Gianni Versace: Emperor of Dreams (Gianni Versace: L’imperatore Dei Sogni)
By: Sharnaz Aziz Tan
Part of the ST. ALi Italian Film Festival 2025, Gianni Versace: Emperor of Dreams made for a great addition to the Italian trifecta of food, family and fashion. Much like the boldness of the man himself, the film opens with Puccini’s Nessun Dorma. Young little Gianni Versace is his dressmaker mother’s shadow as she dresses an opera singer, absorbing everything like a little sponge.
And so begins Mimmo Calopresti’s cleverly directed biopic, seamlessly combining re-enacted snippets of Versace’s life with documentary and archival footage. Italian actors Leonardo Maltese and Vera Dragone bring to the screen vignettes of Gianni’s early beginnings in Reggio Calabria in the 1950s and 60s, where we see a young, skinny boy who was obsessed with books, music and the seaside but did not fit in at school. Interspersed are snippets of real life interviews with people important to Gianni, such as Carla Bruni, Santo Versace and Naomi Campbell to name a few. Most significantly though are the words of the talented designer himself; we also see archival footage of not only his interviews, but also his most iconic fashion shows, including the safety pin dresses Versace is famous for, and bondage inspired gear.
Gianni’s close-knit relationship to his family is well-known, and we see it here – his mother heavily influenced his life choices and encouraged him when he wanted to drop out of school – “Do what you want but do it well”; older brother Santo helped run the fashion house, and younger sister Donatella was instrumental to the development of the brand. A true visionary, Gianni did not believe in living in the past, but always looking to the future. Never afraid to take risks, the “rebellious, creative genius” as Donatella referred to him, could “absorb the atmosphere and turn it into fashion.” We also see other allusions to his genius – his influence in the launching of the “supermodel” in the 90s, and pioneering the punk style that he does so well, his blending of the fashion and music worlds by dressing famous musicians. A lesser known fact that I found particularly interesting is that Versace designed costumes for many productions by Teatro alla Scala in Milan, including Dionysus by Béjart Ballet.
No film on Gianni Versace can escape mention of his tragic and untimely death in 1997 at just 50 years old. 28 years on, the world still mourns the brilliance of a man who undoubtedly loved dressing the female form, and did it so well. I was kept engaged throughout the docu-film, and thoroughly enjoyed Mimmo Calopresti’s reverent tribute to the man behind Atelier Versace.
Gianni Versace: Emperor of Dreams is showing on screens at Luna Palace Cinemas until October 18th.
Gianni Versace – Emperor of Dreams is now showing as part of the ST. ALi Italian Film Festival.