On Sept. 14 the famous French haute-couture brand Kenzo released its new commercial short film named Cabiria, Charity, Chastity and you should totally check it out.
This short marks Natasha Lyonne’s (Orange is the New Black, Slums of Beverly Hills) directorial debut and proves that she is not only a talented actress but also a fascinating human being with an eloquent mind that uses this first piece to express herself and show the world a story that a lot of people can relate to.
Every year for the Fashion Week Kenzo releases a new campaign to promote its new fall/winter collection. Last September it was the actress and musician Carrie Brownstein that directed the short The Realest Real and blessed us with a hilarious satire on technology and social media. This year, Natasha Lyonne took Kenzo down a surreal road introducing Chastity (Maya Rudolph), a woman that must reconcile her past in order to move on with her life and face her future – a topic shared by a fair amount of the human population.
Maya Rudolph is “Chastity” in Cabiria, Charity, Chastity
Even if the main goals of these campaigns are to promote Kenzo’s new collections Natasha Lyonne succeed on using Cabiria, Charity, Chastity as a platform in which she addresses different types of issues such as parents pushing their children in the not-so-glamourous business of showbusiness, a theme that resonates with the actress’s experience – at the age of 6 Lyonne started her career as a child actor in the TV show Peewee’s Playhouse.
But what also breaks through in this short film is its cinematography, filled with neon lights and dark rooms that bring an intriguing aspect to the picture and captivates the viewer with contrasts of colors emphasized by a mesmerizing soundtrack led by John Maus and GangGangDance. As for the cast Natasha Lyonne invited all types of different people such as Maya Rudolph, Fred Armisen or Greta Lee that played each of their characters wonderfully.
With this film Natasha Lyonne writes her name on the still too short list of female directors and achieves the goal of marking her directorial debut with a strong piece that only leaves us with the desire of wanting to discover more of what her mind can hide.
You can watch Cabiria, Charity, Chastity here : kenzo.com/chastity
