Valentino Press Notes Master

PRODUCTION NOTES VALENTINO The Last Emperor Directed By Matt Tyrnauer Release date: September 3, 2009 Running time: 96 minutes Rated: TBC For more information contact Jillian Heggie at Hopscotch Films on: 02) 8303 3800 or email: [email protected] Production Notes Long Synopsis Valentino: The Last Emperor, directed by Matt Tyrnauer, is a feature-length movie that takes the viewer inside the singular world of one of Italy’s most famous designers, Valentino Garavani. The film documents the colorful and dramatic closing act of Valentino’s celebrated career, tells the story of his extraordinary life, and explores the larger themes affecting the fashion business today. In production from June 2005 to July 2007, the filmmakers shot over 250 hours of footage with exclusive, unprecedented access to Valentino and his entourage. “We were let in to the inner circle, but we had to stick it out for a long time, practically move in, to capture the truly great moments,” says Tyrnauer. “Valentino is surrounded by a tight-knit family of friends and employees, but, eventually, their guard came down and they forgot there was a camera crew in the room. The scope of Valentino’s wealth and the elaborateness of his global lifestyle put him on a level with emperors, kings, and queens. It is a world of villas, chateaux, yachts, fine art, and Meissen porcelain treasures. Valentino: The Last Emperor looks at a majestic life from the inside, but the movie is not a simple story of shallow glamour. It is the saga of a family—though not a traditional one—and a meditation on the creative process. It’s also the story of a soon-to-be- forgotten lifestyle at the twilight of haute couture. It is also, in the words of Valentino’s longtime business partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, “not a story of money or fashion; it is a story of love.” To know Valentino is also to know Giancarlo Giammetti, widely considered to be one of the most brilliant businessmen of his generation in Italy, and certainly one of the great business icons in the history of fashion. He and Valentino began as boyfriends in the early 1960s, and ended up as life business partners who, with great ambition and talent, have built a billion-dollar fashion business from the ground up. Anchoring the film’s narrative is the arc of Valentino’s last two years at the helm of the fashion house he created. Still at the top of his game after 45 years, the designer began with only a dream. A little boy from a middle-class family growing up in a small town outside of Milan, early on Valentino recognized his calling: to dress the stars he saw in the Hollywood movies his sister brought him to see at the local cinema. His talent for fashion presented itself at an early age—as did his iron will. As a schoolboy, he demanded that his mother take him to the local weavers so that he could get his sweaters custom-made to his own designs. 3 At 17 he set out for Paris and worked as an apprentice alongside other ambitious would- be couturiers (Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld, among them). Living in a garret apartment in Paris, he drew elaborate fantasy dresses (Lana Turner being his greatest inspiration), and then, one day, decided to strike out on his own. He was instantly recognized as a prodigy in the field of high fashion by certain ladies at the top of society. After a time in Paris, he took his talent to Rome (then a fashion capital equal to Paris) and began a journey unlike any other in the world of design. There were hundreds of names in high fashion in Rome at this time. Today there is only Valentino. While following the creative process, and seeing Valentino bring a full couture collection to the Paris runway, the camera captures the extraordinary relationship of Valentino and Giammetti. With access to the private world of our two main characters, we see how they love each other deeply, but can also fight with equal passion—in three languages: Italian, French and English. Not only have the two men altered the world of fashion, they have also redefined the idea of family, building an elaborate court of many loyal friends and workers, who help them run their global operation, carefully plotting which Oscar-nominated actress will wear which Valentino dress for the red carpet. The camera sees the inner workings of this amazing nomadic family, which moves around together from the places where Valentino and Giammetti maintain homes: Rome, Paris, London, Gstaad, Tuscany, and New York. In summer, they sail the Mediterranean aboard Valentino’s 152-foot yacht, the TM Blue One. The film opens backstage in February 2007 at Valentino’s spring prêt-a-porter show, when media speculation about Valentino’s retirement, his possible successors, and the future leadership of the company is reaching a crescendo. Rumors are swirling and emotions running high among his longtime staff—their futures are just as uncertain as Valentino’s. We flash back a year earlier and join Valentino in his studio designing the elaborate couture dresses that made him famous, and his dozens of seamstresses—many of whom have worked for him for 35 years or more—bringing his visions to life in the Rome headquarters’ three ateliers. There are many dramatic moments as everyone rushes to complete the collection in time for the Paris show. During this first act we meet Giancarlo Giammetti, Valentino’s business partner and companion of 50 years. The Valentino-Giammetti relationship is a remarkable story, and the camera is there to capture the good days and the bad, the tender moments and the quarrels, in this extraordinary relationship. The two perfectly complement one another. Valentino brings the creative vision, but, in his own words, is “a disaster in everything else.” Giammetti brings the business acumen and is credited with building the Valentino brand and empire. While Valentino focused on his art, Giammetti was busy inventing the modern fashion business, paving the way for global ad campaigns, branding, and licensing, which forever changed the industry. 4 Forty-five years, and many millions of dollars later, Valentino hasn’t forgotten Giammetti’s role in his life and career. After accepting France’s Legion of Honor for contributions to the arts and culture, Valentino offers up a rare, tearful tribute to his lifelong partner “who stayed by my side all these years.” Matteo Marzotto, chairman of the Valentino Fashion Group, whose family bought a controlling share of the company in 2002, puts it this way: “I don’t think Valentino would have been the same without Giancarlo. Not even half and not even one-third of it. ... How long is this relationship? 365 days a year, 24 hours, for 50 years. I mean, this is unique. And you cannot even say it’s for the money, for the power, for the what?” Members of café society and the beau monde who orbit Valentino’s world move in and out of the narrative of the film. Celebrities, royals, and high-society figures converge at an elaborate summer party Valentino throws at his 17th century Château Wideville, outside of Paris. In the manner of Gosford Park, we witness the event from parallel perspectives. “Downstairs,” the elaborate preparations of the multitudes of chefs, butlers, waiters and valets. “Upstairs,” the crowd mingles in opulent rooms, royals rubbing shoulders with Hollywood and the fashion world, butlers ducking to get out of the way. It’s a fantastic circus and a collision of worlds—Hollywood, European aristocracy, potentates of the east, wives of heads of state, nouveau riche and Eurotrash. The music of Nino Rota is elegantly, and at times ironically, woven through the film’s soundtrack. From the start of the movie, Valentino’s future hangs in the balance. “My future—I don’t really know what’s going on. I am a little confused. I live day by day,” he says at one juncture. Giancarlo acknowledges it’s not an easy time: “You have to choose between going on until the end of your life or until somebody tells you, ‘We need somebody else now.’ Or you decide to go—it’s a difficult step.” Looming on the horizon is an uncomfortable inevitability: There may be precious little room left for Valentino—who showed his clients how to live by example—in today’s bottom-line-driven fashion industry, where corporate mergers proliferate and branding is king. “The market is asking us to make different things,” Matteo Marzotto says. “So we have to change. This is the job, to change, to have new ideas.” In May 2007, the Marzotto family started selling its controlling stake in the company to private equity firm Permira, but Matteo stayed on as the company’s chairman. Matteo says, “I’m not sure Valentino really wants to change his own lifestyle after so many years.” But Valentino is defiant: “After so many decades, after so much work, after so much freedom, can you imagine me accepting [them] telling me, ‘You can’t do this. You can’t do that?’ I would eat them!” Even with their future so uncertain, Giammetti had a characteristically grand idea: Why not throw the biggest fashion event ever to mark Valentino’s achievements and secure his place in the fashion firmament? In June 2007, Valentino and Giammetti announced plans for an extravagant three day long event in Rome celebrating their 45th anniversary in fashion. The third act of the film follows them as they design and plan the festivities, including Valentino’s summer couture collection (to be shown in Rome for the first time in over 30 years), a retrospective of the designer’s work at the Ara Pacis Museum, a black-tie ball at the Villa Borghese, and an over-the-top gala bash at the Temple of Venus 5 overlooking the Coliseum, complete with fireworks and flying models.

Load more