Not long after its announcement as part of the Out of Competiton Documentary programme at this year’s forthcoming 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival, the first clip from the new Luca Guadagnino documentary “Salvatore, Shoemaker Of Dreams” has appeared online, with a guest appearance from none other than Martin Scorsese.
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The film, written by the fashion journalist Dana Thomas, will be a retelling of Salvatore Ferragamo’s life, moving from his life his learning shoemaking as a young child through to his move to California, making shoes and boots for Hollywood productions like “The Thief of Baghdad”, later making shoes for the likes of Marylin Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. The title itself is taken from Ferragamo’s own autobiography.
The first clip, partially narrated by Michael Stuhlbarg, a past collaborator with Guadagnino with his supporting role in “Call Me By Your Name”, walks through what the future shoe designer learned in an apprenticeship in his early career in Naples.
“Salvatore, Shoemaker Of Dreams” marks Guadagnino’s first documentary since 2013, the time since having been occupied by his sunny romantic dramas, and also “Suspiria”. The full synopsis for the film, taken from the Italian site Cinematographe, can be seen below:
Salvatore Ferragamo’s fascinating human, artistic and entrepreneurial history, from childhood to Bonito, where he made his first shoes, to the trip to America in search of fortune, from the experiences in Hollywood to the return to Italy, from the risk of failure to rebirth in his laboratory in Florence until the final consecration. Character, instinct, genius, curiosity, and extraordinary intuition: Salvatore – Shoemaker of Dreams shows the mystery and charm of a complex figure, an icon of Italian and world fashion that has never lost sight of the importance of family ties. The docufilm, with the narrative voice of Michael Stuhlbarg, makes use of unpublished images and testimonies which feature, alongside the members of the Ferragamo family, the director Martin Scorsese, and the costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis.