Made in Milan

The year he directed Goodfellas (perhaps his best film), Martin Scorsese also did what looks like a TV documentary that runs for just under half an hour and focuses on fashion designer Giorgio Armani. Armani himself narrates the whole thing, and visually, it has some nice shots of various Milan interiors and exteriors, and some stuff that looks like behind-the-scenes footage of Armani doing... fashion stuff, I guess.

Look, fashion's not my thing. I don't get it. Part of me wonders if the world might be better in some way if people didn't care so much about the clothes they wear... but also, people do care, and I guess I just have to accept I don't get it.

If this documentary had been amazing, maybe it would've helped my understanding, but it feels a bit by the numbers. It has a few visually interesting moments and technically could've been worse, but it all felt a bit empty and whatever to me, but that could be just because it's about a subject I don't really care a great deal for.

As a lifelong Scorsese fanatic, I was excited to see this rare piece Scorsese did on Giorgio Armani in the '80s. "Made In Milan" is an uneven documentary sketch that overcomes the dullness of Armani himself to become something quite special. Its well worth sitting through Armani's tedious musings on life and clothing to see the film's climactic fashion show, (which Scorsese shoots with characteristic intensity.) Scorsese accomplishes the impossible by making us care briefly about the Armani's designs as art, (a quality which is most often overlooked for the crass, anorexic glitz of the fashion world.) I saw this film on a big screen during retrospective of Scorsese's shorts. I don't think this film is currently available on video.