Brunello: The Gracious Visionary

By Joanna Langfield

Giuseppe Tornatore’s artful documentary about the celebrated King of Cashmere is almost as chancy as the Italian designer, Brunello Cucinelli’s life has been.

There’s some beautiful, fascinating material Tornatore’s got to work with here. Cucinelli, the product of a large, impoverished family, grew up loving his church, his neighbors and his countryside. As a teenager, he learned to play cards so well, he earned whatever he could, hanging out with friends, slapping down one victory after another. But, after falling in love and realizing he needed a steadier income, Cucinelli took another gamble, risking it all to produce a small line of luxury cashmere sweaters. Anyone familiar with high end fashion knows the international success Cucinelli created from there. What they may not know is the philosophy behind the business model, Brunello’s “humanistic capitalism”, relying not just on beauty and design, but weaving ethics, dignity and compassion into the mix.

Tornatore, the director who gave us the highly emotional (and highly effective) Cinema Paradiso brings a similar style to the first half of this film. He spends a lot, perhaps too much, time recreating the childhood that was instrumental in creating Cucinelli’s accomplishments and take on the world. While the stagings are lovely, the film seems to luxuriate in them, perhaps rushing the more potent parts of the man’s later success and inspiring ways to do business. Especially now, the world can use more graciousness, more compassionate vision. Here, the somewhat romanticized reflections outweigh what might be the designer’s greatest legacy.