Welcome to the age of luxury entertainment, where films are funded by fashion houses.
Greeted with relief by critics who fidgeted through all three-and-a-half hours of Killers of the Flower Moon waiting for a bathroom break, Scorsese’s new film clocked in at a brisk 90 seconds.
It's not, obviously, a feature-length movie but an advert for a luxury brand - a Chanel fragrance - but you wouldn’t have guessed from the months of interviews, teaser images and behind-the-scenes videos that accompanied its release.
The 28-year-old Chalamet was reportedly paid $35 million to promote Bleu de Chanel - more than the salary for every film of his up to this point in his career combined, including Wonka ($8 million), Dune ($2 million) and Dune: Part Two ($3 million).
"The fashion houses have realised that people want stories aside from the usual pretty imagery. You can touch a nerve in the audience, which they’ve never touched before," says Eva Vik. "That’s why the blending of fashion and film has become the norm,’ she continues. ‘It’s them basically saying, 'Hey guys, we want to empower filmmakers to go and tell their stories.' And that’s more powerful than [having] a necklace in every shot."
With well-funded fashion houses seeking global domination and Hollywood in a bit of a slump, we can expect the line between fashion and entertainment being further blurred in the future. A good example of what to expect comes from LVMH, the fashion conglomerate. Earlier this year it announced the creation of its own entertainment division called 22 Montaigne (the group’s Paris address). Its purpose is to develop, produce and finance films and television series spun from LVMH brands, which include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Tiffany & Co.
Want to see the 90 second 'movie'? Here it is...