It’s a safe bet that we’ve heard everything we needed to hear from John Galliano, the subject of this intricate, complex documentary portrait. After the formerly famous and admired British fashion designer was filmed drinking, hard and spewing antisemitic tirades at strangers from his favored corner seat at his local bar, La Perle, in Paris, his legacy should have been buried and the attention should have been buried. the fashion world should have turned to other figures less radioactively compromised. But this way Washington Post “Fashion has a very short memory,” observes journalist Robin Givhan scathingly, especially when it comes to well-connected white men with powerful friends.
Galliano, who was ignominiously fired from his post as creative director at Dior in 2011, first got rid of his alcohol and prescription drug addictions with a period of rehabilitation, and then embarked on a comprehensive, painstaking correction process. Within a few years, the designer returned and actively participated in fashion; He worked temporarily as a guest brokered by Oscar De La Renta. Vogue Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief, Condé Nast chief content officer, and longtime supporter of Galliano.
The choice to open the film with the infamous footage of Galliano making racist taunts certainly puts his cards on the table
Condé Nast Entertainment is involved in this documentary directed by Kevin Macdonald (credited as one of the production companies) about Galliano’s rise, fall and rehabilitation. This is surprising and refreshing, given the business’s vested interest in the industry and its highly lucrative maverick son. High and Low So subtle and thought-provoking. Macdonald, whose previous films include fiction features The last king Scotland And Situation of the game, and including documentaries To touch space And whitney, is not in the business of whitewashing Galliano’s tarnished reputation in a marketing-friendly way. The choice to open the picture with a clip of the now-infamous phone footage of Galliano making racist taunts at a group of women, looking like a cross between a mime and a toxic ooze, puts the cards on the table – this man is damaged, damaged, before exploring the hows and whys of the Designer’s actions. his words are repulsive.
Macdonald is interested in more than just the man and his misdeeds: This is a film dealing with the theme of redemption in the age of cancellation. Beyond that, through both the ups and downs of Galliano’s professional and personal life, he becomes inextricably linked to the industry that embraces him. “It’s a fad,” says one interviewee. “John is a good metaphor.”
It wasn’t always like this. Speaking candidly to the camera, Galliano recalls a not-so-glamorous childhood. He was born in Gibraltar to a Spanish mother and a Gibraltarian father, and moved to south London with his family when he was six. He says he knew early on that he was gay; She soon learned that this was not something that would be easily accepted by her parents, remembering the beatings of her plumber father and the harsh verbal abuse of her mother.
Escape came through art – Galliano won a place at Central St Martins – and through cinema. macdonald seeds High and Low Featuring clips from black and white films, with a particular emphasis on Abel Gance’s epic silent film. Napoleonwhich inspired Galliano’s spectacular graduation show Les Incroyables. It’s a bit misleading as a recurring motif, although both men shared ambition, had a fondness for dramatic titles, and were both the toast of Paris in their time; The comparison also shows that Galliano, always more concerned with the superficial impact of his decisions rather than their consequences, shows little evidence of a strategic acumen.
Galliano’s genius (genius is a word sprinkled as liberally as sequins by those interviewed in the film) lay in his ability to create drama as well as beauty. Their models didn’t just walk the runway; They starred in the mini stories that adorn each of his collections. And the models adored him too. It’s no coincidence that Galliano’s rise coincided with the rise of supermodels and the transformation of fashion into a multibillion-dollar industry. Rich archival footage captures the bottled lightning excitement of Galliano’s showmanship in designs and shows for both his own label and Dior.
But the fashion industry is a greedy beast, and as Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s documentary shows McQueenA poignant companion piece to this picture, this is a world that tends to magnify pre-existing tendencies towards addictive or self-destructive behavior. Galliano survived; Alexander McQueen tragically didn’t. And either way, you wonder if the disasters could have been prevented if the industry had been more concerned with the mental health of these brilliant, troubled men and less in thrall to the millions in revenue they were making.