"There's an argument to be made that we have heard everything we ever need to hear from John Galliano," said Wendy Ide in The Observer. He is the flamboyant British designer who was "ignominiously sacked" as creative director of Dior in 2011, after footage emerged of him "booze-sodden" in a Paris bar, "spewing an antisemitic tirade at strangers". That video earned Galliano a criminal conviction, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. However, his defenders say he wasn't "really antisemitic" – and that it was "the booze, the drugs and the nervous breakdown talking". He has since been engaged in a process of rehabilitation, both drying out from his addictions and seeking to educate himself with help from Holocaust charities, and has been forgiven by the fashion world.
Three years in the making, this new documentary from Kevin Macdonald ("Touching the Void", "The Last King of Scotland") traces Galliano's journey, said Stephen Doig in The Daily Telegraph. Using his own words, and those of A-list fans (including Kate Moss and Anna Wintour), it offers a "fascinating" account of the designer's early years and the success that won him a "superstar lifestyle", but also brought the almost-unbearable pressure of designing up to 32 collections a year. "High & Low" also asks: "should one of the greatest fashion geniuses of the 20th century" have been so swiftly absolved for what he claims was a moment of madness? It's a question the film itself – which is about Galliano's frailty and flaws, as much as his genius – declines to answer. It allows him to present his side, but also gives voice to those who were "deeply wounded by his actions".
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
5 unlawfully funny cartoons about the Executive vs the JudiciaryCartoons Artists take on halting deportations, attacking judges, and more
-
What is the the Mar-a-Lago accord?Talking Point A Maga economic blueprint proposes upending the global financial system. Could it fly?
-
Facebook: Sarah Wynn-Williams' shocking exposéTalking Point Former executive's tell-all memoir of life behind the scenes at Meta 'makes for damning reading'
-
6 spacious homes in loftsFeature Featuring a Landmarks Conservancy award-winning apartment in New York City and a helicopter-workshop-turned-home in Washington, D.C.
-
Properties of the week: little gemsThe Week Recommends Featuring homes in Kent, Cornwall and Fife
-
Opus: 'charismatic' Ayo Edebiri can't rescue 'empty' cult horrorTalking Point Celebrity satire follows a 'well trodden' plot and struggles to find its voice
-
Turner: In Light and Shade – an 'enlightening' exhibitionThe Week Recommends 'Superb' collection of the celebrated artist's works on paper are on display at the Whitworth
-
Anne Sebba shares her favourite books about women in warThe Week Recommends The journalist picks works by Caroline Moorehead, Sarah Helm and Kristin Hannah
-
Critics’ choice: Fine dining worth stepping up toFeature Celebrity chefs share a kitchen, a ‘spa-like’ lounge, and more
-
7 new and long-established musicals to see on tour this springThe Week Recommends Even 'Les Misérables' is back on the road
-
The Age of Diagnosis: Suzanne O'Sullivan's 'immensely persuasive' readThe Week Recommends Rather than 'getting sicker', we may be 'atrributing more to sickness'
