Seamless (2005)

Truly Dreadful Film

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

a film named Seamless, given viewers the idea of how garments were made and designers' process on designing collections. what it takes for fashion designers to go from good to great it's all about the original takes on garment making, all that, you don't see a bit in the film. Name seamless but little about inspirational view on design and fashion. All we can learn is how hard and tiresome designers' life is (from all different ages). It is not an inspirational film for any designers to learn and walk away with ideas and be inspired to be great, no, you would feel more of the dark and low and down fall with the emotions that may need you take sometimes to recover from feeling hopeless situation of fashion business if you are not being rich, but it isn't true. This is a film about life not a film about fashion, I dare to say there is so little telling about design and fashion and talents but more on the hardship of getting to the business. Even the winner in the end, we don't see the collection and what made them unique to win such a hard price.....shamefully made. But like I said. It's a film about life. One surprise part is to see the soft and human side of Anna Wintour.

Sort of the actual Project Runway. I had no expectations, but was totally drawn in by this film, a simple and candid look at the somewhat ugly innards of the fashion business. I doubt anyone without some peripheral experience or knowledge of the industry realizes how grueling it actually is; the fact that you can be touted as a success and yet still be up to your eyeballs in debt. The filmmaker did an excellent job of capturing the subjects and the tension was tangible. My personal favorite was the Russian designer of the Cloak line, I hope he succeeds in the business.Plus, you get to see Claire Danes get hit in the head with a camera.(just joking)

I just saw this documentary film at the Newport International Film Festival last night (June 7, 2005) and have to say that I liked it a lot.This is a film about how the fashion industry (which included Vogue magazine), in order to encourage new and upcoming fashion talent, create a fund to provide incentive capital to a designer who has, not just well thought out clothes, but also has the business sense to survive. It is a tale about how the fashion industry realizes that there doesn't seem to be anyone replacing the likes of well known but aging designers and how they realize that something needs to be done to encourage growth. It is also a look about how terribly difficult it is to take a business idea, especially in the fashion industry, and make it grow.A panel of judges is formed to screen approximately 175 potential candidates. The movie starts at the point where there are 10 semi-finalists. The movie follows three of these semi-finalists from visits to their workshop(s), putting on a public fashion show, putting on another "show" in front of the judges with the designers choice of 5 of his/hers best outfits (one finalist, who was not one of the three filmed, only made shoes, another made jewelry), plus grill sessions concerning business sense, etc. At the end of the movie there is a banquet where the top prize is awarded. With only one winner, you, as an audience, have been so well manipulated by the film that you feel almost instant grief for those others who didn't win. It is a well told story! To give you an idea as to how well, considering I don't follow the glitterati of the world (especially in fashion), I came away from the movie thinking how I would like to get a tuxedo from this one designer.So why did I rate this a 7? In short: cinematography and editing. After the screening last night I came close to asking the director if the budget had been so tight that he couldn't afford a tripod. This was because the entire movie (at least it SEEMED like the entire movie) was one jerky scene after another (especially in the public fashion show). In a few other scenes the camera was not focused on the subjects but, rather, on the wall beyond the subjects. This, to me, was quite irritating because I was not allowed enough opportunity to appreciate and evaluate the clothes that were so vital to the survival of the contestants. I realize that the hand-held camera technique is supposed to lend an air of authenticity to the film. In my opinion, however, it should only be used when a) it is absolutely mandatory (filming in a white-water raft or in very close quarters with a moving subject, for example), b) when you can't afford SteadiCam equipment and/or operators, or c) when you can't afford a tripod. A good example of a good balance between hand-held technique and traditional tripod/dolly/etc. methods is "Day For Night" (La Nuit Americaine) by Francois Truffaut.And as for editing, is it really too much to ask to have a minimum cut of 3 seconds instead of 3 frames? While this complaint did not happen much (fortunately), when it did occur during the public fashion show I felt cheated because I was not allowed the opportunity to make my own evaluations of what had been created by these people the movie was trying to get us to embrace. The only time I have seen quick cuts used effectively is for flashback sequences, otherwise I find it irritating, as it was when I saw "Moulin Rouge".Don't get me wrong, I liked the movie well enough to want to see it again. Only next time I'm going to wear glasses with self-leveling electronics in them.

"Seamless" documents the establishment of a new fund created jointly by Vogue Magazine and the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers) in fall 20004 and the process by which ten finalists are weeded down to one winner. The filmmaker follows three of these ten fashion lines- Doo-Ri, menswear line Cloak (designed by Alexandre Plokhov), and Proenza Schouler (designed by the disarming and charming duo Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough). We see the struggles of the jury - composed of fashion editors (Anna Wintour), young but established designers (Narciso Rodriguez), and CFDA members as they determine the purpose of the award and then interview the designers, travel to showrooms and watch their shows for spring 2005. Unfortunately, given the numerous people the filmmaker follows, we never get to know any of the design finalists in the same way viewers felt they knew designer Isaac Mizrahi (of Mr. Keeve's previous movie, "Unzipped") and "Seamless" feels less involving because of it. Of course, a good part of the charm of "Unzipped" was undeniably the effervescent Mr. Mizrahi, and his brief cameo in "Seamless" reminds that fashion, while a serious business, is ultimately something that should be fun and enjoyed.