Inside the bright look of Diane Pernet – Part One

A review of “A Shaded View on Fashion and Film 7th Edition” held in Paris last week-end. ASVOFF is Diane Pernet’s most remarkable achievement in her carrier as a Curator and Director. A festival dedicated in her own words to fashion, film, creativity and beauty. She was one of the first fashion blogger ever, she is also the founder of the first festival for fashion films. Growing bigger and bigger through the years, this event celebrates innovation and opens to new artistical fields and proposes also masterclasses, roundtables, performances and gigs. Taking place right in the city center at Le Centre Pompidou the ASVOFF 7th edition was launched enthusiastically and is now meant to travel all around the world. Diane promised a feast for the eyes and god so it was ! Full review by Michäel Dupré.

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Diane Pernet by Jean-Luc Dupont

Opening Night
Diane does nothing like everybody else, the festival started with the awards ceremony and screening of the winners. Dries Van Noten was the jury’s president of this edition and Caroline De Maigret was the master of ceremony, here is the winners overview and their videos, enjoy the show!

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ASVOFF GRAND PRIX 2014 Jumper by Justin Anderson

BEST ART DIRECTION The Journey by Monica Menez

BEST ACTOR Annarose Cattanach in Dolly by Laura Hypponen for Agent Provocateur

http://vimeo.com/107228552

BEST STYLE Nukelady by Sofia Sanchez & Mauro Mongiello

BEST SOUND DESIGN The Sound of COS by Lernert & Sander

http://vimeo.com/103694372

BEAUTY PRIZE  Barbara Casasola: MENSWEAR FOR WOMEN by Marie Schuller for SHOWstudio. Awarded with a SHU UEMURA Make Up Suitcase for the Make Up artist of the film : JAMES O’RILEY

EMERGING TALENT PRIZE Connecting by Jacob Brown for V Magazine

Connecting for V Magazine by Jacob brown 1

BEST ADVERTISING L’errore by Brando De Sica for Catherinelle

Errore by Brando de Sica

BLAKISTON DOCUMENTARY PRIZE Travelling at night with Jim Jarmush by Léa Rinaldi

Travelling at night with Jim Jarmusch by Léa Rinaldi 3

Diane also took the opportunity to showcase the work of Bruce Webber “Beauty brothers” and Martin Werner’s serie of films ” Made From Cool”. Right after the screenings Bianca Casady of Cocorosie proposed a performance and a film called “La morte saison” that she directed herself. She accompanied this silent movie by a live music performance. Bianca was helped by a musician playing on a piano that literally crossed the whole country being imported especially from Camargue. (For this unique performance she reportedly had worked on for an entire month.)

The competition
To be honest, the jury must have had a great time watching all the films and a terrible hard time choosing the winners, for one simple reason; the incredible quality of the whole festival. Out of the 70 films coming from all over the world, picking the best ones was probably not an easy ride. In the jury’s selection -which I adhere to mostly- Jumper was clearly up above and totally deserved the GRAND PRIX. Dries would later tell us during his conference, to explain his choice, that Jumper had the quality to contain the story of a whole feature film in only 4 minutes. Nevertheless, aside from the jury’s choices, I’d like to highlight some movies that I found particularly interesting, here’s my selection:

Change is a beautiful thing by Kathryn Fergusson
This film is about mature women and their relationship with their image. To me this movie is a statement. It says that beauty is not a matter of age but it is said in the most surprising way. I just love the setting, the colors, the humor, everything. Have a look it is strangely poetic :

Evening in space by David Lachapelle featuring Daphne Guinness
Are you ready for a chromatic overdose? Are you willing some funky clothes and kitschissim scenary? David Lachapelle excels in the fine art of « too much is beautiful ».Oh and one last thing, don’t you find that Daphne’s looking just like Marlene Dietrich in this clip? I’d be curious to have your opinion:

MEAT by Matt Lambert
This one was shot in Germany to promote a performance at Schaubühne in Berlin. This film is a disturbing one, you don’t know what to thing right away, it questions you on a fascination-repulsion mode. Visually, MEAT is a collision between Larry Clark and Ridley Scott’s universes; it’s also a dark social critic but filmed like a trance. The music is awesome:

Fabulous James by Ivan Olita
This short film was in the documentary section. Although the version we had at ASVOFF was different from the one you will see, I loved this film. The voice of this old man, what he says, the magnificent house he’s been working on his whole life and manufactured to perfection… James is a man who lived fully, who made no concessions. I feel like this is a state of grace:

Dries Van Noten: The constant gardener
There is something utterly noble about Dries. When he moves, when he speaks, he has a form of natural wisdom. We were really lucky to see this special Carte Blanche from Dries, for he’s a quite reserved person who doesn’t really like public speaking. The conference started with screenings of movies scenes that inspired him, from classic Hollywood standards to Asian auteur movies and also European period films. We watched fragments of Vertigo, In the mood for love, Chariots of fire, A single man, A clockwork orange, The man who fell to earth, lots of Visconti’s and many many others. Most surprisingly a lot of documentaries about nature, images of wild life, birds and plants. I’ve chosen this video out of his selection: Flowers by Andrew Zuckerman

When asked about his choices for the screenings he answered that those films were not necessarily his favorite but they somehow shaped his esthetics. Dries can be inspired by the mood of a film, a single detail or the whole film. For instance “The Piano” by Jane Campion inspired him a complete collection in 1996, it took him 4 years to use this inspiration. The film was on his mind for that time. Commenting images of animals and nature: « Aggression and beauty work hand in hand, nature is beautiful and cruel, it’s something I was not afraid to explore » Someone asked if he would be interested in becoming a director he laughed and honestly said: « No, I think being a fashion designer and a gardener is enough. » Then he paused a little while and added: “Fashion and gardening have a lot in common; you create with your hands, it is physical, you have a direct result. Well, you also have to wait, sometimes… Nature makes you humble. In fashion, you are god, in nature, you obey. It keeps me healthy.”

The Royal Jodorowskys
Paying an artistical tribute to the the Jodorowsky family, the Sunday afternoon was totally dedicated to them in a serie of 3 successive interventions: Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky, costume designer, painter and wife of Alejandro Jodorowsky. Artistically and in her private life Pascale has always followed her instinct, her inner intuition and permeably moved from painting, to costume designing, to photography and so on… She spoke brilliantly about the artist condition and her own creative process with her husband or with fabulous contemporary choreographer Carolyn Carlson. Here are some quotes of hers: “The material an artist uses for his work is oneself, it is life itself.” “When you are sincere you are always universal, when you talk about yourself without seduction you always talk about everyone.” It was a clever idea to invite a costume designer to an open discussion with the public. I really hope this will happen again in the future editions. I’d love to see costume designers like Milena Canonero or Catherine Baba and so many others. It was absolutely relevant in a festival dedicated to Fashion in Films. Adan Jodorowsky, musician, performer, film director and son of Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Neoclassical acid trip, baroque and oneiric this very irreverent first film was a pure delight! I really loved it; it is just so excessive, so emphatic in every way possible. It’s very cre ative, extremely funny, it’s totally twisted and perverted and also immensely sophisticated. You can clearly see that Adan toiled on this film. He confessed before the screening that he felt like dying on the set because of the huge amount of work. Adan made a wise decision when he gave Aymeric Bergada Du Cadet the art direction of the film, he made an amazing insane work. This is very promising for a first film. I can’t wait for the next! Alejandro Jodorowsky, living legend of cinema, polyvalent artist and tarot divination specalist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqbJHbP61PY

Do I have to introduce the man who directed “the holy Mountain” and “Santa Sangre” ? The master of magical surrealism presented his last film “La danza de la realidad” which was nothing less than “the healing of his soul” in his words.

The festival touched to an end on this lovely screening, Alejandro and his clan were on stage to talk about the adventure of the making of this autobiographical film. His wife created the costumes, his sons Brontis, Adan and Axel play in it. La Danza as he calls it retraces his childhood in Tocopilla, Chilli and portrays his family. Funny thing, Brontis, son of Alejandro in real life plays in the movie his own grand father. “I don’t care about popular, popular does not interest me” Confessing that his relationship to creation is sacred and that he will never compromise, Alejandro captivated the attention of the audience as an incredible showman. In substance he said that the mission of an artist is the lit this sick world, to remain free of career calculations and money making. The ASVOFF7 closed on this inspiring ode to family and freedom.

Diane Pernet is bringing ASVOFF 7 to Antwerp on December 2nd and December 3rd at Momu museum. More information and reservation here.

Full review by Michäel Dupré – dupremichael@hotmail.com

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Contact:

www.ashadedviewonfashion.com / @Facebook@vimeo / Diane Pernet  @Facebook / @Instagram / @Twitter

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