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The Reign of Valentino: The Last Emperor

September 24, 2009

Writer-turned-filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer first met Valentino Garavani six or so years ago when he penned an article on the legendary fashion designer for Vanity Fair Magazine. This was long before Tyrnauer even had an inkling that the piece would be the basis for his motion picture, the feature-length documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor. But it wasn’t solely the designer’s duds and exorbitant lifestyle that intrigued Tyrnauer.

 

“I first met him when I was wrote the feature for Vanity Fair,” first-time filmmaker Tyrnauer told me in a recent interview. “I was surprised to discover how really interesting he was, and that his business partner and

companion, Giancarlo Giammetti, was also fascinating. I wrote a story about the both of them and it worked.”

 

Indeed it did. Pulling in an impressive $1.8 million at the box office over the course of its five-month theatrical rollout, Valentino already ranks as one of the year’s most popular documentaries. And its release on DVD and Blu-ray disc by Phase 4 Films on Sept. 8 has further cemented its positive critical and commercial reputation. Again, Tyrnauer is convinced that it’s the story of the pair and not just the designer that makes the film click.

 

“Nobody had ever written about Valentino and Giancarlo as a couple or a pair and after the Vanity Fair piece was so well-received, I asked them if they would do the movie,” said Tyrnauer. “They said ‘yes’ after thinking about it a little bet. Part of what helped them decide is the fact I didn’t have a fashion background. That worked for me—and I think it was a relief for them.

 

Gaining exclusive access to Valentino and his entourage for some two years from June 2005 through July 2007, Tyrnauer and his team shot more than 250 hours of footage. And, yes, there were problems with said access from the beginning.

 

“Oh, Valentino would quit the movie every day, and then he would re-hire himself every day,” said Tyrnauer. “They didn’t know what I was going to do and I had the final cut. There have been other movies on Valentino—more impressionistic ones, along the lines of what you see on TV. But they were happy with it in the end, though they weren’t fully aware of how aggressive we would become.

 

“And considering how invasive making a movie is, I’m surprised at how well it all went,” he added.

Posted by Laurence Lerman on September 24, 2009 | Comments (1)