Film
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
j .. PROJECT CATWALK
Filmmaker Rodolphe Marconi discusses his new documentary about the enigmatic fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld
‘For several years I‘ve wanted to make an intimate film portrait of someone who I found fascinating and funny, and I thought the designer Karl Lagerfeld, who has had an exceptional life, would fit the bill. I asked his press representative if it would be possible to make a film about him, knowing that down the years a lot of people had asked and had been refused. I met Karl for lunch, and we started talking about fashion and clothes and actors and actresses. I explained that I didn’t have a fixed idea of what the film should contain, and that I wanted to follow him around in his everyday life, and he generously accepted.
‘I filmed Karl over a two-year period, beginning in September 2004. Usually I make feature films with actors and a script and there are a hundred people on the set. Making Lagerfeld Confidential was a very different experience, because I was there to shoot whatever he was doing. I didn’t have to tell him what to do; I had to be his shadow. I shot him in his homes in Paris and Biarritz, at Chanel, at his photography studio, in his car, in the street and in restaurants. What was interesting was that he didn’t seem to behave differently whether or not I was filming. He dresses in the same chic, elegant way whether he’s at home on a Sunday or going to work or a party.
‘I spent a year editing the 200 hours of footage I’d shot. I wanted the audience to feel like I had when I was making the film, that they were accompanying Karl, at a time when he realises that he is not eternal and he seems ready to confide.
‘Karl didn’t come to any of the editing. I showed him the finished film and I was very surprised, because he didn’t ask for anything to be changed. I think the tenderness and the human side of his character will surprise viewers. He is somebody who wants to keep his own liberty and he keeps a certain distance, even from those around him. Maybe some people will find that the film is too cool towards Karl, but it's how I saw him.‘ (Interview by Tom Dawson)
I Lagerfeld Confidential, selected release from Fri 26 Oct.
38 THE LIST 18 Oct—l Nox 2007
:33" L. I‘! . Sf? *. NANCY D (PG) 99min 0
Ew
“Get a cluef' trills the ad for this hasty update of the venerable teenage gumshoe franchise. Sadly, the Nancy Drew of 2007 feels more like a clueless retread than an inspired reboot.
HIlllOd under the working title Nt'incy Drew: The Mystery of the Hollywood H///f{. director Andrew Heming (The In Laws. The Craft) unWisely attempts to ramp up the charm of Carolyn Keane's old-fashioned gal by throwuig her into glit/fy modern—day LA Situations. So. while her father (Tate Donovan) is always complaining about Nancy (Emma Roberts. niece of Julia) and her constant ‘sleuthing', this un-cerebral detective relies less on deductions than bomb disposal and defenswe driVing skills that wouldn't disgrace an SAS captain.
Such unclear delineation of Drew's character make for an uneven set of adventures. One minute she's abseiling her way Out of a hostage situation. the next earnestly Sympathismg with Single mother Jane (Rachel Leigh Cook, the (Brande Dame in this youthful company). Despite the perks of a polished studio production (breezy soundtrack. airy locations. cheesy Bruce Willis cameo) Nancy Drew feels like an unformed. hollow and remarkably vacuous cousm of those 1930s films starring Bonita GranViIle. which were passable at best
THRILLER RENDITION (15) 122min u
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COMED‘v FAi‘tiio DADDY DAY CAMP (PG) 88min 0
The indelible cage 0‘ tum Goodwin Jr enthusiasticalh etaculatsng oxer Roger MOQre's face in 3003's dismal comedy Boat Trip seemed to signal a new low in the one-time Acadenit Award-winner's career tratet‘tom But somehow things get far worse in Daddy Day Camp. an unlovab'e sequel to the eduallx, unlox able Dadin Day Care
Taking over the role of dumbass father Charlie Hinton from Eddie Murphy. Gooding Jr sets out to organise an outdoor day camp for annoying children, a marginal plot IWist on his attempt to create a da,‘ care serVice in the first illl‘ll Despite the bad childhood memories that Camp Driftwood holds for him, Charlie gameiy plunges his saVings into restoring the old place. and despite the bank's SLispicioris of the camps finanCial Viability. drills his wayward gang of kids into defeating rival Camp Canola and somehow savmg the day. Directed by Fred Savage, star of The Wonder Years, Daddy Day Camp is Cinematic excrement of the most putrid order, a nappy full of crude sentiment and bodily-fluid gags which falls well short of the barelyraised bar established by Cheaper By The Dozen, Are We There Yet? or any other av0idable series of kiddie pratfall comedies. (Eddie Harrison)
I Genera/ re/ease from Fri 19 Oct.
In a protect which feels like it was hastily conceived at an Academy Awards afterparty. Oscar-Winner Gavin TsotSi Hood marshals a cast of worthy talent in the shape of Reese Witherspoon. Jake Gyllenhaal and Meryl Streep for an expanswe but small-minded exploration of the modern phenomenon of
extraordinary rendition'.
Where Angelina Jolie lent passion and dignity to her part in A Mighty Heart, Witherspoon offers only perky vaCuity as Isabella, a pregnant mother whose Egyptian husband is spirited away by US authorities in the aftermath of a North African marketplace bomb. The eprOSion and the bloody death of a colleague are Witnessed by CIA analyst Douglas (Gyllenhaal), who is initially compIiCit in the suspect's rendition. but whose growmg disquiet about the brutal interrogation techniques used by local authonties is further fuelled by his suspicions about the motives of a shitty senator (Streep).
While burdened With good intentions. GaVin Hood's first Hollywood film has too many extraneous stories and not enough focus on any kind of political context to reveal anything meaningful about its Subiect. Even worse, Kelley Sane's script deliberater muddles the issues to Create the impreSSion that torturing Suspects overzealously as part of the War on Terror is the regular practice of vengeful foreigners. and that it's only by speaking out that brave Americans can stop such atrocities taking place. Put Simply. Rendition is a less-than-extraordinary apologia for the recent unjustifiable excesses of US
foreign policy. (Eddie Harrison) I Genera/ release from Fri 79 Oct.