New Chanel Mini-Movie Features Keira Knightley, No References to Nazis

Well, Karl Lagerfeld’s latest Chanel mini-movie has hit the Internet. The boondoggle features Keira Knightley in the role of Coco Chanel, and tells the story of Chanel’s second boutique, a hat shop she opened in the resort town of Deauville in 1913 with financial backing from her boyfriend, Arthur “Boy” Capel. Aside from Knightley, the cast is mostly made up of models, not professional actors, so a lot of the acting is terribly stiff (Lindsey Wixson, I’m looking at you).

Still, it’s a good sight better than Lagerfeld’s other Chanel films, at least because it lacks characters in yellowface.

About the most offensive thing here is Chanel and her aunt and co-shopkeeper, Adrienne (played by French actress Clotilde Hesme) pointing and laughing through the shop window at passersby on the street. “Eugh,” says Chanel, as an overweight woman dressed in a white dress wanders by. Adrienne just giggles. Because LOL FAT PEOPLE!!!1!!1!

See if you can spot model Saskia De Brauw, who plays Vita Sackville-West, apparently.