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McQueen (15)
Directed by Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui
EVOCATIVE, provocative and visually explosive, this documentary is as unique and mind-blowing as its subject matter, the late and iconic British fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen.
Through a bold and unconventional structure, film-makers Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui recount the rags-to-riches story of this working-class East End lad made good. The son of a taxi driver and a social science teacher and the youngest of six children, he went from spending all his dole money on buying fabrics and learning his craft on Savile Row to an enfant terrible working for Givenchy and partnering Gucci.
Centred around his key monumental fashion shows — the controversial Highland Rape, Search for the Golden Fleece, Voss, La Dame Bleue and Plato's Atlantis — and using previously unseen behind-the-scenes footage shot throughout his career, the whole is stitched together with interviews with the fashion auteur himself, his family, friends and colleagues.
It's a warts-and-all documentary, showing how McQueen harnessed his demons to become a visionary one-man global fashion brand and one of the most iconic artists of his time.
“If you leave [my shows] without emotion, then I am not doing my job properly,” he said.
Bonhote and Ettedgui capture his raw, savage genius and artistic eye in what's both a homage and celebration of his life — including the highs and the very lows — in a remarkable work that is something of a cinematic masterpiece. One of the most telling moments is when McQueen is asked if he thinks his fashion label would continue without him after his death and he demurs — there's only one Alexander McQueen.
Interviews with his beloved mother Joyce and his mentor and muse, eccentric British aristocrat and fashion trailblazer Isabella Blow, are among the highlights. But their deaths had a devastating impact on McQueen and he took his own life the day before his mother's funeral.
You can't help experiencing shock and awe after seeing McQueen, mixed with sadness at the loss of such a rare and extraordinary artistic talent.
