Brunello Cucinelli is the Italian fashion designer and entrepreneur who built a billion-dollar empire. He’s known as the “king of cashmere”, which would have been a good title for this two-hour-long film, commissioned by Cucinelli about himself, directed by Oscar winning film-maker Giuseppe Tornatore. Instead, “The Gracious Visionary” gives an inkling as to the kind of film we’re dealing with – a vanity project with a capital “V”, capital “A”, “N” and all the other letters.
Not that you would begrudge Cucinelli a film about his extraordinary life. He was born into a poor hard-working farming family, shown here in scenes reconstructed with sugary sentimentalism as a simple time of innocent pleasures. Cucinelli as a boy is played as a cheeky lad who grows into a teenager more interested in playing cards at the local bar than studying. (Though his attempts to set the town’s prostitute on the right path are included to show his moral compass.) After Cucinelli meets his future wife, he knuckles down, does some modelling, has the brainwave to produce cashmere jumpers for the women’s market in eye-popping colours (they were previously only made in boring grey and beige). Today he is the owner of a brand synonymous with understated luxury, available to those with £2,500 to spend on a jumper.
The film is a hybrid of documentary and drama, and in interview the man himself comes across as a good guy billionaire. He is charming and prides himself on being a good employer, inspired by the poor conditions in the factory where his father worked after the family moved to the city for a better life. He has also invested heavily to save the medieval buildings in the town where his business is based from disrepair and collapse. But the film overdoes it with the sycophancy and exceptionalism. At one point we even see archive footage of Cucinelli in his 20s appearing in an Easter Passion play, playing the actual Jesus Christ.
In the end this feels less like a film for cinema than a lavish in-house promo for new staff, a mandatory induction-day viewing. I’m not sure it’s necessary for the rest of us.
