Alicia I love this movie so much

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

capone666 Valentino: The Last EmperorThe best way to design a dress for a woman is to never ask her want she wants.In fact, the only person that the dressmaker in this documentary listens to is his business partner.Filmed over the final years of his career in the fashion industry, enigmatic designer Valentino Garavani reluctantly opens up the doors of his illustrious fashion house to the public for the first time as he preps to hang up his shears for good.Archival footage documenting his early beginnings in Italy to his rise in popularity amongst Hollywood starlets, like Elizabeth Taylor, is interwoven with scenes of his last show in 2008, as well as in-depth interviews with some of those aforementioned celebrities, fellow designers, critics and Valentino's longtime business partner Giancarlo Giammetti to construct one compelling biography. Moreover, Valentino is proof that a man can design a dress for a woman that isn't see-through. Green Light vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

jotix100 Valentino Garavani, a giant in the Italian fashion scene, looms larger than life in this wonderful documentary by Matt Tyrnauer, a writer for Vanity Fair magazine. Valentino, as he was known professionally, rose above the rest of his competition because of his sheer determination to succeed, his sense of beauty and most of all because of his association with Giancarlo Giametti, his business and sentimental partner. As with other fashion designers, Valentino shows qualities of being a demanding critic of his own work. He is seldom happy with the work he is preparing for the fashion shows where the clothes will be presented to the public and buyers. At the same time, another side of the man, gives us a sense of how egotistical and proud he can be. It is something that probably goes with the territory in which this man excelled throughout his creative years.Valentino lived the high style associated to his work and the people he catered to. A villa in Rome, a castle in France, yachting in a magnificent vessel, skiing in Gstaad, Switzerland. Decadence is seen with the high fashion man catering to his five pug dogs, spoiling them rotten, and even taking them on private planes. Valentino lived a sort of fairy tale life surrounded by the same society people that saw in his clothes a reflection of themselves.Unfortunately, there was a reality. Fashion is a big business, run by people that have no concept of what creative people are trying to do. The association with a business man, Matteo Marzotto, something that begins on a friendly level, turns sour toward the end of Valentino's career. The firm which was his pride and joy suffers greatly as the genius that created the label steps down.In spite of being seventy five at the time of his leaving his house of haute couture, Valentino shows a lust for life unequaled by his peers. The final party in Rome was one of those amazing displays of good taste, and recognition of Valentino's work. A weepy man accepts his being given France's top honor, the Legion of Honor, where he publicly tells of his gratitude to Mr. Giammetti, something one never heard throughout the documentary. The director, Matt Tyrnauer captures the essence of the man who rule a world most of us do not even get a chance to see except in films like this, or in glossy magazines.

Chad Shiira The priceless opportunity to crash an artist's inner sanctum and watch him at work is the considerable appeal of this documentary, whose name it appropriates, of course, from the Bernardo Bertolucci-directed Academy Award-winning film about the end of the Qing Empire in feudal China. "Valentino: The Last Emperor" allows the viewer a peak into the rarefied world of "haute coutre", where the fashion designer's latest crisis, sequins or no sequins for his latest creation, is in the process of being resolved. In a crowded room, surrounded by his minions, a typically angular model is reduced to a mannequin; her casual nudity no more titillating than a venerable nun's state of undress. The subject of the scene is that white gown, not the woman who occupies it. As she's being fitted, the model's downturned countenance of ennui de-eroticizes her nakedness. The room full of people, all tending to their appointed tasks, pay no mind to this woman in the buff, which orientates the viewer to see the model through Valentino's eyes. Perhaps a nipple ring would have destroyed the functional aspect of the model's bared breasts, but the prevailing context of her nudity blurs the male gaze, since the viewer has no corresponding stand-in within the diegesis to enjoy the female form in all its purity. The opportunities to see a naked woman of film are endless. The quotidian visage of the model deflects attention away from her; she's not in the seducing mood; she's working, and onto her clothes. To Valentino's credit, the white gown that forms around the model's diaphanous body makes her look even more desirable than the pure state she achieves through the rigorous denial of normal caloric sustenance. The nude dress upstages the nude woman. The dress does the seducing. The viewer wants that dress; the dress is the eye candy, in this instance. Finally, the emperor decrees: Let there be sequins. And we were there to see an icon put the finishing touches on his latest masterpiece. Alas, "Valentino: The Last Emperor" will irk those who can't relate, or pretend to sympathize with the problems of the rich. But wealth is beside the point in Valentino's case. Stripped of its luxurious trappings, the fashion designer's trials and tribulations should be remarkably relatable to anybody who ever created a work of art, and saw their creative control suddenly taken away from them.

aforonda A wonderful portrait, displays several sides of Valentino from Emperor to flawed human like the rest of us. The artist, the opulent lifestyle, the dedicated partnership with his lover, the changing of the fashion business and its ramifications on this aging lion and the reality he created.Music for the movie was perfectly selected, very well executed, edited and beautiful cinematography. This film was inspiring, funny, and touching. If your lucky enough to have Valentino in your city, hurry to the theater as it is a must see. What comes after Valentino? As he says, "The flood".