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Launched in 1947, Christian Dior’s “New Look” collection was hailed as clothing for a postwar era and a modern, iconoclastic rejection of the prevailing styles of the past. It’s an unfortunate irony, then, that The New Look, an Apple TV+ series about Dior and his haute-couture contemporaries during and after the Nazi occupation of Paris, feels old-fashioned. Its heightened tone and heavy-handed approach do not fit the story of a man of such deft-fingered genius.
This veritable “French icon of hope”, as he’s dubbed in an epigraph, is played by the Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn, who may look the part of the soigné, soulful designer but decidedly does not sound it. The hokey Gallic-affected English he and other anglophone cast members adopt would only have been a small cosmetic cavil had the show better balanced its stylistic choices with rewarding substance. As it is, the dodgy accents are symptomatic of the general lack of authenticity and depth found in this 10-part series which largely underserves the extraordinary actors it has at its disposal. Besides Mendelsohn, the starry line-up includes John Malkovich, Maisie Williams, Emily Mortimer and Juliette Binoche.
Binoche is an irrepressible force, even when working with lesser material. She plays Coco Chanel, whose fall from grace as a result of her well-documented collaboration with the Nazis runs in parallel with Dior’s rise. Dior’s tale is one of endurance and creation; one which celebrates a visionary who provided France with glimpses of beauty and optimism in the midst and aftermath of horror. Chanel’s tale is one of cynical self-preservation and moral detachment. We follow her close ties with top-ranking Nazis and later her efforts to salvage her image. No amount of No 5 would conceal the whiff of insincerity as she takes to the street to welcome the liberating troops.
Both narratives are cheapened by overwritten or stilted dialogue that reduces conversations to neat soundbites and bluntly articulates what could’ve been implied. (If it transpires that Chanel ever yelled the words “the rich and sexy always come out on top” I’ll eat my non-designer hat). Elsewhere, attempts at exploring inner lives too often rely on hazy flashbacks or scenes in which prophetic words echo repeatedly in characters’ minds.
The clichés and staginess jar with the lengths Maisie Williams reportedly went to — losing weight to reach near-emaciation — in order to credibly portray Dior’s little sister, Catherine, who returns from a Nazi concentration camp physically and mentally shattered. The focus on her awful ordeal means that we never lose sight of the bigger picture.
★★☆☆☆
Episodes 1-3 on Apple TV+ from February 14; new episodes released weekly
