Review: Valentino: The Last Emperor (2008)

Directed by: Matt Tyrnauer | 96 minutes | documentary

Few women will have never heard of Valentino. The man who can make beautiful dresses that make every woman feel like a princess. A man who even has a color named after; Valentino red. And the man who designed the wedding dress for our own princess Maxima. After 45 years of fashion design, he retired at the age of 76. That happened with a fantastic party in Rome. The preparations for this party and for his last show have been filmed for this documentary.

It has become a story about a special man who has made many women all over the world very happy. Models running around with a makeup artist and a stylist behind them. Great hectic behind the scenes of a fashion show, that is the image with which the film ‘Valentino: The Last Emperor’ starts. We get to know Valentino in a different way, we see how a dress is made and how personally he is involved in each design. We also see how much his staff love to work for him, but still might occasionally stick him behind the wallpaper in frustration. Every detail on the dress must be done by hand. And if Mr Valentino changes his mind and does not like it, we have to start all over again. People are all about it.

Valentino is not a fashion designer, but a household name. His five adorable pugs are always near him, as is his great support and reference Giancarlo Giametti. There is laughter with this documentary, but it also contains emotional moments. You look at real people, and the director has also emphasized that. Valentino’s personality comes to the fore. That he occasionally disagrees at all with his partner Giametti’s ideas about the fashion show, that he does not like being filmed at all and that tears of emotion run down his face from time to time. roll.

The documentary ‘Valentino: The Last Emperor’ not only gives a picture of the man behind the beautiful dresses, but also of the entire fashion world. Richness and glitz and glamor is only the outside. Behind the scenes it is stress and hard work. For those who want to see how things work in the fashion world, this film is very suitable. Fans of Valentino and fans of beautiful clothes will also love this film. And the most important point of a good documentary; it will not get boring. You keep watching until the end.