Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
John Galliano, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Anna Wintour, Charlize Theron, Penelope Cruz, Hamish Bowles
Intro:
Macdonald has blended commentary on an ugly moment in popular culture with some of its creatively inspired fashion highlights, all through the prism of Galliano’s extraordinary and extreme life.
As a filmmaker, Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, The Mauritanian, Touching the Void) does not beat around the bush. With High and Low – John Galliano, he goes straight for the elephant in the room, Galliano’s scandalous arrest, in the first scenes.
In 2010, at the height of his success as an international fashion designer, Galliano, drunk and belligerent, insulted patrons in Paris café/bar, La Perle. His racist, specifically anti-Semitic, attack was so vicious that they called the police. He was arrested, the case went to trial, and he was fined 16000 euros, escaping a recommended 6-month jail term. He was also sacked from his position of artistic director at Dior.
With this ugly incident at the forefront of our minds, the movie then follows an account of Galliano’s early years in Gibraltar and the move to south London, with his fashion loving mother and a strict father. Pictures of him as a child show the exhibitionist tendencies that would be his trademark persona later. He was small statured and became inspired by seeing a film about Napoleon, to the point that his 1984 debut fashion collection ‘Les Incroyables’ was based on French Revolution motifs.
The same theme turns up throughout his career, including him appearing in Napoleonic costume after catwalk shows. In one of the many and sometimes uncomfortable interviews featured in the film, he becomes irritated with Macdonald pointing to the Napoleon reference, denying it was ever a big deal.
In spite of affirming “I’m going to tell you everything”, Galliano comes across as being in denial about a few points in his life story. He denies that he ever meant to hurt anyone with those anti Semitic slurs, he denies or at least seems confused that they were repeated on three separate occasions. He was an addict for decades, mainly alcohol, drugs and work, and denied how out of control his addictions were, until the court case brought him to a halt.
His workaholism offers a fascinating comment on the fashion industry’s relentless machine. To fulfil his obligations to the Givenchy, Dior and Galliano labels he was creating over 30 collections a year, plus all the schmoozing and publicising that goes with being the face of international fashion houses.
The crushing workload is one reason that Conde Nast said they came on board to support him in his rehabilitation after the arrest, admitting the industry had an obligation to help after what had been demanded of him. The parallel with Alexander McQueen is touched on. McQueen had rocketed to success as the director of Givenchy and burned out on drugs and alcohol to suicide at age 40 in 2010.
Somehow, Galliano physically survived his years of self abuse. His go to was to hit the gym for extreme workout regimes after cycles of blackout drinking. His other survival tactic was his capacity to live in his own fantasy, a habit that he’d learned as a closeted, unhappy child. Those fantasies blended with his creative skill to produce some of fashion’s most exciting moments. He is still surviving.
Since 2014, Galliano has been the creative director of Paris-based luxury fashion house Maison Margiela. According to him, he is 11 years sober, and the look is less Iggy Pop/romantic pirate and more impeccable business suit.
Apart from his lengthy exploration of the court case, Macdonald gives us plenty of fabulous footage of Galliano the wunderkind of avant garde and couture design.
The screen bursts with glitter and glamour. All the talking heads carry a freight of almost mythic celebrity status of their own, as they speak of Galliano’s impact on the culture and on them personally. He was awarded British Designer of the Year four times. Models loved him. Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, whose wedding dress he designed, stuck up for him in the aftermath of the trial, as did Vogue editor Anna Wintour.
Macdonald has blended commentary on an ugly moment in popular culture with some of its creatively inspired fashion highlights, all through the prism of Galliano’s extraordinary and extreme life. It’s a fascinating treatment, though we may have to agree with Galliano that the film labours the Napoleonic references a bit too much.
