Karl Lagerfeld is Daniel Brühl’s best role – 254 minutes of pure masterpiece now available on Disney+

Daniel Brühl has been on TV and in the cinema for so long that his fans can be divided into phases. Some grew up with school, many remember Good Bye, Lenin!, some have only known him since Baron Zemo’s MCU dance routines. They will all Becoming Karl Lagerfeld must see. Because here the German star has delivered his masterpiece after 30 years of career and countless roles. The series is now available on Disney+. Daniel Brühl as fashion czar on Disney+: This is what Becoming Karl Lagerfeld is about

As the title suggests, the series revolves around the life of the German fashion czar Karl Lagerfeld (Brühl). The creators have chosen an exciting time frame: In the early 1970s, Lagerfeld, who was born in Hamburg, was already an established name in the Parisian fashion business – but only as a commissioned designer for others, as mercenaries of prêt-à-porter fashion.

Watch the trailer for Becoming Karl Lagerfeld here:

He is paid handsomely and lives with his mother in a luxury apartment. But he is dying to publish haute couture under his own name. And to former companion Yves Saint Laurent (Arnaud Valois) to measure.

One night in Paris he met his future partner Jacques de Bascher (Théodore Pellerin). Lagerfeld’s ambitions and Pellerin’s excesses collide violently and threaten to bring disaster to both of them.

Becoming Karl Lagerfeld inspires with the beauty of fashion

What is striking about Karl Lagerfeld is first of all the outfit: Every jacket, every skirt, every hairstyle and fold fits perfectly. Perhaps this is what we would expect from a series about fashion.

But the rush of colors and shapes in which the iconic eccentrics like Lagerfeld or Saint Laurent move like ships in troubled waters gives the whole series an instinctive dignity. As if you were watching a ballet and felt infected by his subtlety. My fashion sense is rudimentary, but the perfection between cufflinks, pins, shirt collars and ties makes the series physically satisfying.

The Disney+ series avoids two mistakes that many other stories make

Despite the misleading title, Becoming Karl Lagerfeld avoids two major errors of biographical narratives. Firstly, the series does not get lost ticking off historical details. Over six episodes, it chooses six different time periods that contain upheavals, conflicts or developments in Lagerfeld’s life. She shows a good sense of proportion.

On the other hand, Becoming Karl Lagerfeld cuts out everything that has nothing to do with the psychological profile of its characters: A series about the fashion industry could praise the fine craftsmanship or criticize an inhumane exploitation policy. But the Disney+ series does not deviate one millimetre from Brühl, Pellerin and their environment.

The fact that this is the great strength of the series is due to the brilliant chemistry between the two main actors. Lagerfeld and De Bascher deliver a captivating emotional duet. If one person screams, the other is shocked. If one person is brutal, the other person sheds tears. If one person is cool, his partner despairs. Brühl and Pellerin delight with a virtuoso dance through all emotional worlds.

Karl Lagerfeld is tailor-made for Daniel Brühl

The absolute highlight of Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, however, is Brühl himself. Anyone who has ever celebrated the versatility of an actor, anyone who has ever been swept away by a star’s instinctive sensitivity for his role, must have seen the Disney+ series.

Ambitious, cold-blooded, stubborn, in need of love, tender, desperate, stubborn, funny – Brühl’s Lagerfeld is a whole person. And not only that, his multifaceted nature does not seem overloaded or pathological. He has nothing of Joaquin Phoenix, who contrasts Napoleon’s military genius with childish lust. This role is as rich and as meaningful as it can be. Its development, scene by scene, is a flow whose course is almost intuitive. It is Daniel Brühl’s masterpiece.

But Becoming Karl Lagerfeld is not flawless: viewers will recognize parts of the production from other pop-culture-related biopics. Once again, the 1970s are revealed here as a Disco decade with party orgies and drug excesses, which are accompanied by a typical soundtrack. The supposed fall of a queer man into the BDSM scene or the rehabilitation of the party animal in the family circle is nothing new. Sometimes these are avoidable clichés.

But since the Disney+ series is so closely based on its characters, such moments hardly matter. What is important are the emotions that drive the story forward like an engine. Brühl’s drivenness, Pellerin’s lostness – that’s what counts. They ensure that the series never gets boring in six episodes and a total of 254 minutes.

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