Dior and I (2015)

I love this movie so much

Just what I expected

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

One of 2 docs available. Very inspiring. Fashion needs more. I'd like to do one. Director was great. I liked seeing Anna Wintour in a new light. His sensibility is fantastic. They come together beautifully. The synopsis is very true and well written. It is a very courageous work. The architecture in it is fascinating. It is well shot. It is,well lit. The sound is great. The behind the scenes abroad is awesome. They clearly got a lot of footage. The special events highlighted were fantastic. I got a deep view in.

I find that if you have to make a "behind the scenes" style documentary, you really need to have a good story. For fashion nerds, Dior might be an icon, for the rest of us, these are just people, trying very hard to look like they are doing something meaningful. Also, it doesn't help the Raf is repeatedly accused of being a racist, for his refusal to use non white models. It killed the fun for me, as I'm sure it will for others.I think in our day and age, something like this could not exist out of cultural and historical context, including the unpleasant sides of the world of fashion, especially considering they also had on their patrol John Galliano.

This interesting documentary, directed by Frederic Tcheng (Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel), gives us a behind-the-scenes look inside the House of Dior, in Paris. It centers on the newly hired Creative Director Raf Simons, along with his right-hand man Pieter Mulier, as they prepare for Simons' first haute couture show, to be held in just 8 weeks.Normally, a show such as this would take 4 to 6 months to prepare, so we'll see first hand the stress and uncertainties Simons will face as he gets to know the staff and the operations of the company. As he faces this extreme deadline, we will even be privy to his own personal concerns, including references to what certainly seemed like possible anxiety attacks.The film is cleverly interspersed with old film clips of the founder of the company, the renowned designer Christian Dior, who died in 1957. Dior will also narrate these clips in a most haunting way, also exposing his personal doubts as he prepared for his first haute couture show many decades before.Overall, although I admittedly know nothing about haute couture, I still found this documentary to be most interesting, as we see how what seems to be chaos, deadlines , and frenzied work lead in the end to a most amazing finished product.

"Dior and I" (2014 release from France; 90 min.) brings a close-up look at the fashion house of Christian Dior as it exists today. As the documentary opens (in 2012), the CEO of Christian Dior introduces a new creative director to the staff, a Belgian guy named Raf Simons. Raf is new to the "haute couture" as his background really is in "pret-a-porter" (ready to wear) and mostly for men on top of that. So this is a daring choice, and not one without risks. On top of that, Raf only has 8 weeks to come up with a new collection. And as if that isn't enough, Raf's use of French is okay but not fluent (he hails from Dutch-speaking Antwerp, Belgium, home of many other notable fashion designers). How will Raf do? Will his first collection be a success? To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: first, this is the latest documentary from writer-director Frédéric Tcheng, who most recently brought us the delightful "Diane Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel". Second, the challenges that Raf Simons is facing are significant from the get-go. Not only because of the ridiculous time constraints (normally a new collection gets started on 4 to 6 months out, not 8 weeks), but also because of Simons' personality, which isn't the easiest, and his transition to designing haute couture for women, rather than pret-a-porter for men. Along the way, we get to know many other characters, including Pieter Mulier, another Dutch-speaking Belgian who came with Raf and is his trusted right-hand man, and of course the French atelier workers. The tension builds up as we get closer to the deadline for presenting the new collection. Watching how Raf deals with the pressure on the day of the collection's premiere, that alone is worth seeing this documentary for.I recently saw this at the Landmark E Street Cinema in Washington DC. The matinée screening where I saw this at was very well attended, somewhat to my surprise to be honest. But I guess it just shows there really is an audience for a top-notch documentary on fashion. If this is your kind of thing, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.