Concrete Playground

“So many things I did.”

This whispered utterance from Valentino – as his moves through the racks of 45 years of couture – said with such simplicity and almost incredulity, perfectly encapsulates his brilliant career. And yet the Emperor was not without his entourage, as Matt Tyrnauer’s fascinating documentary so telling reveals. Indeed the film is almost evenly divided between the fashion and the business of Valentino – run (aside from the financiers) by his, “friend, lover, employee,” of some 50 years, Giancarlo Giammetti. The pair are often captured bickering more like an old (un)married couple, than the creative and business brains behind a billion dollar fashion franchise.

While the documentary is certainly celebration of Valentino’s illustrious career, it is also in part a reverent eulogy. The spectre of loss – in this case Valentino’s retirement from the dizzyingly detailed world of haute couture – hangs over the film. Every interview, every star studded conversation becomes a discussion of, “will he or won’t he?” And as the story builds to the climax of his 45-year retrospective, and the truly astonishing party at the ancient Temple of Venus, it all becomes poignantly apparent that once again the sun is setting on a Roman Empire.