Chanel Underwhelms..."There You Are"

 Plans disappear, dreams take over. But wherever I go there you are. My luck, my fate, my fortune...inevitable.

Who exactly writes those things?
Why the elocution that accents the words like it's a play at the Old Vic?
Where's the direction by Joe Wright?

Something doesn't mesh...

 "don’t mourn your luck that’s failing now,
 work gone wrong, your plans all proving deceptive
—don’t mourn them uselessly"*.

 * excerpt from the poem "The God Abandonds Antony" (1911) by C.Cavafy, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard

Brad Pitt Speaking Seductively to Chanel No.5

'To keep a legend fresh, you always have to change its point of view,' President of Chanel Fragrance & Beauty, Andrea d’Avack, tells WWD. 'It is the first time we’ve had a man speaking about a women’s fragrance. We think very much that the perfume is a seduction between a man, a woman and the perfume. No.5 is our leading fragrance, and we are willing to make the investment to keep it on that level.' Brad Pitt was thus chosen to be that investment, as we announced a while ago.

 'For the first time, a man will give his view on the most feminine and legendary of fragrances,' the Chanel invite to view the premiere of the new "film project" on October 15th reads. The commercial is shot by Joe Wright (who also did the Coco Mademoiselle ones), featuring the famous actor (who was recompensed with £4.3 million for his services) speaking to the viewer as if he was speaking to a woman. Actually, though, he's talking to the perfume...

 I'm already scratching my head how this will unfold. Our French speaking readers will enjoy the following promo video about No.5's "history" (I'm using it in quotes as the real history is somewhat different than the carefully constructed myth...)

 

Brad Pitt as New Face for Chanel ~but for Chanel No.5!

Has the "men trying feminine fragrances, women wearing masculine colognes" bit gone over your head? Brad Pitt is here at last to promote a famous perfume aimed at women in the new advertising campaign of the most famous French house that will surely have many dropping their jaws.

The actor and director has been unveiled as the new face of Chanel No.5 and follows in the footsteps of not just Marilyn Monroe who famously wore only this while in bed, but Catherine Deneuve, Nicole Kidman (unveiled as the face in 2003) and Audrey Tautou (shooting a fabulous commercial in 2009)

"According to E! Online, [Brad] will receive a seven-figure sum for his trouble and a source told the site that Pitt, 48, will shoot his first advertising campaign in London this week." [source] This piece of news is officially corroborated as having Pitt on board.

It will surely be an interesting commercial to watch. I'm actually really taken with the idea. Might we be in for such imaginative concepts as those presented in this magnificent Ridley Scott Chanel No.5 commercial?

EDIT TO ADD: According to Daily ELLE, there is a masculine fragrance version of Chanel No.5 in the works, to be revealed "in the following months". Chanel didn't confirm or deny this rumour. 

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Chanel No.5 through the years: the images, the faces, the advertisements

Collage of Brad Pit with Chanel No.5 bottle author's own.