English actress and icon Charlotte Rampling is given a documentary once-over in tune with her nonconformist personality in The Look. German helmer Angelina Maccarone, whose fiction features such as Unveiled and Vivere also showcased strong femme protags, dubs this work “a self-portrait through others,” and lets Rampling discuss topics ranging from age to desire and death with artist friends such as Peter Lindbergh and Paul Auster. Light on biographical detail, the film instead investigates Rampling’s fascinating personality. The pic’s ideally suited to kick off retros at cinematheques, and could do minor niche theatrichal biz, though it lacks any bigscreen wow. Opening seg, which sees Rampling discuss Exposure with Lindbergh, is the strongest of all segments, a telling mini-portrait not only of Rampling, her relationship to her profession, her looks and the camera, but also of the celebrity photographer and the duo’s playful friendship. In a spontaneous moment, Rampling makes Lindbergh pose for some pictures, which apparently he has never done before. Unsurprisingly, the 65-year-old diva not only turns out to be a capable shutterbug but loves being in command. (…) A total of eight topics are explored, each time in one-on-one conversations that take place between New York, Paris and England. Subjects include Age, with novelist Paul Auster; Taboo with German photographer Juer- gen Teller, with whom she shot the risque 2005 Louis XV series, and Desire with production designer Franckie Diago, with whom she worked on Laurent Cantet’s sex-tourism pic Heading South. (…) Much to her credit, Maccarone tries to paint a picture of the artist’s personality rather than make a straightforward and chronological biography.

Boyd Van Hoeij, Variety, may 19, 2011