Eyeing "The New Look"

I don't know anything about fashion.  When faced with the prospect of watching ten hours on the lives of Christian Dior and Coco Chanel reviving the French fashion industry in the aftermath of WWII, I was initially skeptical.  But how could I say no when Dior is played by Ben Mendelsohn, Chanel is played by Juliette Binoche, and the supporting cast includes John Malkovitch, Claes Bang, Emily Mortimer, Maisie Williams, and Glenn Close? 

"The New Look" is an oddly constructed show.  Created by Todd Kesslar, it covers about four years, from the ongoing Nazi occupation of France in 1943 to Dior's breakthrough in 1947.  Dior and Chanel have equal screen time, though their paths never intersect and their stories have no characters in common.  Dior initially works for the fashion house of Lucien DeLong (Malkovitch), designing dresses for the Nazis simply to survive, while his younger sister Catherine (Willaims) delivers messages for the Resistance.  Chanel, already a famous fashion designer and in her sixties, is much bolder in her collaboration with the Nazis, having fallen under the sway of the German intelligence agent, Spatz (Bang).  Faced with losing her business, she uses the Nazi connections to protect her financial interests.    

I'm a little curious how each half of "The New Look" would have played out if it were a totally independent project from the other, but pairing them worked for me.  Dior's narrative is fairly slow and sedate, especially in the early going, so it's nice to have Chanel's misadventures as a spy injecting some energy.  Conversely, in the later episodes Chanel's post-war miseries go well with Dior's struggles to start his own fashion house and finish a major collection.  Between the two of them, we have the difficult rise of one icon and the tragic fall of the other, and all the usual elements of traditional biopics - frustrating family relationships, bad romances, brief encounters with other famous faces, and some sketchy accent work.  With such a sprawling timeline, the focus shifts several times to different characters and situations, some more interesting than others.  The first half of "The New Look" actually works pretty well as a WWII narrative, sometimes better than Apple's other big spring offering, "Masters of the Air."

This is all due to the performances.  I'll happily watch Mendelsohn in anything, and he kept Dior watchable despite him not being a particularly interesting person.  The show does its homework and gives us plenty of opportunity to appreciate Dior's beautiful dresses, but "The New Look" never really feels like it's about the fashion.  It spends far more time on Dior's family, friendships, spirituality, and endless self-doubt.  This material is fine, but usually ends up being totally dwarfed by the Coco Chanel storylines.  Juliette Binoche is the main reason to watch the show.  Her version of Chanel - aging, embittered, narcissistic, and often doing terrible things - is absolutely fascinating.  She's totally in the wrong and unlikeable most of the time, and resorts to underhanded tactics frequently.  However, she is so dogged in her pursuit of what she feels that she's owed, you have to respect her.  If she's going down, she's going down fighting until the end.  I hope that "The New Look" gets a second season so we can watch her claw her way back to the top again in the 1950s.   

For the most part the series is well put together, but I'm not a fan of some of the little conceits, like ending each episode with modern covers of WWII era songs, and sometimes with confusing onscreen text.  There's also been criticism about the show being in English when the characters are almost all French, and the actors seem to feel obligated to speak with French accents.  However, when the series works, it works.  The narratives may sometimes feel scattershot, but this results in some fantastic scenes, like Chanel's stinginess catching up to her at a crucial moment, or a missed reunion at a train station.  There's room for an unexpectedly touching performance from Emily Mortimer, and for Malkovitch to Malkovitch as only he can.

"The New Look" will not be to everyone's taste, of course, but as far as prestige TV goes, this was a nice surprise that exceeded my expectations for it.

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