Monton Presents: Fashion on Film

I am very glad to introduce – for the fourth time already – the Monton special programme of fashion films. It has been gratifying to note that the fashion films we select have always met with major interest from the public. Indeed, fashion continues to intrigue and be a source of inspiration for film-makers. Leaving quite a few films to wait their turn in next year’s programme, we selected five solid documentaries for screening this year.

In the focus in this year’s fashion programme is one of the 20th century’s most famous and groundbreaking fashion designers Yves Saint Laurent, whose influence on women’s fashion has been simply incalculable. Saint Laurent’s importance can already be gauged by the large number of documentaries made about him. We will feature three of them: the two earlier ones are drector David Tebouli’s 2002 film “Yves Saint Laurent – 5. Avenue, Marceau, 75116 Paris” and “Yves Saint Laurent – His Life and Time”. The first of these is essentially about the making of Yves Saint Laurent’s last women’s collection in 2001, while the other talks about the designer’s personal life and career. The true gem of this year’s Monton programme is undoubtedly a documentary made this year, “Yves Saint Laurent: L’amour Fou”, focusing on the story of the love between Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé.

Also bound to create a buzz is director Olivier Nicklaus’s documentary “Red Carpet Issue”, which views a topic of broad-based interest from an angle that ordinarily remains obscure. As we know, a great amount of media coverage is always devoted to the entrance of celebtrities along a red carpet preceding any major event in the entertainment industry – cheers are given to the best-looking dresses, the most expensive jewellery, and jeers to the less stylistically savvy stars. But for the most part, ordinary audiences are unaware that all the glitz is actually a skilfully crafted business on the part of houses of fashion and jewellers and often celebrities have been paid major moolah to wear a certain name brand.

Finally, we offer up a South Korean film, “Actresses”, which is intriguing due above all to its genre – that combination of half documentary, half feature film we call mockumentary. The plot is in place, but a large part of the dialogue is improvised in the course of the film. The main characters are six of South Korea’s most famous actresses, who have all been invited to a cover photo shoot for Vogue magazine. But not everything goes the way it was supposed to, and the women end up spending more time than originally planned...

Hopefully you will find your way to the screenings of these fashion films, which will provide a bit of glamourous glitz as well as an exciting behindthe- scenes look at the fashion world....

Helen Saluveer
Fashion Programme Coordinator