beantime

Like most people, my exposure to haute couture comes mostly from Vogue magazine and the "what are you wearing" interviews done on the red carpet. I expected this documentary to be a red carpet parade of elegant Dior couture, but instead saw a film that spends the majority of its time in the atelier (workroom) of the House of Dior to chronicle the less elegant process of creating a couture collection. The creative process takes us from Raf Simon's vision as the new artistic director for the House of Dior, to a complete couture collection, and it is a thrill ride. There is a necessary tension in Simon's need to be true to his own vision whilst being true to Dior and the film does a wonderful job of finding those synergies between Simon and Dior, both in their collections and as people. Layer that with a wonderful study in creative collaboration as the craftspeople who work at the atelier (some for 20 or 30+ years) meet and learn how to support Raf and his first ever couture collection. I have a new appreciation for the art of haute couture after seeing this film. If I only had the budget!

I saw this at the Portland Latin American Film Festival where the director, Ezio Massa, was in attendance, introducing the film and following with a Q&A. In reading the synopsis, I thought I was in for a very small 'cute' movie about the boys' tracking down a TV to watch the game on. Instead, what I saw was a deep, delicately written and superbly-acted film. We were fortunate to have the director there for a Q&A following the film and were able to learn a lot more about this great little gem. Many of the actors were kids local to the barrio that the film was shot in. Maybe this is why their characters felt so genuine (particularly the youngest boy). That the director was able to give us a close-up view into this world without altering it is really remarkable. Bravo!