Karl Lagerfeld’s legacy and ingenuity is well-documented, but the person behind the icon leaves a lot to the imagination. This one-on-one documentary attempts to unravel the mystery behind the diva and does a good job at it. It starts out with a series of coffee table interviews that chronicle everything from his childhood to his perception of death. He champions himself “the priest of non-believers,” while fluttering across religious subject matters and boasts about a non-theistic upbringing.

Lagerfeld constantly cites his mother’s words for his claims and does so with candid French pizzaz and German directness. His life is nothing short of luxury, from his private jetliner to his huge stow-away library to his undying fashion statements, whether at work or on a personal level. He is rarely filmed without his trademark glasses and winces in his seat whenever a camera catches him bare-faced. His insecurities rarely peak their heads, but his confidence is over-flowing. The re-vamper of Chanel contradicts himself by using the term “bourgeois” condescendingly a couple of times while running one of the biggest and most expensive fashion houses on earth. 

The shaky documentary goes on to visit his love life, about which the audience doesn’t get an earful but is left with a keen sense of his private life.

He does meander into the territory of sexuality with a brief snippet of a clip showing his enjoying a night out in, what seemed to be, New York’s infamous Splash Bar. But all speculation is settled with the portrayal of aesthetically-perfect male models travel with him at every turn as his muses for his other passion – photography. 

This documentary unveils certain aspects of Lagerfeld’s life without becoming overbearing or tell-all. It’s a bit messy at times, but never dull.