Friday, March 20, 2009

He Is The Man

Last night I spent quite the enjoyable evening with Zenia, Laia and Vivian going to dinner and a movie.  Dinner was good, but the movie, Valentino:  The Last Emperor, was the highlight of the night.

This is easily the most charming movie I have seen in quite some time.  If you're not familiar with it, the film is a documentary covering the last two years of Valentino's career prior to his retirement.  It covers his shows, his relationship with his partner (both in the personal and business sense) Giancarlo, his dogs, his seamstresses and it covers his final blowout party at the Coliseum.  He is a wonderfully fastidious, eccentric, delightfully imperial little man who is simply a joy to watch.    

The craftsmanship that is involved in his clothing is the second star of the movie.  Everything, and I mean everything, is done by hand.  They don't even have sewing machines in the atelier!  I actually came out of the theater totally depressed that he had retired, as it is pretty clear that no one is going to be following in his very talented couture oriented footsteps.

So get thee to the Film Forum before March 31st and prepare to be transported (to Valentino's world...it is his and we just live in it).  

Outside of New York, look for it to open during the month of April.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh, I'm not even a fan of Valentino but now I want to see all these clothes made my hand!

pve design said...

Long ago, I had a red Valentino Dress that I had purchased on sale, and I felt ever so elegant. I hope to hop in to the city for the movie.

Anonymous said...

The documentary sounds great. A few weeks back I saw the French documentary LAGERFELD CONFIDENTIAL
that was also amazing.

Laura said...

PVE - I am uber jealous of your dress! Hope you make it to the city.

M- Oooh, I am really going to have to hunt that one down. Lagerfeld was in the movie for a moment as well and the two of them really are the last of the greats.

Joyce said...

Thanks for the info on Valentino! I so want to see this- I'm off to see if it is playing near me.
Have a golden Sunday!

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