18 September 2009
Valentino: The Last Emperor
4 Thumbs up
In Valentino: The Last Emperor, Matt Tyrnauer manages to surprise with his acutely observed portrait. To an audience saturated with Project Runway and America's Top Model, Valentino, a favourite of Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, Princess Diana and Julie Roberts shows why he is the last of the truly haute couture designers.
The exacting master supervises a team of over seventy seamstresses who sew every stitch by hand. There is a guilty pleasure as we witness the extraordinary excesses of the man; his clothes, his air-kissing friends and fans, the gossip, the backstage bitching, the tantrums and all the flashbulb moments of his career. But the real drama lies beneath. Slowly what emerges is a poignant love story between Valentino and his lifetime business partner and lover, the patient and loyal Giancarlo Giammetti who gently but firmly steers his workaholic husband to a grand finale and to retirement. Bellissima.
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