Dior and I (2015)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I find that if you have to make a "behind the scenes" style documentary, you really need to have a good story. For fashion nerds, Dior might be an icon, for the rest of us, these are just people, trying very hard to look like they are doing something meaningful. Also, it doesn't help the Raf is repeatedly accused of being a racist, for his refusal to use non white models. It killed the fun for me, as I'm sure it will for others.I think in our day and age, something like this could not exist out of cultural and historical context, including the unpleasant sides of the world of fashion, especially considering they also had on their patrol John Galliano.

Like most people, my exposure to haute couture comes mostly from Vogue magazine and the "what are you wearing" interviews done on the red carpet. I expected this documentary to be a red carpet parade of elegant Dior couture, but instead saw a film that spends the majority of its time in the atelier (workroom) of the House of Dior to chronicle the less elegant process of creating a couture collection. The creative process takes us from Raf Simon's vision as the new artistic director for the House of Dior, to a complete couture collection, and it is a thrill ride. There is a necessary tension in Simon's need to be true to his own vision whilst being true to Dior and the film does a wonderful job of finding those synergies between Simon and Dior, both in their collections and as people. Layer that with a wonderful study in creative collaboration as the craftspeople who work at the atelier (some for 20 or 30+ years) meet and learn how to support Raf and his first ever couture collection. I have a new appreciation for the art of haute couture after seeing this film. If I only had the budget!

Dior and I didn't show you the glam, the gossips and the celebrity list, they just showed you their heartbeat taking an event as an example.The sound track was brilliantly incorporated the mood and the pulse, now I'm looking at Ha-Yang Kim , and it was surprisingly mesmerizing that I cried when seeing the slow motion walk where the models walking down in sterling dress in the ocean of flowers, I can only imagine the heavenly smell of it, which is very clever as it resonated the memory of their fragrance.If all a legend has is just stories then museum should be a better home for it, HEART is what people want to see being ripped open before they do the same with their wallets. Not sure how realistic the portrait is of the Dior House in the movie, but bravo producer Guillaume de Roquemaurel and writer / director Frédéric Tcheng, every angle and line mattered, and they brought such a big impact. It is not for everyone, but it is a good downside of it.

"Dior and I" (2014 release from France; 90 min.) brings a close-up look at the fashion house of Christian Dior as it exists today. As the documentary opens (in 2012), the CEO of Christian Dior introduces a new creative director to the staff, a Belgian guy named Raf Simons. Raf is new to the "haute couture" as his background really is in "pret-a-porter" (ready to wear) and mostly for men on top of that. So this is a daring choice, and not one without risks. On top of that, Raf only has 8 weeks to come up with a new collection. And as if that isn't enough, Raf's use of French is okay but not fluent (he hails from Dutch-speaking Antwerp, Belgium, home of many other notable fashion designers). How will Raf do? Will his first collection be a success? To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: first, this is the latest documentary from writer-director Frédéric Tcheng, who most recently brought us the delightful "Diane Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel". Second, the challenges that Raf Simons is facing are significant from the get-go. Not only because of the ridiculous time constraints (normally a new collection gets started on 4 to 6 months out, not 8 weeks), but also because of Simons' personality, which isn't the easiest, and his transition to designing haute couture for women, rather than pret-a-porter for men. Along the way, we get to know many other characters, including Pieter Mulier, another Dutch-speaking Belgian who came with Raf and is his trusted right-hand man, and of course the French atelier workers. The tension builds up as we get closer to the deadline for presenting the new collection. Watching how Raf deals with the pressure on the day of the collection's premiere, that alone is worth seeing this documentary for.I recently saw this at the Landmark E Street Cinema in Washington DC. The matinée screening where I saw this at was very well attended, somewhat to my surprise to be honest. But I guess it just shows there really is an audience for a top-notch documentary on fashion. If this is your kind of thing, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.