On its very last day at the Spectrum 8 Theatre in Albany, my wife and I attended a matinee of the film Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, even though I had no idea what it was about.
Per Rotten Tomatoes, it’s “an inside look at the extraordinary life and career of the man behind a luxury fashion empire built on the principles of humanity and artistry,” Brunello Cucinelli.
It’s an odd yet interesting device to have actors show him growing up in a rural agricultural community, while the now-70+ Brunello makes asides about the situation. His family lived on land they didn’t own, so the landlord came by annually, imploring the children not to go to school but to stay home and help their parents. The parents ignored the advice.
Young Brunello excelled at school, especially in math. This would help him play cards, initially with family. But the young man and his siblings still had to come home to do chores. Nevertheless, he found rural life idyllic.
His father and other relatives decided to move to the city and work at the factory. Soon, it was clear that his father was disappointed in the sterile work environment.
Adrift
Brunello was a young man without a plan, hanging around a local establishment and winning money at cards. When he got a girlfriend, he bumbled into a brief gig as a fashion model. His affection for angora wool reminded him of the rabbit fur that he and his siblings would comb out.
When he decided to start a factory, his building design, with windows to the outside rather than sterile walls, arose directly from his father’s unsatisfactory experience. He became “The King of Cashmere.”
Brunello noted in The Cut that making the film he wanted was so that “50 years down the line, when my grandchildren and others look at the movie, for them to say, ‘This is what my grandfather, my great-grandfather thought as he was still alive.'”
There were oodles of celebrity tributes, from Oprah Winfrey, Patrick Dempsey (“McDreamy), Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali and others.
Is it hagiography? Well, sure. Does it work anyway? It didn’t for most of the RT critics, who were only 27% positive. IMDb was more generous at 7.2 out of 10, though with more one-star reviews than two- to six-star combined.
But my wife and I liked it for two reasons. It was beautifully filmed by Giuseppe Tornatore, who made Cinema Paradiso.
More importantly, we were taken by the “‘philosopher-designer’ revered for his distinctive integration of humanistic values, craftsmanship, and ethical entrepreneurship.” He called it “humanistic capitalism,” which essentially meant one can make money while encouraging the workers, creating an inviting place to work, etc. When COVID hit, he promised to keep his employees paid for up to two years.
So we bought into the messaging. It didn’t feel particularly self-serving for a guy who’s been in business for a half century. Check out the website, especially the section on the company and the value of human dignity.