Iervolino, Italian-Canadian to produce an Armani biopic
TORONTO – The recent passing of the iconic Italian Fashion Designer Giorgio Armani has Italians et al asking – how influential was Armani’s work? The curiosity is warranted, as Armani’s global business empire extended into Luxury Hotels in Milan & Dubai, fragrances and home décor. The Fashion Mogul was arguably a throwback to the Renaissance artists of Italy’s enviable history, prompting a more interesting examination: into why Italy continues to birth such individuals.
Italian-Canadian Film Producer Andrea Iervolino (in the pic above) might do just that. Not long after the designer’s funeral in the Piacenza village of Rivalta, Iervolino announced Armani: The King of Fashion, his latest production. The promptness of the project raised a few eyebrows but Iervolino clarified the film was already in the works.
The script was initiated in March, reportedly by Crash screenwriter Bobby Moresco. The film’s announcement, which had been scheduled for June of this year, was delayed due to Armani’s lung infection and illness at the time. The illness in fact meant that Armani would miss his first Milan Fashion Week in fifty years.
“We had already begun writing the screenplay for this film last spring, convinced that Giorgio Armani’s life and legacy deserved a broad and profound narrative. We never considered announcing the project during his illness, so as not to upset him. It seemed right and proper not to do so at that time, as well as the decision not to announce it immediately after his passing”, stated Iervolino.
Not immediate, but six days later. Of course, in the topsy-turvy and expeditious Hollywood environment, six days may as well be six years. The game of course [as always] is to capitalize on famous biopics. More than a game, it’s a race to the marketplace.
Thankfully in Iervolino’s case, it’s in the hands of an Italian Producer. A producer with more than 40 films to his name, and who genuinely wants to tell Italian stories.
“Armani wasn’t just the designer who revolutionized fashion: he was a poet of fabrics, an architect of forms, a man who knew how to express Italian beauty with simplicity and rigor. With this film, we want to restore to the world not just the image of the creator of a style, but the soul of a man who transformed his dream into a collective heritage”.
It’s a mouthful, but an appropriate sentiment. Like many famous Romans and Renaissance men before him, Armani’s legacy in the realm of arts and society will continue to influence Italian culture and thought. Italy has long been a melting pot of ideas and intellectual life, and Armani’s excellence in his field not only deserves a film, but a serious examination of craft, intellect and the pursuit of greatness.
In the pic above, Giorgio Armani and Sophia Loren
Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix
