Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston

This movie is a must see if you are interested in Halston or fashion/culture of the 70s and also not bothered by bizarre/horrible movie making. What at first disturbed me... the unsympathetic, egotistical, southern rich kid-schlub running the whole affair, clashes with 70's glitterati, while talking about the charming effortless Halston, by the end riveted me. From the first scene of him interviewing Liza while wearing a plaid wrinkly shirt under an ill-fitting suit, I thought, uh oh we have a problem. This devolved into the noticing of the really greasy hair that inexplicably is blonde in one scene and brown in the next, and then blonde again (with never an explination). The incessant shaky camera work (is this a choice?), tops of heads cut off, framing a window seeing the weird angle of an ugly curtain, no art direction, no **** etc... all while interviewing the likes of Andre Leon Talley and Diane Von-Furstenburg. The "subject" seems to want to offend these titans by sometimes wearing sunglasses in-doors while talking to them, interrupting, forgetting to turn his cell phone off, putting his feet on furniture. Its like Warhol decided to do a doc on Halston, from the great beyond with his notorious perverse sense of humor. The more I think about I'm sure it was intentional, but it just seems so NOT intentional. One by one the fashion icons (who knows how he gained access into this world) roll their eyes, don't invite him to sit down in their homes etc etc... Interspliced between the **** look of the whole thing, and the bad manners, are wonderful stills and footage of Halston, which of course is why we are there. But the horrendousness of the rest of it is a GREAT contrast. Interesting work, really!

Ultrasuede, a doc about famed 70s fashion designer Halston, has a filmmaker at the helm who seems faux-interested in his subject, making up what seems to be on the spot questions with his celebrity guests, most notably Liza Minnelli. I didn't know who he was before the film, but I can still feel it didn't do him justice. Throughout the movie, the director Whitney Smith shows his incompetence in bringing to light the life of a famous icon. He is unprepared for his interviews, awkward around his guests, and seems to just be casually inserting some bits of interesting facts about his life. Some of the recounting of the past by celebs is worth noting here, but it is ruined by Smith. He may have been searching, but we certainly never found Halston in this film and my piece of advice - look him up online. You'll learn and appreciate his legacy more than this half-baked film.