Chanel has participated in Joshua Oppenheimer's first narrative feature film, The End, a musical about the end of the world inspired by the aesthetics of 1950s musicals in America. The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on August 31 and has been screened at various festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival and the San Sebastian Film Festival, before being released in the United States on December 6. And what role does the Maison play in the film? Chanel dresses some of the characters in this dark, post-apocalyptic musical, designed with costume designer Frauke Firl, helping to weave the visual and emotional narrative of this work.
The film is set in a bunker 800 meters underground in the salt mines of Sicily and Germany that becomes the refuge of a family surviving after the planet has been destroyed. Chanel ambassador Tilda Swinton plays the mother of the family, a character whose armour of tweed, silk, and Chanel jewellery is both a shield and a reflection of her resilience. The ten silhouettes created in collaboration with costume designer Frauke Firl create a visual narrative that manages to translate Tilda's inner struggle and her attempt to preserve beauty and art in an environment where everything else has been destroyed.
In the film, each piece is loaded with symbolism that dialogues with the film's themes of legacy, power, and self-delusion. Moses Ingram, whose presence destabilises the family's fragile balance, wears a Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2020-inspired suit in the final scene, a choice that symbolises both acceptance and loss of identity.
This is not a one-off for the Maison. From dressing Kristen Stewart in Spencer to collaborating with Marion Cotillard in Annette or Sofia Coppola in Priscilla, Chanel has time and again shown its commitment to cinema as a space for creativity and reflection. The End's post-apocalyptic context and its musical format offer a space to explore both fashion and art, understanding them as a means to question what it means to be human.
