By Pamela Pollack-Fremd
SAN DIEGO — “Everything in life is accidental” says Manolo Blahnik towards the end of the bio-documentary, Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards written and directed by Michael Roberts. I disagree. It appears from the very beginning of the documentary that the famous shoe designer was destined to make gorgeous shoes. He grew up in a wealthy and privileged environment on a beautiful Spanish Canary Island. His father’s background was Czech; his Spanish mother’s family owned a banana plantation on the Canary Islands. Growing up he saw his mother making beautiful shoes because she was not satisfied with the shoes available at local stores on the island. From an early age he was trained to be creative.
As a young man he went to Europe to continue his education. His parents hoped he would pursue a career in International Relations perhaps at the United Nations, but Manolo was more interested in Art and Literature. As soon as he graduated from the University of Geneva with a degree in Literature and Architecture, he went to Paris and fell in love with fashion. It was a time of civil unrest and revolution in Paris, something that didn’t interest Manolo at all. So, he moved to London and here he felt incredible freedom. About this time he meet Diana Vreeland, the famous American Vogue editor. When she saw his drawings, she encouraged him to concentrate on shoes, and so he did. His shoes have been described as unique, ornate, impossible, extremely uncomfortable, beautiful, and divine.
This documentary is really for fashion fanatics. If you are not one, then you may not recognize nor appreciate the importance of many of the people referenced in this film. I didn’t. The photos and film coverage of the late 1960’s in London is nostalgic for those alive and young at that time. Perhaps it would also be interesting for those who were not born yet, but heard of that “wild and uninhibited” period. A few of the famous people who loved his shoes were Christine Picasso, Angelica Huston, David Bailey, John Galliano, Princess Diana, Andre Leon Tally, and Bianca Jagger.
If you are not interested in fashion, you should probably skip the film.
This documentary will play at the Ken Cinema in San Diego beginning Friday, October 20 thru Thursday October, 26th
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Movie fanatic Fremd-Pollack is a retired ESL teacher.