DA BA DA BA DA: Chanel opened its show at Paris Fashion Week with a tribute to a classic of French cinema, tapping Brad Pitt and Penélope Cruz to re-enact cult scenes from Claude Lelouch’s 1966 movie “Un homme et une femme” (“A Man and a Woman”).
The Hollywood stars smoulder in the black-and-white footage, reenacting the roles originally played by Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant against the backdrop of the film’s iconic soundtrack by Francis Lai.
In the restaurant scene, however, the gender roles are reversed compared with the original. Model Rianne Van Rompaey, playing the waitress, comes to take their order. “What about the steak?” asks Pitt. “Mmm, yeah, that sounds good,” Cruz replies.
They order two Chateaubriands, medium rare, but decline starters. “I think she’s annoyed with us. She’s definitely not happy,” remarks Pitt. “Do you want us to make her happy?” says Cruz, calling the waitress back. “Sorry – do you have any rooms available?”
The film and the clip are set in Deauville, the French seaside town where founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel opened her first fashion boutique in 1913 and the inspiration for creative director Virginie Viard’s fall collection. Cruz arrived at the show with Lelouch, but Pitt was not in attendance.
The original movie won several awards, including the Grand Prix at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival and two Academy Awards, for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay.
Chanel’s relationship with Pitt stretches back to 2012, when it tapped the star as the first ever male ambassador for its bestselling No. 5 perfume.
Cruz has been a Chanel brand ambassador since 2018, when she first appeared in a cruise campaign shot by the brand’s late creative director Karl Lagerfeld. The Oscar-winning actress walked in the house’s fall 2019 show as a tribute to Lagerfeld.
Debuting in Bigas Luna’s 1992 film “Jamón Jamón,” in which she starred opposite her future husband Javier Bardem, Cruz has since worked with directors including Stephen Frears, Rob Marshall, Woody Allen and most notably, Pedro Almodóvar.
She first attended a Chanel show in 1999 and has regularly worn the brand’s creations on the red carpet. In addition, Cruz wore several outfits by Chanel — including a striking black evening dress festooned with gold chains — in Almodóvar’s 2009 film “Broken Embraces.”
Cruz and Pitt co-starred in Ridley Scott’s 2013 crime thriller “The Counsellor” but have never been cast opposite each other as romantic leads.
Chanel has longstanding ties to a number of high-profile film events worldwide. The brand is a partner of the Deauville American Film Festival, the biggest European festival devoted to American cinema, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.