When it comes to top quality advertising campaigns – like everything branded by the luxury label – Chanel delivers perfection every single time. Gaspard Ulliel reprises his role as the face of Chanel’s men’s fragrance Bleu de Chanel, in a dark, mysterious and compelling film directed by James Gray.
The French actor and model appears in the Chanel campaign as a greatly desired movie star, chased mercilessly by adoring fans and flashing paparazzi lights. To escape the chaos, he takes off to find his own serenity, as the film continues to alternate between fantasy and reality.
“I wanted to raise the issue of this craziness inherent to the film world, within which we lead both a comfortable and an uncomfortable life,” director James Gray explains. “In a sense, that is almost a kind of vertigo that comes with the ridiculous and the overflow of attention.”
Gaspard Ulliel first appeared as the face of Bleu de Chanel five years ago, in a campaign filmed by the famed Martin Scorsese. The French actor is known for his role in the 2007 film Hannibal Rising and the more recent biopic Saint Laurent, in which he plays esteemed fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent.
“I was immediately taken with being associated with Chanel,” Ulliel has said. “I felt really proud to represent this House, which, to me, stands for French elegance.”
The minute long film was shot in Los Angeles at night, to the soundtrack of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”, recreated by Jimi Hendrix.
In an official interview with Chanel, Ulliel discussed the two Bleu de Chanel campaigns he starred in.
“When I met Scorsese when we worked on the first film “Bleu”, he presented this young man to me as someone with lots of energy and self-confidence despite the fragility and doubts. I was interested in exploring that. He comes to a point in his life and career when he wants to send everything flying and break free of his surroundings. With James Gray, we wanted to continue that idea, that energy. The character is, of course, more mature, more of an adult. He suddenly decides to go in the direction his heart dictates. The line at the end says you never stop becoming who you are.”
Watch the film here.
Aleisha Gearside