DIOR Illusions & Mirrors featuring Natalie Portman

Feast your eyes on this dose of beautiful imagery in Black and White film.   “Illusions and Mirrors” featuring Academy Award winning actress Natalie Portman will be showcased  at Dior’s Miss Dior Exposition at the Grand Palais in November. Musician and poet Johnny Azari created the compositional landscape for the Dior commissioned 12-minute film shot by  Academy Award Nominee Darius Khondji and directed by artist Shirin Neshat.

The full-length film will premiere at the Miss Dior Exposition and only be available as an art piece in the exhibition. Filmed in Neshat’s characteristic, radical, mainly black-and-white style, Illusions & Mirrors traces the somnambulistic hallucinations of a young woman, played by Natalie Portman. Illusions & Mirrors is about the futile attempt of chasing a shadow that wanders through the dunes of an empty beach. When it finally comes to an encounter in a deserted house, the young woman experiences a disturbing surprise.

“‘Illusions & Mirrors'” came to me as a completely silent film and my job was to give it ears. Shirin Neshat’s masterful images told an abstract story that I’ve felt too often in a literal way: is any of this real; who am I now, who have I been, and what will I be? The challenge of the piece was to not use music in an orthodox way, but rather write a tone poem. The mansion that Natalie Portman is lost in felt like a metaphor for one’s mind. I tried to create those auditory moments in life that makes reality quite questionable.” – Johnny Azari, composer and sound designer of Illusions & Mirrors.

About the Miss Dior Exposition:
For the first time in its history, the House of Dior’s original scent Miss Dior and founding creation is the focus of a major exhibition. To pierce the mystery of this unique fragrance and draw inspiration from the ideal young woman who embodies it, Dior has invited fifteen women artists from around the world to find inspiration in their contemporary creations in Miss Dior. Each piece is displayed alongside the patrimonial Miss Dior reference that inspired it. The famous Miss Dior bow, the rose, the houndstooth check or the ravishing Natalie Portman, who currently embodies the spirit of the fragrance, provided a plethora of images and codes from which the artists could choose. Legendary dresses are also displayed throughout the exhibition, including the flamboyant red “Concerto” dress (1957) and the extremely popular “Bar Suit” (1947), as well as contemporary creations by Raf Simons, who adds a modern touch to the original “Miss Dior” dress and celebrates the eternal Dior Couture lines in a shimmering palette of colors.

Illusions & Mirrors will be one of the 15 featured  works from internationally celebrated female artists and designers. for Dior’s Miss Dior Exposition at the Grand Palais from November 13th – 25th 2013. DIOR Illusions & Mirrors featuring Natalie Portman commentary by Brigitte Segura.  See the Film here.

ILLUSIONS & MIRRORS credits:

Shirin Neshat, USA/A 2013
With: Natalie Portman
Camera: Darius Khondji
Editor: Nariman Hamed
Music & Sound: Johnny Azari

check out more from Shirin Neshat on Artsy