Watch Timothée Chalamet find himself in Martin Scorsese’s Bleu de Chanel campaign film

Last year (2023) it was announced that Timothée Chalamet would become the new face of Bleu de Chanel, the now iconic men’s fragrance by Jacques Polge, which first launched as an Eau de Toilette in 2010, followed by an Eau de Parfum in 2014.

This would also mark Chalamet’s inaugural collaboration with Martin Scorsese, who created the first-ever Bleu de Chanel campaign film 14 years ago, and would be directing the actor in a new, soon-to-be-released short. After a trickle of initial teaser images shot by Mario Sorrenti, and BTS sneak peaks at the film’s creation, the wait is now over, as it finally premieres today (17 May 2024).

Watch Timothée Chalamet star in Martin Scorsese’s Bleu de Chanel film

Set against the backdrop of New York City, the film explores the complex relationship that exists between an actor and the celebrity culture attached to their craft. ‘The world has changed,’ says Martin Scorsese in a press release. ‘There’s another aspect to celebrity in a way. Which is even more extreme than ten or 15 years ago.’

Subsequently, Chalamet has been cast to play a dissatisfied version of himself, the audience viewing a day in his life on the set of a talk show, as he searches for glimmers of authenticity in a world of artifice.

Soundtracked by Herbie Hancock’s 1983 hit Rockit, Scorsese has chosen to capture Chalamet in black and white, the stark chiaroscuro symbolic of the character’s inner conflict.

Flashes of electric blue in the windows of a subway, or on movie screens, provide stolen glimpses of his true self. ‘So when you’re inside a role do you destroy who you are?' asks the talk show host. ‘No, no, you reach into yourself, you find yourself,’ replies Chalamet. ‘And only after that are you free to be who you really are.’

Olivier Polge, head perfumer at Chanel, describes how the themes of Bleu de Chanel seamlessly tie in with the message of the campaign video. ‘Bleu de Chanel has just the right amount of conviction and intensity to represent a man who refuses to be typecast,’ he says. ‘A man who dismisses facades and who is not afraid to let vulnerability show through his tough, disarming exterior.’

chanel.com