In Lagerfeld Confidential, filmmaker Rodolphe Marconi journeys behind the trademark dark sunglasses of Karl Lagerfeld to expose the real man.

By Gary M. Kramer

Since filmmaker Rodolphe Marconi was 11, he has been fascinated with Karl Lagerfeld. It was not only the fashion designer’s work that intrigued Marconi, but his personality.

“I love what he said in TV and magazine interviews,” Marconi recalled over the phone in a recent interview. “I wanted to meet him.”

And meet Lagerfeld, Marconi did. The feature filmmaker, who made two great, sinister dramas—Love Forbidden and The Last Day—expressed a desire to make a documentary about Lagerfeld. After months of asking for a Lagerfeld interview, he was finally invited to the designer’s home where he had a lunch that lasted five hours. Marconi was then granted access to film Lagerfeld, and he began shooting the next day. Filming continued for two years.

The resulting documentary, Lagerfeld Confidential, is an intimate portrait that eschews conventional talking-head documentary format by following its subject closely and interviewing him casually.

Marconi admits, “I am not a documentarian, so I made the film with my heart and my head. I wanted it to be more natural. I went for sensation, rather than storytelling.” The filmmaker is a fly on the wall, peering into Lagerfeld’s bedroom, capturing him in transit and walking behind him on the catwalk. Interviews reveal the man and his thoughts on subjects as diverse as sexuality, loneliness and his mother.

“In the beginning, I didn’t want to ask what I wanted to find out,” Marconi explains. “Unconsciously, I wanted to find [him]. I wanted to explore what is behind the [trademark] sunglasses, because he’s always showing himself as a very indifferent person, someone who doesn’t care about anything. I wanted to be as close to him as possible—try to [discover] the human person in this character.”

Marconi learned even more about his muse when he got to model for the designer—in scenes that did not make it into the film.

Recalls Marconi of the experience, ”[When] Karl did a photo shoot of me … I found I would do anything for him. He’s so charismatic. He gives you this look. I was ready to take off my shirt, my pants—anything. All the models are like that. It’s like magic. Karl doesn’t say anything, but he captures what he wants. He is all about the moment he’s taking the photos. He takes them [almost] without thinking.”

Lagerfeld Confidential mirrors this strategy. The various conversations between the filmmaker and his subject were impromptu but illuminating moments. Marconi insists that he did not prepare questions in advance, but rather asked “what came into my head.” As he grew to know his subject, Marconi said, “The questions changed.”

Lagerfeld is sometimes cagey with answers, but Marconi defends the designer, stating, “All we have to learn about Karl is in the film.”

If Marconi had remarkable access to Lagerfeld, he suggests that it was because the designer trusted him. “I don’t know if he had forgotten the camera [was there], but he never told me not to shoot now or not to shoot that. Never. All the time I was with him, I could shoot all I wanted.”

Finally, Marconi admits, Lagerfeld was more than just generous with his time. He gave the filmmaker many gifts during their working relationship. “He is very generous. Everything he gave me—I take care of it. The rings … I have, but I don’t wear on my fingers. But I always have them in my bag or pocket, for luck.”