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Cuando los grandes diseñadores llegan al cine...

Valentino: The last emperor

un documental de Matt Tyrnauer

La semana que viene se estrena en New York la película acerca de Valentino. Sin lugar a dudas, detrás de este gran diseñador, hay una historia muy interesante. A continuación les pego una nota del propio director de la película para que descubran cuál va a ser el punto de vista de esta creación. No puedo decir más acerca del film, ya que todavía no lo pude ver...

Making “Valentino: The Last Emperor”

By Matt Tyrnauer (director/producer of Valentino the Last Emperor)(from the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival).

I approached the story of Valentino from a journalistic standpoint, but soon after we began shooting, I discovered that direct cinema (the filmmaking style advanced by the great Maysles brothers) would be much more powerful than any of the traditional "information seeking" practices a journalist usually employs. Having come from journalism (I have writen for many years for Vanity Fair), I did find some familiar tasks as I move along in the filmmaking process. Doing a huge magazine feature, as my mentor Graydon Carter likes to say, is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together in the dark. You have gathered hundreds or thousands of bits of information, all out of order, and you then have to assemble them without a script. Editing this movie, with the peerless guidance of Bob Eisenhardt and the very capable hand of Frederic Tcheng, as well as the advice of producer Matt Kapp and valuable contribution of B. J. Perlmutt, was that familiar search in the dark for the story. Eisenhardt's almost spooky calmness was essential, as was his ingenious color-coded index-card master scene board. I will not describe it in any greater detail, in the name of preserving trade secrets.

We were blessed with great material after more than two years of shooting (270 hours of footage), and we leaned how to work with a tight posse and with ultra-light equipment (the Sony Z1U). Tom Hurwitz and Frederic Tcheng shot most of the film, with Frederic trying to mimic Tom's unsurpassed cinematographic style. Peter Miller was our sound man, and we tried to adhere to his high standards and copy his sly tricks even when he was not on set. But all of the technical and artistic advantages we had could not compare with the true brilliance of the picture's leading men. Valentino as a man, and a character, is bigger than life. When we rolled the dailies, we immediately saw that legendary designer is also a born movie star. He has a very engaging cinematic presence, yet he is unselfconscious of his actions. He plays himself 24/7, and he does a masterful job. The story of this movie unfolds in the scenes between Valentino and his longtime business partner - and onetime lover - Giancarlo Giammetti. Together, the inseparable pair redefined the business of fashion and, as we see on film, created a new definition of human partnership. They are closer than close. "Spousal" doesn't quite cover it. I'd say they are a part of the same person, and so it has seemed to observers who know them much better than I.

The film was in production from June 2005 to July 2007. At first, I thought the movie would be defined by the majesty and sweep of Valentino's life. He lives like a king, and has the castles and the boats and the planes, which were to be our sets. When we screened the footage before the editing started, we were pleased to find we had the potential for much more than a fashion movie on our hands. Over months, what began to take shape was a portrait of an extraordinary partnership, the longest-running in fashion, and a dramatic story about a master confronting the final act of his celebrated career. Near the end of our shooting period, the Valentino Fashion Group was sold to a private equity firm, and Valentino, after years of being sheltered from the rough-and-tumble of the fashion biz, had to confront some of hard realities concerning his industry today, where being an icon and the marquee name are only part of the game. This story line, which we followed aggressively, makes the movie a relevant tale about the business and the struggle of the artists against commerce.