She’s been mu(i)se and model for Miuccia Prada since the 90s, but now, Chloë Sevigny has stepped behind the camera for her latest project with Miu Miu, premiering her own installment of the brand’s Women’s Tales series in New York yesterday. 

Carmen is a flexing of Sevigny’s new directorial muscles, but it couldn’t be further from the whimsy of her first fantasy-inspired short, Kitty, about a girl who wishes herself into being a cat. Instead, it follows Spanish-American comedian Carmen Lynch through a cinematic world not unlike another Lynch’s – all illuminated by red bulbs and neon lights.

There’s a wry sense of humour to Lynch and Sevigny’s world, a way for the director to explore the ideas she’s interested in of “process, being a woman, celebrity and ego,” through comedy that has an innate darkness to it. Voyeuristic and candidly confessional, Carmen captures the realities of life as a woman today, from modern dating misfires to the ludicrous price of the morning-after pill. Talking about her friend not wanting to find out the sex of her baby, the comedian deadpans: “She says it’s life’s biggest surprise. That’s not life’s biggest surprise – death is life’s biggest surprise.”

Lynch herself says of the project, “(It) really captures a lot of who I am,” a comment that’s a testament to Sevigny’s refreshing insight into the world of the female comic (who, let’s face it, often has a pretty hard time of it by virtue of simply  being a woman). Carmen sits well in the canon of films created by other leading figures for series – including Cannes fixture Naomi Kawase and Oscar-nominated Ava DuVernay. It’s a wonder why Sevigny hasn’t been tapped before. 

Watch the film below and explore more of the ‘Women’s Tales’ series and extra content here.