Diamante Review – A Glamorous 70’s Fashion Melodrama Is a Sumptuous Soap Drama | film

ITo be honest, this comedy-drama set in a 1970s Rome fashion atelier sheds a slight light on the comedy, while the drama is definitely on the lower end of the scale, even a little silly at times. But there’s something irresistible about it, especially if you’re in any way sympathetic to queer-accented celebrations of women performed by powerful ensembles in the spirit of George Cukor’s The Women, François Ozon’s 8 Women, or the films of Pedro Almodovar. You’ll also have a ball if you like good-looking costumes – these costumes are absolutely full of them, and they specialize in the 18th century Silhouettes and 1970s prints – with voluptuous shots of silky fabric spikes billowing in the slanting sunlight; In addition to the pornographic haberdashery of carefully sorted button collections; and the camaraderie of collective craftsmanship, especially tailoring. To add to the list, there are delicious shots of food, and scenes where the women fight one minute and hug each other in a sisterly way the next; The occasional thoughtful gentleman who unquestioningly walks through the event either to be shown off or to provide the baritone or tenor voice for a group sing-along of old 1970s Italian ballads.

However, it is essentially a tender work by director Ferzan Ozpetek ( Bathroom , Facing the Windows ); It’s not Almodovar, but you can tell this comes from a place of love and devotion for him, as well as familiarity since he’s talked in interviews about the inspiration for this being his visits to costume studios around Rome in the 1980s when he was just starting his film career as an assistant director. In this fictionalized version of that world, set in 1974, sisters Alberta (Luisa Ranieri) and Gabriella (Yasmine Trinca) run such a studio, staffed by a few dozen seamstresses and complete with a dye specialist (Nicole Grimaudeau) and an in-house chef/nonna character (Mara Venere).

In the framing process that begins the film, Ozpetek himself assembles a cast for a reading, one of whom (Gibi Kocchiari) describes this majority-female gathering as “vaginal.” There’s certainly a lot of tension between the girls, as the company struggles to manage deadlines and balance budget with aesthetics, especially when they win the commission to make all the costumes for an 18th century feature film. It was designed by visionary Bianca Vega (Vanessa Scalera), who may have been somewhat inspired by legendary fashion designer Melina Canonero, who styled Barry Lyndon and Marie Antoinette, among many other tasteful features. Emotions run particularly high between business-minded Alberta and her grief-stricken sister Gabriella, which is just one of many subplots vying for attention. A tormented wife (Melina Mancini) urged by others to defy her husband, a political protester with a natural talent for art and decoupage (Aurora Giovinazzo), and a young boy (Edoardo Stefanelli) whose mother cannot buy him pencils or after-school care and who must spend afternoons hiding in a button closet.

The film is 135 minutes long, but the script is very breathless and never feels boring, and Ozpetek achieves excellent results with his stacked cast. It helps, of course, that the costumes designed by Italian artist Stefano Ciametti (Io Capitano) are convincing throughout, apart from the design of the garish, cheerful dresses for the film within the film – all sculptural motifs and beautiful cellophane wrappings that look more like something Daniel Lee dreamed up for a Schiaparelli haute couture show than an actual movie costume.