Christian Dior animates a midnight call from Marlene Dietrich

The telephone rings at 30 Avenue Montaigne on a quiet winter’s night in 1949, and on the line is Marlene Dietrich, urgent and elegant, in need of a dress. This is the premise of Christian Dior’s Night in Color, an animated short film directed by award winning French filmmaker Sylvain Chomet, crafted to mark the season and now rolling out across the house’s platforms.

The film unfolds with the wit and visual charm one expects from Chomet, whose sensibility has long drawn from the theatrical and the whimsical. Here, his hand animates the midnight drama of creation: Christian Dior himself, voiced by Louis Garrel, sits contemplative in his atelier as the mysterious machinery of design springs to life. Robert Pattinson anchors the film in his narration, lending gravitas to the nocturnal scene, while LaKeith Stanfield materialises as Ron the Director, shepherding the narrative forward with peculiar authority.

The cast itself reads as a love letter to cinema and music: Camille Cottin embodies Marlene Dietrich with all the contralto sophistication the role demands; Rihanna appears as the Lucky Star, a celestial muse in the story’s emotional architecture. Three voices, Nine d’Urso, Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Greta Lee, merge as the Bees, those whimsical companions to any act of creation. Josh O’Connor lends voice to the Chair, a seemingly minor player who becomes something more in Chomet’s hands.

The film celebrates not merely the act of dressmaking but the urgency and intimacy of it: a woman of consequence calling in the depths of night, the designer rising to meet her need, the quiet drama of craft and service that has always belonged to Dior’s mythology. Chomet’s animation style, all fluid line and burnished colour, transforms Avenue Montaigne into something almost dreamlike, a place where the practical and the magical converge.

The film goes live from tomorrow at 10am Paris time.

Imagery courtesy of Christian Dior (@dior).