It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I find that if you have to make a "behind the scenes" style documentary, you really need to have a good story. For fashion nerds, Dior might be an icon, for the rest of us, these are just people, trying very hard to look like they are doing something meaningful. Also, it doesn't help the Raf is repeatedly accused of being a racist, for his refusal to use non white models. It killed the fun for me, as I'm sure it will for others.I think in our day and age, something like this could not exist out of cultural and historical context, including the unpleasant sides of the world of fashion, especially considering they also had on their patrol John Galliano.

This interesting documentary, directed by Frederic Tcheng (Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel), gives us a behind-the-scenes look inside the House of Dior, in Paris. It centers on the newly hired Creative Director Raf Simons, along with his right-hand man Pieter Mulier, as they prepare for Simons' first haute couture show, to be held in just 8 weeks.Normally, a show such as this would take 4 to 6 months to prepare, so we'll see first hand the stress and uncertainties Simons will face as he gets to know the staff and the operations of the company. As he faces this extreme deadline, we will even be privy to his own personal concerns, including references to what certainly seemed like possible anxiety attacks.The film is cleverly interspersed with old film clips of the founder of the company, the renowned designer Christian Dior, who died in 1957. Dior will also narrate these clips in a most haunting way, also exposing his personal doubts as he prepared for his first haute couture show many decades before.Overall, although I admittedly know nothing about haute couture, I still found this documentary to be most interesting, as we see how what seems to be chaos, deadlines , and frenzied work lead in the end to a most amazing finished product.

"Dior and I" (2014 release from France; 90 min.) brings a close-up look at the fashion house of Christian Dior as it exists today. As the documentary opens (in 2012), the CEO of Christian Dior introduces a new creative director to the staff, a Belgian guy named Raf Simons. Raf is new to the "haute couture" as his background really is in "pret-a-porter" (ready to wear) and mostly for men on top of that. So this is a daring choice, and not one without risks. On top of that, Raf only has 8 weeks to come up with a new collection. And as if that isn't enough, Raf's use of French is okay but not fluent (he hails from Dutch-speaking Antwerp, Belgium, home of many other notable fashion designers). How will Raf do? Will his first collection be a success? To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: first, this is the latest documentary from writer-director Frédéric Tcheng, who most recently brought us the delightful "Diane Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel". Second, the challenges that Raf Simons is facing are significant from the get-go. Not only because of the ridiculous time constraints (normally a new collection gets started on 4 to 6 months out, not 8 weeks), but also because of Simons' personality, which isn't the easiest, and his transition to designing haute couture for women, rather than pret-a-porter for men. Along the way, we get to know many other characters, including Pieter Mulier, another Dutch-speaking Belgian who came with Raf and is his trusted right-hand man, and of course the French atelier workers. The tension builds up as we get closer to the deadline for presenting the new collection. Watching how Raf deals with the pressure on the day of the collection's premiere, that alone is worth seeing this documentary for.I recently saw this at the Landmark E Street Cinema in Washington DC. The matinée screening where I saw this at was very well attended, somewhat to my surprise to be honest. But I guess it just shows there really is an audience for a top-notch documentary on fashion. If this is your kind of thing, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.

This is a very entertaining film in its own right, but that which I enjoyed about it most, as a common working guy, with no artistic pretensions worth speaking of, is the way in which the various key characters featured have all managed to convince themselves that what they do is essential to some great endeavour! Well, mes amis, you are only fancy-dan dressmakers, and if you gave up and went on to a different job, you would soon be replaced! The school jumpers my Ma used to knit for me were as valuable as what you do- pity no-one ever had a 350,000 euro account with her! But, as I said, a very entertaining film, and these are not the only people who think highly of themselves - film critics fall into the same trap (not that I am one). General Yen