Agyness Deyn's Dark Side

Looks can kill. Model Agyness Deyn makes the startling transformation from blonde ingenue to raven-haired vamp in Mean To Me, a short film noir directed by artist duo David McDermott and Peter McGough. Shot in the latter’s anachronous 1932 Manhattan apartment, replete with art deco furniture, the 13-minute romp portrays Deyn as a victimized starlet consumed by passion and greed. Exacting revenge upon her abusive lover (Law and Order’s Linus Roache), Deyn’s femme fatale channels those of the past, notably Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity. A familiar sight on the runway for Chanel, Burberry and Alexander Wang, Deyn seduces on screen in Zac Posen’s pitch-perfect gowns, Guerlain's Shalimar perfume and an iridescent string of Mikimoto pearls. Such attention to historical detail is classic McDermott and McGough—the pair have lived and dressed as 19th-century gentlemen for three decades now—and gives this cinematic time capsule a period authenticity, shadowed with allusions to Hitchcock and Fritz Lang. Following the recent gala premiere in New York, Mean to Me will hit the festival circuit before landing at McDermott & McGough’s October exhibit at the Kunsthalle Wien, Austria.