VALENTINO: THE LAST EMPEROR

It is always a pleasure to peek into the lives of the rich, successful and good-looking. Better still if they're talented; better yet if they're strange. Valentino Garavani, a star Italian fashion designer (couturier is the more appropriate term) of the past 45 years and the subject of Matt Tyrnauer's documentary, "Valentino: The Last Emperor", delivers on all counts.

It's easy to see why Tyrnauer, a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, alighted on his subject. Valentino––who looks like Michael Douglas baked at 450º for three hours--oozes "icon" from every pore. There's the coppery helmet of hair, the baronial manner, the villas and chateaux and ski trips in Gstaad. There is the quintet of pugs, the yacht, and the penchant for aphorism. "I love beauty," Valentino explains in an early moment of the film. "Is not my fault."

The film's purview extends beyond the designer's personality quirks, of course. If Valentino is imperious and unabashedly snobbish, he is also one of the last men to know the ins and outs of haute couture. Karl Lagerfeld--who makes an appearance in the film--is another one of these dwindling creatures. When they go, couture as high art will go with them.

The film culminates in a fairytale celebration of Valentino's 45th year in the business, hosted at no less than the Colosseum in Rome. In accordance with the designer's tastes, the party features dancers suspended on cables, a red carpet and hundreds of his own "greatest hit" dresses. Meanwhile, the question of Valentino's retirement lingers in the air as his company is gradually bought out by the Italian private-equity fund Permira.

But Valentino is only part elegy. It also documents the love story of Valentino and his partner of 50 years, the like-tanned and like-coiffed Giancarlo Giammetti. Giammetti is a hero of patience and decorum, a man who cheerfully describes living in the shadow of Valentino as the definition of happiness. Their epic relationship is fascinating to witness, equal parts adoration and contentiousness. In the end, the two men come off as so mutually devoted that it leaves a viewer aspiring to be nothing but a successful gay fashion designer in his 70s (or, alternately, his partner).

Fashion, as we all know, is cyclical; it is Tyrnauer's accomplishment to highlight the unpredictability within the fashion continuum.

"Valentino: The Last Emperor" is now playing nationwide. (Film trailer is here.)

~ MOLLY YOUNG