This year’s Cannes Film Festival has a very special guest: a crocodile known the world over. But Lacoste, a brand with close ties to both actors and singers, wasn’t there to throw yet another party. Instead, the evening marked Lacoste’s entry into the world of film production, with a first feature film expected this autumn: Chien 51, by Cédric Jimenez. Its dazzling cast that includes Adèle Exarchopoulos, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Louis Garrel, Artus, and Stéphane Bak. Though this adaptation of Laurent Gaudé’s novel was not presented at Cannes, its announcement was celebrated as one does at Cannes: late into the night.
“Lacoste and cinema are nothing new. We appear in numerous works, and the biggest names in world cinema have worn us and continue to do so, both on screen and in their lives—Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, Audrey Hepburn, Adrien Brody, etc.,” Lacoste CEO Thierry Guibert told Vanity Fair France few hours before the event. He worked closely with producer Hugo Sélignac on the project.
“As co-producer, we’re making a financial contribution to the film. Lacoste will be present in Chien 51 through a co-created scene, in which we imagine how the brand might appear in the dystopian world envisioned in the film,” said Jimenez, who posed with the entire cast at the spectacular photocall set up for the occasion. The bubbly Jameela Jamil, who has known Lacoste well for years, was thrilled by the brand’s new enterprise: “You’ve got to be kidding! It’s a shame I’m rubbish at tennis,” she joked to Vanity Fair. Pelagia Kolotouros, Lacoste’s artistic director, is excited as well: “The crocodile never stops! Chien 51 is a film that particularly touches me, because it mixes nostalgia and futurism. And Adèle is an extraordinary muse, with whom we’re going to do great things in the future.”
