CHANEL N°5: The One That I Want

Ten years ago, renowned filmmaker Baz Luhrmann (The Great Gatsby, Australia, Moulin Rouge!, Romeo + Juliet, Strictly Ballroom, and more) brought us an epic narrative in a mini–romance film in the form of a Chanel No. 5 commercial, starring Academy Award–winning actress Nicole Kidman. Back then, Luhrmann depicted a particular character, a woman reflective of that time and space and in need of escape from her famed reality, who Kidman was perfectly suited for—the kind of woman who would wear Chanel No. 5.

Today, 10 years after that first film-commercial, Luhrmann has done it again, this time starring ultimate supermodel Gisele Bündchen and actor Michiel Huisman (known for his latest role as Daario Naharis in the HBO series Game of Thrones), who are very much characterized in reality. This Chanel No. 5 film-commercial, titled The One That I Want, is about the 21st-century woman who has it all but draws the line on her career when her marriage is in trouble, ultimately choosing love. Bündchen, aptly identified as the Chanel No. 5 woman of today, is reflective of how Coco Chanel herself brought the “new era” into the old world in the first place with her new-world female power and sensibilities. Conceived, produced, and directed by Luhrmann, with the soundtrack re-interpreted and crooned by a very talented newcomer, Lo-Fang, The One That I Want feels like a trailer for a full-length film that never got made.