Gianni Versace - Emperor of Dreams

Cleverly intertwining past and present, fiction and documentary, with this biopic director/co-writer Mimmo Calopresti tells the story of the growth and success of Gianni Versace, a fashion designer of the future. Beginning with his youth in Reggio Calabria in the 1960s, spent observing his seamstress mother and studying the classics, he took his first steps in the world of fashion. While evading the judgment of his fellow townspeople about his never-hidden and proudly lived sexuality, he immersed himself in the remnants of ancient Greece in search of identity and eventually fled to Milan to unleash his genius. In 1970s Milan, the Versace brand began to rise, with forays into theater, music, cinema, and television. Then in the United States, Versace collaborated with great photographers like Mapplethorpe, forever changing the relationship between photography and fashion. Collecting a series of interviews with his friends, colleagues and models, including Carla Bruni, as well as archival images of fashion shows and interviews, Gianni Versace – Emperor of Dreams reconstructs the world, life and creativity of Versace.

Born in 1955 in Polistena, Calabria, Mimmo Calopresti is an Italian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. Between 1987 and 1994, he made a series of documentaries, notably for the Workers Movements’ audiovisual archives. Three of his features have been presented in the Cannes Official Selection, The Second Time (1995), Notes of Love (1998) and I Prefer the Sound of the Sea (2000).