Australian actor Jacob Elordi makes his debut as the face of Bleu de Chanel L’Exclusif in a thrilling new film by Alfonso Cuarón
“Interior, night. A suspended atmosphere hangs in the air. The music hits. He moves as if in a dream, guided by an ideal, drawn toward pure action. Our hero, with his wry smile and a body supple as a bow, hears nothing as he makes his way toward the safe.”
So begins the new campaign video for Bleu de Chanel L’Exclusif, the latest addition to the Bleu de Chanel fragrance family. Written and directed by Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón, the unique blend of humour and a thrilling heist is not only the latest in nearly five decades of extraordinary collaborations with the world’s greatest filmmakers but also the first action film to celebrate a Chanel fragrance. Adding to the excitement, it also marks the debut of the new ambassador of Bleu de Chanel L’Exclusif – Australian actor-of the-moment Jacob Elordi.
The film opens on the hero – Elordi, in a sleek suit and tie – breaking open the safe with masterful ease. Inside: a bottle of Bleu de Chanel L’Exclusif, calling to him as if it’s his alter ego. What he hasn’t accounted for is an equally determined woman pursuing the same object. Next comes a frenzied chase, a martial-arts duel, and a standoff on a terrace against a glittering skyline. Elordi eventually retrieves the bottle, only for a third hand – anonymous, without defined gender – to emerge from off-screen. “It seizes the bottle of Bleu de Chanel L’Exclusif, so that the perfume of desire may continue to circulate, again and again.”
The “unprecedented aesthetic revolution” was conceived by Thomas du Pré de Saint Maur, global head of creative resources for Chanel Fragrance & Beauty, with the intention of evoking “contemporary masculinity with wit and intuition, raising new questions about desire, the freedom to be oneself and the exchange of emotion”. From the initial heist sequence to the classic twist at the end, Cuarón has brought the story to vivid life in his own distinctive style.
Elordi’s casting, meanwhile, solidifies his status among Hollywood’s most iconic leading men. After first gaining international attention as Nate Jacobs in Euphoria, he has taken on a series of memorable roles in films such as Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn and Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla (as Elvis Presley) and the limited series The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Most recently, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the Creature in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, and starred as Heathcliff in Fennell’s reimagining of Wuthering Heights opposite Margot Robbie – the heroine of a 2024 romantic film by Luca Guadagnino created for none other than the iconic N°5.
Intriguing, enveloping and warm, Bleu de Chanel L’Exclusif was created by Chanel perfumer creator Olivier Polge with an intense amber-woody trail. Sandalwood – sustainably sourced from the island of Maré in New Caledonia – is the dominant note, its character deepened by the leathery, resinous quality of cistus labdanum. “Bleu de Chanel L’exclusif is a dense, sophisticated and complex composition, in the manner of an extrait,” says Polge, “A concentrate of exceptional raw materials. A majestic and mysterious interpretation of Bleu de Chanel.”
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