Lagerfeld Confidential.

"With Lagerfeld, of course, what [director Rodolphe] Marconi has as a subject is not just an enormously successful man or an ingenious talent but what every documentarian hopes for: a full-blown creature," writes Michelle Orange, reviewing Lagerfeld Confidential. "A self-constructed cipher whose supreme confidence and supreme artifice interact on a sliding scale of psychic codependency, Lagerfeld has clearly mastered the art of answering prying questions with perfect frankness while revealing absolutely nothing." Also at the Reeler, Ben Gold meets Marconi for coffee at the Soho Grand.

Updated through 10/27.

In the Voice, Nathan Lee notes that Marconi's "indifference to detail extends to any consideration of what, exactly, Lagerfeld does for a living, not to mention the history of his rise in the fashion world."

For the New York Times' Stephen Holden, it's "simply an extended interview, without talking-head commentary," and what's more, "the designer continually eludes his interrogator."

The doc "allows its subject to dictate the terms of his portrait," writes Felicia Feaster in the New York Press. "In an era of ever-present spin, it's a popular - though less than satisfying - approach."

Updates, 10/26: IndieWIRE interviews Marconi.

"We barely even get to see what Lagerfeld does for his paycheck, let alone why it's so large," writes Noel Murray at the AV Club.

"Karl Lagerfeld, like so many among the impossibly rich, famous, and creative, is very proud of himself. And why not?" asks Sarah D Schulman in Gay City News. "After decades of success as the creative director of Chanel - with fingers in other haute couture pies such as Fendi and Chloë - his career shows no signs of slowing down. He speaks fluent German, French, and English, and in 2001 he dropped an astounding 92 pounds in just a little over a year. And now, thanks to French director Rodolphe Marconi and the documentary Lagerfeld Confidential, he has a whole 88 minutes of screen time in which to showcase his brilliance and snark."

Update, 10/27: "Nicole Kidman, who was the face of Chanel when the documentary was shot, is a shadowy presence throughout too, with Lagerfeld repeatedly fretting about where Nicole is, when she'll be there and, most agonisingly, what bit of the carpet she should walk on," writes Hadley Freeman in a piece for the Guardian on matching Hollywood stars and fashion brands. "When she does show up I finally understand why Lagerfeld chose this actress, who always struck me as cold, sexless and dull, for his label: she looks exactly like him. It's extraordinary seeing them stand next to one another for the first time: equally pale, equally facially frozen, equally ignorant of the concept of eating for pleasure and both wearing too-tight suits making them look like a pair of 1920s Weimar lesbian twins."

Posted by dwhudson at October 25, 2007 3:13 PM