HIGH & LOW – JOHN GALLIANO

UK, 2023, 116 minutes, Colour.

Directed by Kevin Macdonald.

John Galliano was a successful fashion designer in Britain and across in France at the end of the 20^th century and the 2000s. He was well known in the fashion world but, perhaps, not so well beyond it.

Kevin MacDdonald is an Oscar-winning documentary maker with subjects ranging from the attack on the Israeli athletes in Munich, 1972, to interviews with the Klinko brothers from the Ukraine in 2022. He has also directed a number of successful feature films, most especially, The Last King of Scotland.

The title indicates the approach that Macdonald has taken to his documentary. However, it does begin with the occasion of Galliano’s fall from grace, eliciting hostility, losing his contracts in the fashion world. Drunk, drugs, sitting in a restaurant, gratuitously insulting some patrons, outbursts of vicious and ignorant anti-Semitic insults. This was the crisis point of his life.

Then the documentary goes back to illustrate the high points of his life, his Spanish and British parents, born in Gibraltar, moving to South London, his entry into the world of fashion, his skill with fabrics, elaborate design. Contracts in England, awards, connections and France and Dior.

The advantage of the film is that throughout there is an interview with Galliano himself, 2022, his falling 11 years, able to talk about his past, give insights into his life and career, his sexual orientation. He is also interviewed about the anti-Semitic incident (or several of them), the condemnation, the cutting of contracts, the possibilities for rehabilitation, his asking forgiveness and receiving some, programs for his learning more about Judaism…

After more than a decade of lows, Kate Moss, who supports him, asks into design her wedding dress and there is some rehabilitation, visiting Dior again…

Kevin Macdonald uses a cinema visual metaphor for the rise and fall of Galliano, throughout the film including clips from Abel Gance’s 1927 epic, Napoleon, scenes and subtitled dialogue reflecting something of Galliano’s experiences.

Certainly a must for audiences familiar with the fashion world. Interesting and intriguing for the wider audience.

1. John Galliano? Audience knowledge of him? The world of fashion? His racist case and notoriety and consequences?
2. Kevin MacDonald, his career, documentaries and awards?
3. The portrait of Galliano, the title of high and low, success, the crisis, years of low experiences?
4. The use of Abel gangsters film, Napoleon, the parallel of Napoleon and Galliano, the various sequences from the film, their insertion throughout the film, symbolic commentary?
5. The film opening with the case, captured on video, Galliano drunk, the clients at the restaurant, his insults, racist, anti-Semitic? The issue of how many cases there were and Galliano’s memory and the visual evidence? His arrest, trials, fines, rehabilitation? The consequences with his loss of work?
6. The director interviewing Galliano in 2022? His age, speaking to screen, genuine, personality and style, camp? The interview recurring throughout the film, his talk, honesty, issues of his memory, the retracing of his career up to the event? The high of the title?
7. Portrait and biography: Gibraltar, parents, Spanish and British, his consciousness earlier being gay, the move to South London, his interest in fashion, style, the portrait of his working career, Steve Robinson and work with him, the impact of Steve Robinson’s death? The many models? His talent, success, deal, in France, testimony of Kate Moss?
8. O of the title, being disowned, the therapy, alcoholic, drugs? The issue of the rabbis? The comment of the concentration camp survivor not forgiving the Nazis because they did not ask for forgiveness, but Galliano apologising and asking for forgiveness? The different programs, Michael, his education? Drying out, drive for 11 years? The various steps, the range of his reading, forgiveness? The effect?
9. Kate Moss, the invitation to design her wedding dress, her support, the beginning of his rehabilitation?
10. Gradual employment, the passing of the years, Dior and other bosses, Jewish bosses being interviewed, the reactions, some final forgiveness?
11. The scenes with those who are insulted in the restaurant, there are interviews, the court cases, their assessment of the issues, their wanting apologies, Galliano not being able to remember?
12. The portrait of talent and influence, his fashion style and achievement and awards, his influence? But also rehabilitation and the possibility of a new phase of life and success?