Best of the Decade

A curated retrospective of the most exciting films from previous BFFF editions + A Sneak Preview into the best and latest from BFFF’s awards competition 2021.

Best of the Decade

A curated retrospective of the most exciting films from previous BFFF editions + A Sneak Preview into the best and latest from BFFF’s awards competition 2021.

THE STAGGERING GIRL by Luca Guadagnino

At the 72nd Cannes Film Festival in the section La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs - starring Julianne Moore, Kyle MacLachlan, Marthe Keller, Kiki Layne, Mia Goth and Alba Rohrwacher

A film born from the meeting between the director and the Creative Director of the Maison Valentino Pierpaolo Piccioli

The Staggering Girl directed by Luca Guadagnino will be presented at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival in the section La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs. The film is the result of an artistic dialogue between the director Luca Guadagnino and the creative director of the Maison Valentino, Pierpaolo Piccioli: together they carry out a narrative experiment that unites the language of cinema and the language of Couture, narrating the chapters of a woman's life through the mother-daughter relationship. The exceptional cast, strongly supported by Luca Guadagnino and Pierpaolo Piccioli, gives life to a set of complex characters played by Julianne Moore, Kyle MacLachlan, Marthe Keller, Kiki Layne, Mia Goth and Alba Rohrwacher. 

Moving between Rome and New York, the film tells an intimate story, made of symbols, gestures, images, the strength of the blood relationship and gender between two women who have come to terms with themselves. Valentino's Haute Couture creations run through the film, participating in its dreamlike atmosphere and amplifying, with a sophisticated visual subplot, the brilliant screenplay by Michael Mitnick, author of cult series such as Vinyl and the film The Current War. The Staggering Girl features photography by Sayombhu Mudkeeprom and original music composed by Oscar®-winning Ryuichi Sakamoto. The film is produced by Valentino SpA, Ibla Film, Frenesy Film, Rai Cinema and in collaboration with Rai Com. Rai Cinema that is always attentive to a cinema that reflects the cultural identity of our country has been the obvious partner for this project.

The Staggering Girl   is currently available on MUBI in German

"A story can be told in an infinite number of ways and this was our own - explains Pierpaolo Piccioli - Each of us worked on an idea observing it from our respective points of view, encouraged by an aesthetic affinity and intentions that never failed. Luca is a subtle interpreter, who knows how to adapt to the surrounding reality an ironic and gentle sensibility at the same time. We shared our daily working life, I showed him the Haute Couture collection I was drawing, he offered me the lens of his camera to observe the scene from another perspective. Just like the collection, the film is suspended in the Kairos, the opportune moment that the person has to reflect, going back and forth in his inner time. This film is a tale apparently unrelated to the passage of time, a flow of consciousness through images and emotions. Cinema, like Haute Couture, allows time to expand into eternity, it's pure magic". 

"Last summer I had the privilege of meeting Pierpaolo Piccioli in Rome in Valentino's headquarters at Palazzo Mignanelli - explains Luca Guadagnino - Pierpaolo, whose amazing art of couturier I have admired for a long time, took me through the Haute Couture atelier. The Fall/Winter 2018-19 collection was born through the tireless and sublime work of the Premiere, the seamstresses and the tailors. In that meeting with Pierpaolo we decided that we would try something that we had never tried before, making a film based on an Haute Couture collection. The artistic and emotional depth, the transfiguring capacity of Pierpaolo Piccioli's work were the 'text', like a great novel, on which base the script of this dreamed film. From this meeting and from the triangulation between Pierpaolo Piccioli, the brilliant screenwriter Michael Mitnick and me this short film is born". - Luca Guadagnino

Interview with the Filmmakers of ‘The Staggering Girl’

The Staggering Girl is a 2019 short film directed by Luca Guadagnino. The film was produced in collaboration with Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli. It was written by Michael Mitnick and stars Julianne Moore, Mia Goth, KiKi Layne, Kyle MacLachlan, Marthe Keller and Alba Rohrwacher. It had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in the Directors Fortnight section on May 17, 2019. It was released on February 15, 2020, by Mubi.

Enjoy a quick interview with the people behind the project. Meet director Luca Guadagnino and Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, interview by Amanda Prugnaud.

Luca Guadagnino
Luca Guadagnino, the son of an Algerian and an Italian, grew up in Ethiopia for a few years. [1] He attended La Sapienza University in Rome and received his doctorate with a thesis on Jonathan Demme. After two short films, he made his feature film debut in 1999 with The Protagonists, which had its official premiere on September 10, 1999 at the Venice Festival. [2] In 2002 he conducted an interview with Tilda Swinton at the Hotel Majestic in Cannes, based on his 35-minute short film Tilda Swinton. The Love Factory was born.

Pierpaolo Piccioli

‘I have always loved cinema and during my adolescence I dreamed of becoming a movie director. When I discovered fashion and its narrative power, I decided to become a designer. It was for me a natural evolution of a dream’.

After High school, Pierpaolo Piccioli enrolls in the Istituto Europeo di Design, in Rome. Commitment sets in during the frst years of work in the atelier. After his first experiences, in 1990 he arrives at Fendi to work on the brand’s accessory line. In this period he approaches the heart of the profession: the contact with high Italian craftsmanship and the possibility of experimenting with a new approach.

‘Working closely with the artisans and with the Italian expertise has been fundamental. It has allowed me to understand and perceive the rules in order to break them and rewrite them. Savoir-faire is the base of the designer profession. It is the base from which each creative process begins’.

After Fendi, he arrives at Valentino to develop the emerging accessory line. It is the beginning of a challenge: to lead the great tradition of the Valentino Couture from dresses to objects, maintaining intact the tradition, the cure and the creativity of its founder. The experiment works on all fronts. In 2008, Pierpaolo Piccioli is nominated Valentino Co-Creative Director.

‘From the first days, the most important task on Valentino’s heritage has been to accomplish the perception, the idea, and the essence of the Maison rather than reproposing pieces of its archive. It has been a creative process that took as a model the modus operandi of the Atelier of Couture. In other words, the human excellence portrayed in every single detail. From the fashion shows to the collaborations, to the stores’.

In just a few years, Valentino has become a brand of reference for the fashion system and an international success case. In 2016, Pierpaolo Piccioli is nominated sole Creative Director of the Maison. It is the start of a new era, a further evolution for the Italian brand.

‘I am interested in the idea of humanism that nourishes creativity. The human connection that forms this Maison is for me the best team possible. Here I have discovered that no innovation can exist without a profound knowledge of tradition. At the same time, I know that the sense of limit that springs from this awareness gives you the freedom of thinking of how to trespass it. This, in synthesis, will be the new Valentino direction. A human narration, personal yet unanimous, of a story that is yet to be written.’

Amanda Prugnaud
Amanda Prugnaud is a Film and Philosophy student based in Paris. She is an aspiring screen-writer and actress, but is also passionate about journalism. She consequently is the editor of The Youth Collective Project, an online platform aiming to support teenagers' voices and critical thinking.

Best of the Decade

A curated retrospective of the most exciting films from previous BFFF editions + A Sneak Preview into the best and latest from BFFF’s awards competition 2021.

Kilian Kerner

KILIAN KERNER

»It's love. Love of fashion, love of people, curiosity and the feeling of always creating something.«

Designer Kilian Kerner is showing his collection at Berlin Fashion Week for the 20th time – and for the fourth time as KXXK, which he himself describes not as a label, but as a “collaboration with himself.” As a self-taught designer, Kilian Kerner has carved his own unique path in the fashion world over the course of his career. World-renowned fashion critic Suzy Menkes described him as “imaginative.” As the designer and managing director of the high-fashion label Kilian Kerner, he created a total of 24 collections between 2004 and 2016 and presented his creations in cities including London, New York, Vienna and Paris. At Berlin Fashion Week, he successfully presented 16 shows in a row. In 2010, he founded Kilian Kerner Senses – a commercially oriented second line to complement the classic label – which sold in 14 countries worldwide. “If you don’t live this job as a calling and feel, think and breathe with everything you have, then you can leave it right away,” says Kilian Kerner. This ambition is also reflected in the numerous design collaborations that he continues to take on in order to remain successful as a designer, whether with Samsonite, Nike, Smart or Häagen Dazs.

Missing the runway? We take you directly to the front row - Live Fashion Show broadcasted from Kraftwerk Berlin.

STORYTELLERS FRONT ROW

Enjoy a multifaceted program celebrating the art of fashion storytelling

- curated retrospective of the best fashion films from the decade

- in-depth talks with revolutionary fashion designers and filmmakers

- fashion live shows directly from Mercedes-Benz Fashion Wee

#bfff2021

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The Times of Bill Cunningham is a film by Mark Bozek.

Director Mark Bozek and producer Stephen Brown take a moment to converse about the inception, journey, and process of taking Mark’s film to the silver screen.

Told in Bill Cunningham’s own words from a recently unearthed six-hour 1994 interview, the iconic street photographer and fashion historian chronicles, in his customarily cheerful and plainspoken manner, moonlighting as a milliner in France during the Korean War, his unique relationship with First Lady Jackie Kennedy, his four decades at The New York Times and his democratic view of fashion and society. Narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker, The Times of Bill Cunningham features incredible photographs chosen from over 3 million previously unpublicized images and documents from Cunningham.

www.billcunninghammovie.com

Director Mark Bozek & Stephen Brown

Precious insights from creative masterminds - Mark Bozek and producer Stephen Brown take a moment to converse about the inception, journey, and process of taking Mark’s film to the silver screen. The documentary about Bill Cunningham will be live-streamed right after the interview.

Best of the Decade

A curated retrospective of the most exciting films from previous BFFF editions + A Sneak Preview into the best and latest from BFFF’s awards competition 2021.