies it idealised as decadent and corruptive to noble and ‘natural’ Aryan women, furthermore imports were deemed detrimental to the German domestic economy. Adolf Hitler extolled the nationalistic virtues of German regional dress, including dirndl dresses, and women in uniform; both of which were made on German home soil. Yet he was enamoured by the glamour and cultural cachet of the Parisian haute couture industry that drew royalty, aristocrats, celebrities and plutocrats from around the globe to its gilded salons. Hitler thus determined to relocate the industry to Berlin as part of his broader plan to make the German capital the centre of world culture. Haute couturier Lucien Lelong, in his capacity as President of the trade organisation the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, was summoned to Berlin to discuss logistics. After much persuasion and diplomacy, Lelong managed to convince the Führer that this highly specialised industry could operate only within the cultural milieu of Paris, not least because of its dependence upon the nation’s specialist ancillary trades – milliners; bag, gloves, belt, umbrella and shoe makers; silk flower, button, and corset makers; passementerie (braid, tassels, ribbon etc.) firms; embroidery houses; dyers, specialist pleating firms; luxury textiles industries and jewellers. Hitler reluctantly conceded that the industry could remain in Paris, but would henceforth operate within Nazi regulations and that all exports–that were vital for the Parisian fashion industry's income generation– would cease with immediate effect. From that point, communications with the outside world were severed and Paris no longer communicated the latest trends to the rest of the world.

oops here is the link.

A lot of similar territory was covered in the recent and rather good Balenciaga. A Spanish and French production streaming on Disney + including the Nazi bits.

I created a thread for Balenciaga 2 weeks ago, R30. No interest shown.

I may have to see this for my future ex husband/daddy Ben.

Paragraphs are your friend.

Maisie looks like such an English tart.

I recall us having a thread on this while Trump was still in office.

IIRC, we discussed collectors of Nazi memorabilia, SS uniforms, & Paris Couture houses at that time.

Anyone remember this?

Sorry not sorry. More fashion less maudlin and kitschy Nazi narratives.

I bet the House of Chanel is furious about this portrayal. It doesn't quite fit the very latest scholarship and also Disney is purposely simplifying the Wertheimer side story, for drama and against Chanel. In fact Chanel and the Wertheimers never fell out, and the Wertheimers put Chanel back in business after the war, and co-own the company today.

I doubt the musical Coco will ever be revived after this.

I gasped when I saw Bar. The most iconic design of all time.

r38: Mary!

Maisie Williams looked strange at the premiere, but she looks great in the 40s flashbacks for the series. She oddly looks like Elaine Benes at times.

What's weird is that so many of the characters are affecting strange unconvincing French accents (John Malckovich's is the strangest, and he actually is married to a Frenchwoman), but Juliette Binoche is speaking with a weird accent that sounds more North American than French.

Binoche is really doing well as Chanel and her clothes are perfection.

The relative ages are bothering me. Dior is supposed to be late 30s and Catherine is mid 20s but the actor (Australian) looks much older and she (before her arrest) looks much younger than their ages. I thought they were father and daughter at first. And Chanel, getting all these Germans hitting on her, she was 60!

Maisie Williams looks like a dumpling cheeked English farmer’s wife. Who the hell cast her in this?

I was excited about this then made the mistake of reading the mostly negative reviews before it premiered. Last night I decided to give the first episode a shot and ended up watching all three. I really loved it. Binoche is perfect as Coco and Maisie was terrific. Lots of suspense and really intriguing. Ben Mendelsohn is a wonderful actor but I do agree he's too old. It's not just that he looks old but he carries himself like an old man so he really does look like Maisie's father and not her brother. I'm looking forward to the next episode.

way too many liberties taken with history. seems both clumsy and manipulative.

Episode 4 was brutal. Those collaborators paid dearly. Coco is lucky she made it out alive.

Maisie Williams is one of the ugliest gashes ever birthed.

Notification of the latest episode popped up on my Apple TV last night, but when I selected to watch, the next episode of Masters of the Air played instead (new episodes of that series are on Friday). Weird!

I haven’t heard any buzz yet about this show.

Has anyone stayed with this?

I'm watching it but I agree with R36 that's it's WWII kitsch. Vive la résistance!

I'm behind in watching this, and just finished the second episode, which was very amusing despite itself. Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) is being blackmailed by Schellenberg to meet with Churchill to spy on him, so she abducts her frenemy Vera Lombardi (here called Elsa Lombardi for reasons i don't understand, and played by Emily Mortimer) to Madrid to try to meet with Churchill there. The two women are great: the characters are both arrogant, snobby bitches, and Mortimer's Lombardi is a mercurial drunk while Binoche's Coco is more sober but more freaked out.

The plot is indeed Nazi kitsch (though not as much to the degree as was "All the Light We Cannot see," which was about as subtle as "Raiders of the Lost Ark"), but it's at least exciting Nazi kitsch, and both Binoche and Ben Mendelsohn are fantastic. Binoche can go from haughty and snarling to believably terrified out of her mind on the turn of a dime, and Mendelsohn is somehow both exceptionally brave and easily given to tears. I've rarely seen anyone play characters quite like that. Unfortunately John Malkovich stops every scene he's in with his weird and painful halting delivery as Dior's sympathetic boss Lucien Lelong.

It sort of reminds me of one of those WW2 melodramatic women's pictures like "Once Upon a Honeymoon" or "Above Suspicion" (the kind Charles Busch parods in 'The lady in Question"). But here instead of Joan Crawford or Ginger Rogers (or Charles Busch in drag) being menaced by the Nazis it's Juliette Binoche as Coco Chanel.

SPOILERS!

The show gets a lot better as it goes along. The latest episode was terrific: the Parisian friends and families of the inmates of the Nazi detainment and concentration camps expected when the survivors returned to Paris they would rush into their arms and be the same as when they last saw them, but the living people who managed to come back instead turned out to be emaciated, severely traumatized, and completely bewildered, and some had even died en route back home. the episode ends with Dior looking stunned at his sister who has unexpectedly made it back to his apartment but is so damaged she looks barely alive.

Ben Mendelsohn has really been a revelation in this part as Christian Dior. He is such a good person and so loyal and true, even though he cries very easily. He really outclasses everyone else on the screen except Binoche (who does the same--they have almost no scenes together).

Yes, this is a strange series. As an early poster wrote, it’s not about fashion and when, in the last episode Dior talked inspiration for post war Paris, it sounded weird. I mean, these people were traumatized and suddenly a new style of fashion is supposed to give them hope and inspiration for the future? But other than that, I really like this, it is odd. It’s as much about Chanel as Dior and the leads are fantastic. The contrast between the two characters… Chanel, arrogant, combative, impulsive vs Dior, quiet, introspective, despondent, anxious. I like John Malkovich as Lelong—he had a great line in the last episode when he sees Pierre Cardin standing in his shorts. His character has been nothing but patient and sympathetic to Dior and all the drama with the sister. I don’t understand why the round table of designers make fun of him just because Lelong himself is not a designer. I don’t hear them making fun of the King of Cotton guy who is looking for a new designer.

It seems like these fashion houses are like football team managers, on the lookout for a new quarterback when the old one moves to a different team.

[quote] especially after how badly "Masters of the Air" turned out.

What?

ESPECIALLY AFTER HOW BADLY "MASTERS OF THE AIR" TURNED OUT

My husband and I are loving it and are glad we didn’t give up after the stilted first episode.

[quote]John Malkovich is laughable.

He always is. He's the worst! How did he ever get a reputation as a good actor? Every character has the same slightly detached monotone and weird delivery as Malkovich himself. It only really worked for him in Dangerous Liaisons.

It is amazing to me that John Malkovich is married to a French woman and lives in France, and yet he cannot do a French accent like all the other American, British, and Australian actors on this show playing Frenchmen do.

Agree r58. It remains a mystery to me how he and David Duchovny ever became stars. They never change the expression in their faces or voices. It’s like watching robots act.

R59: according to Wikipedia,

[quote]He and his family left France in a dispute over taxes in 2003, and they have since lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

But yes, it is strange none the less.

Ugh, changing your country of residence to save a bit of money, how disappointingly pathetic

Arletty was able to resume her career after a prison sentence and two year work ban and lived to be 94!

That same wiki article says he is fluent in French.

Binoche is so good in this, as expected, but I’d never heard of Mendelssohn before and he just inhabits the role. I was totally convinced he was a middle aged Frenchman but he’s Australian.

The scene in the train station was heartbreaking. Binoche and Mendelsohn get better with every episode. And I'm so glad Emily Mortimer is back.

No good, very bad show.

I saw a story the other day about companies still doing business in Russia, one of which was Chanel. All I could do was laugh and think "some things never change."

Christian and Catherine had a brother in a mental hospital? Was this mentioned before?

Loved Glenn Close. Is it my imagination but was Christian dumpy looking in the early episodes but trimming down now?

It’s soooooooo bad. Crikey.

Emily Mortimer yelling at the pharmacist to give her all their strongest narcotics made this episode.

Dior fucked them all, Balmain, Balenciaga, Cardin. I am impressed by Dior!!

Chanel was a Nazi, she should have had her head shaved! Revive the musical by having Nazi's stormtroopers marching Chanel to the concentration camp.

BUMP

I wonder if there will be a second season.

I hate that they all speak Amurcan.

LOVE this series. Masters of the Air was laughable trash. I barely made it through one episode.

It's pretty uneven. Some episodes are terrific, and some are hammy.

I'm not seeing much of a parallel between the postwar careers of Chanel and Dior; they have very little to do with each other even though they're both French fashion designers.

The acting is terrific, though, especially from the two leads.

This is the kind of war series we need more of. For most people who experience it, war is not about "heroes" and "villains," it's about getting by and often that means making questionable choices to survive. I am a historian who's worked on a war in a different part of the world, and I think this series is great because it shows that murky side of life that people don't always want to acknowledge. The actors in the two main roles are AMAZING.

Can someone recommend a good biography of Coco Chanel?

Good Luck with that...Beyotch was a NAZI, just like the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Edward & Wallis)!!

I always thought Pierre Cardin was made up person, I didn't know he was real!!

I've never been a big Binoche fan but she's fantastic here. I wouldn't say she makes Coco likable but her charm and survival skills make you understand how she not only survived the charges against her but managed to eventually thrive after the war.

Can't believe no one has mentioned the fine man who plays Dior's boyfriend. His name is David Kammenos.

R78 the biography by Hal Vaughan entitled Sleeping with the Enemy is mentioned by Variety as being far less sympathetic to her than this series is. I guess the truth about her was worse than the fiction / creative liberties seemingly taken here.

They redeemed themselves in the season finale by finally being more upfront about Chanel's Nazi past, having her admit it to her nephew who then broke with her and turned her in.

It was a strange series. Maybe not dramatic enough to justify ten episodes, although the two central performances were wonderful. I would give both of them Emmys over Tom Hollander and Naomi Watts (these were better written roles, and required more work).

It was fun to see Glenn Close and John Malkovich work together again in the final episode 35 years after "Dangerous Liaisons," even if Malkovich was... talking... so... slowly. I'm curious why Close did not choose to exhibit any sort of brogue or Irish lilt for the part of Carmel Snow, who was born and raised in Ireland.

They're talking about a season 2 focusing on Yves Saint Laurent who's story has already been told in two movies plus documentaries.

Both the movies were in French and were made ten years ago, r84. Almost no one in the English-speaking world will care.

Was Balmain really a massive prick, or did the writers just have it out for him?

The very end, with the montage of designs throughout the decades, was really cheesy and made the whole thing feel like something from the Dior marketing department. They should've limited it to the designs he was actually responsible for.

I really liked the series, but wished there had been more fashion, the last episode in particular should have made that fashion show the exciting centerpiece. But they didn’t, they kind of threw it away..

Lucien Lelong would be a great porn name

The writing is almost as bad as Malkovich’s accent!

Finally saw the last 2 episodes of "The New Look", I loved it. Chanel carried the smell of "Nazi Collaborator" with her for the rest of her life.

She should have been put on trial by the Allies after WW2; she was Guilty as Fuck!! I loved Dior& the other designers. Loved Dior designs.

Of course, I know nothing about women's high fashion, but I do know men's clothes. Men's Fashion goes through cycles, it never really changes.

She should have been put on trial by the Allies after WW2;

Agreed! It certainly would have livened up the first act of COCO!

Finally watched the last episode. Of course they ended with Bar except the wedding gown had already walked… On the whole, it was not a very good drama. The Chanel parts were interesting if repetitive, and apparently not very accurate re her Jewish partners? Her collaboration seemed to be 1) getting her captured nephew away from the Germans—totally understandable and 2) that weird episode going to Spain where nothing happened. I’ll have to read that book to find out what really happened.

The two leads though, Mendelsohn and Binoche. Incredible. I seriously thought he was French.