Dir: Lorna Tucker
2018
***
Lorna Tucker’s documentary of the somewhat aberrant
fashion designer Vivienne Westwood is a brief look at the punk icon and her
works, rather than a comprehensive biopic. Indeed, the film begins with
Westwood sat in an armchair refusing to answer most questions about herself.
When asked about punk she replies “It’s so boring” and when asked about The Sex
Pistols she snorts “No, can’t be bothered with them either”. It clears up what
the documentary is and is not going to be about nice and early but it did make
me wonder why I was watching a film about somebody who is uninterested about
said film, what anyone thinks of it and who is totally uncooperative, even
though she has obviously given her blessing and agreed to it. Puck was a hugely
important and influential movement but it has become something greater than it
really was. These days, a true punk is a sell out and it is hard not to
remember that Westwood is now a Dame. That said, Westwood never really sang the
same tune as Rotten or McLaren and she never let herself remain in the past,
always moving forward. She is by far the most creative person from the punk era
still working today and to only think of her as a punk is ignoring decades of
work – her best work. It’s just a shame her attitude is a embarrassingly close
to that of other elderly punks. I wanted to learn more of her fashion work and
I did, with all of her big collections and global successes documented. I had
no idea that Andreas Kronthaler, her third husband, was so involved in her work
and by the end of the film I started to wonder just how much of what we know of
her work was actually hers. She waxes lyrical about all sorts of subjects but
it is only her own life experiences that I didn’t question. There is an
annoying child-like naivety about her that I find excruciating, especially as
said child comes across as spoiled and demanding. She is celebrated for
eco-activism but the amount of waste produced by her own company (and the
fashion industry in general) is clear as day but is seemingly unnoticed by her
and the film crew. It is a short film considering the length of Westwood’s
career but even though Punk and The Sex Pistols are skipped over, a large chunk
of the run time is wasted on contradictory opinions and this that and the
other. Westwood is an amazing designer, so I wanted to see the mindset of a
creative icon, not listen to the tired old opinions of a hypocrite. I really
couldn’t give two hoots about Westwood’s politics, especially as she is guilty
of everything she condemns. In 2018 it has now become far from tiresome to hear
the opinions of an aged punk. I agree that she got where she is today by being
talented but I also believe there was a lot of luck involved and many talented
people working for her. There were many moments in the film whereby she had no
idea what was going on in her own company. She’s a corporation and a brand, one
that talks negatively about corporation and brand while her employees politely
take her rude and unprofessional comments on the chin, all of whom wear her
Aube motif on their person. Beautiful clothes, outrageous hypocrisy. The
documentary challenges nothing and only tells half a story. I learned much more
of her personal life growing up then I knew before but to be honest I didn’t
care, I want to see an artist at work. There is no correlation between her life
and her work that is obvious anyway. My interest only began to peak in the
second half of the film when tension grows between Westwood and her company.
Her husband Andreas is clearly the level-headed one keeping things running
(even though the nicest ‘endorsement’ of him is that she “Likes
living with him as much as I like living on my own,”) but she clearly has
started to question the importance of success vs satisfaction. It was the sort
of raw honesty that documents such as this are meant to capture. It was a shame
then that still couldn’t see the big issue when following her soul-searching
with “I don’t need to sell anything I don’t like,”. Again, she was left
unchallenged. Westwood is the result of luck and worship. She is a brilliant
designer – one of the best in the world – but since her initial success she
surrounded herself in people who would always say yes, rather than challenge
her. She’s an artist who has become and icon, full of ego and a subconscious dread of
self doubt. She’s not the first and won’t be the last, if only see had been a
little more candid we might have had a true glimpse of what really makes a
great artist tick.
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