The Mysterious Mr Lagerfeld review: it’s all very frivolous, but great fun
BBC documentary offers an entertaining look at the enigmatic fashion designer

When the fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld died in 2019, he “was eulogised as the last of the old guard”, said Rebecca Nicholson in The Guardian. This feature-length BBC documentary aims to “demystify the man behind those famous sunglasses” – and it does so with panache.
Directed by Michael Waldman, the film gives a “rounded picture” of an individual who could be exceedingly generous to those who were “in”, and ruthless to those who were “out”. Many of Lagerfeld’s inner circle talk about him here publicly for the first time, and there is also archive footage of Lagerfeld reflecting on his own life, from taking over at Chanel (Coco was “a mean bitch; I have nothing against mean bitches”), to his reinvention of himself as a celebrity. The film is “gossipy and serious, thorough and frothy, and the 90 minutes breeze by”.
It helps that Lagerfeld himself was a scream, said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. There are also some wonderful interviewees. For instance, Carine Roitfeld, the former editor-in-chief of French Vogue, informs us that Lagerfeld’s cat once deliberately destroyed a scarf that she’d given him for Christmas: “Choupette is not a nice girl.” It’s all very frivolous, but great fun.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
It’s “zippy” all right, said Carol Midgley in The Times, but there are things I would have liked to have heard more about, such as Lagerfeld’s “visceral hatred of fatness”. He was notorious for having said that Adele was too fat; but he even judged the supermodel Heidi Klum to be “simply too heavy”.
Where to watch: BBC iPlayer
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
May 31 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include how much to pay for a pardon, medical advice from a brain worm, and a simple solution to the national debt.
-
5 costly cartoons about the national debt
Cartoons Political cartoonists take on the USA's financial hole, rare bipartisan agreement, and Donald Trump and Mike Johnson.
-
Green goddess salad recipe
The Week Recommends Avocado can be the creamy star of the show in this fresh, sharp salad
-
Green goddess salad recipe
The Week Recommends Avocado can be the creamy star of the show in this fresh, sharp salad
-
Ancient India: living traditions – 'ethereal and sensual' exhibition
The Week Recommends Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism are explored in show that remains 'remarkably compact'
-
6 well-preserved homes built in the 1930s
Feature Featuring a restored 1934 colonial in Arizona and a cold-storage warehouse turned loft in New York City
-
Things in Nature Merely Grow: memoir of 'harsh beauty' after loss
The Week Recommends Chinese-American novelist Yiyun Li's 'devastating' memoir explores the deaths of her two sons
-
Sirens: entertaining satire on the lives of the ultra-wealthy stars Julianne Moore
The Week Recommends This 'blackly comic affair' unfurls at a 'breakneck speed'
-
Mrs Warren's Profession: 'tour-de-force' from Imelda Staunton and daughter Bessie Carter
The Week Recommends Mother-daughter duo bring new life to George Bernard Shaw's morality play
-
Critics' choice: Steak houses that break from tradition
Feature Eight hours of slow-roasting prime rib, a 41-ounce steak, and a former Catholic school chapel turned steakhouse
-
Tash Aw's 6 favorite books about forbidden love
Feature The Malaysian novelist recommends works by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and more