Valentino a Haute Couture Celebration
Shot over a two year period between 2005 and 2007, Valentino: The Last Emperor is a beautifully intimate swan song to one of the all-time great Italian designers, Valentino Garavani. A giant in the industry almost without peer, filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer, Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine, showcases in minute detail the haute couture legend’s day-to-day life, all of it culminating at the spectacular 45th anniversary celebration in Rome.
Valentino Garavani (center) and his models in Truly Indie's Valentino: The Last Emperor
At the heart of this film is the 50 year relationship between the designer and his business partner and companion Giancarlo Giammetti. Together, they speak about the past and continue to try and build towards the future even as a changing commercial landscape threatens to irrevocably change their lavish way of life. It is a love story of friendship, companionship and emotional intimacy so stirring you could be forgiven for thinking it fictional, their bonds so strong one can’t help but imagine only universal Armageddon would be the only way to destroy it.
Tyrnauer achieves a whimsical, absolutely enchanting Upstairs, Downstairs intimacy here that’s absolutely captivating. What more, thanks to a corporate raid by the European conglomerate Permira the films starts to feel cloaked under a forbidding tragic shadow of gloom, the fanciful (and profitable) world these two icons created one unfortunately ripe for usurping and dismemberment in this corporate money-mad day and age. Together these two competing threads wrap one around the other to show us images and people we seldom get the opportunity to see, their competing agendas taking on an emotional subtext that’s extremely fascinating.
There is the unavoidable air of snobbish priggishness, of course, the circles Valentino and Giammetti run in ones very few of us can actually relate to let alone understand. Additionally, the fact so many millions get spent with so little in the way of reservation can’t help but grate a teensy little bit considering the economic realities facing the majority of us. There is an aloof standoffishness by the pair, their company and by the corporation trying to force them out that’s difficult to comprehend, and while the final coda is admittedly moving and sad it’s still difficult to feel bad for any of the obscenely wealthy individuals at the center the maelstrom.
Yet, like the best fiction taking readers inside the bedrooms and hallways of the aristocracy or filthy rich, it’s hard not to watch this two year saga and not become enthralled by it all. The joy on Valentino’s face when he views his life’s work at the gala celebration is striking in its poignancy, and I can’t help but admit to shedding a few tears of my own as the documentary came to its end.
All-in-all, I think Tyrnauer does a yeoman’s job here, cutting to the heart of the matter with expert precision so exact it borders on the miraculous. Arguably the last of his kind, Valentino Garavani has achieved a societal imprint ranking with some of the greatest artists of the 20th Century, Valentino: The Last Emperor a touching tribute cut from a designer cloth so unique it’s unlikely to ever be duplicated.
Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)
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