Mark Reviews Movies: SALVATORE: SHOEMAKER OF DREAMS

Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams, Sony Pictures Classics

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 10, 2022

It's a bit of shock to see a professional and renowned filmmaker stumble so badly, but such is the case with director Lucca Guadagnino's documentary about shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo. Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams is a blandly straightforward biography of the Italian fashion designer, whose namesake company still produces and sells expensive footwear. Beyond that, though, Guadagnino doesn't seem to have a plan for telling this story, and that lack of consideration and care is so obvious that the movie is an occasionally embarrassing non-effort.

The narrative, of course, simply details the life and career of Ferragamo, whose surname would probably be the better selling point for the title. Clearly, Guadagnino wants to look at and into the man, not the company or the fashion line or the product. While that's a noble enough motive, the actual details of Ferragamo's biography are too scant and broad to really come away with any idea of him.

We understand what Ferragamo did over the course of his 62 years of life. Growing up in a small town called Bonito in Italy, he became obsessed with shoes and enamored, it seems, with the concept of the foot. The narration comes from Ferragamo himself, with Guadagnino piecing together pieces of fuzzy audio from a pair of interviews, and the actor Michael Stuhlbarg, reading from a biography in such calming but significant tones that one might think the details are deeper than they actually are.

The rest of Ferragamo's story might as well come from the thinnest of encyclopedia entries, though. There simply doesn't seem to be much information about the man, if Guadagnino's reliance on archival film and obviously anachronistic footage shot in the present day to chronicle his subject's journey is any indication. Ferragamo studied shoemaking in Naples, after quickly winning over his father by making shoes for a younger sister, and returned home to open a shop out of his home. He was only a teenager then, which is an impressive feat that, like so many of the man's accomplishments, is passed over to get to the next step of his life.

In this case, that's a move to the United States, from Ellis Island (where his immigration experience is pretty easy, which makes one wonder why the movie spends so much time on it), to Boston (where he rejects the notion of mass producing shoes), and to California. At that final stop, Ferragamo gets into the burgeoning business of motion pictures, crafting shoes for major productions and the first movie stars.

This would seem to be a section of note for Guadagnino. To be sure, the filmmaker's interviews with the likes of Martin Scorsese, that great director and film historian, and film critic Todd McCarthy would suggest some interest in the movie business at the time and Ferragamo's work behind the scenes, as well as in helping to shape the fashion of the day with those famous actors. Scorsese, though, appears more as an expert on the differences between various locales in Italy and the immigrant experience, while getting prompts from Guadagnino about Ferragamo's story, and McCarthy is wasted on pointing out that the Hollywood sign used to read "Hollywoodland."

There are other experts, given as little to do and appearing equally unprepared for their interviews, and that's not meant as a slight against them or their expertise. Guadagnino seems to be relying on them too much to add some color to a narrative that he hasn't fully crafted. The interviews themselves are filmed in such an amateurish way that Guadagnino (and, sometimes, a different crew member, when the director couldn't be bothered, one supposes) takes up some portion of the frame. We can see his arm or the side of his head in certain shots, and since he's not an active participant in these discussions, it's a distracting mistake, not a definitive choice (If it's meant to be a stylistic choice, though, it's still an erroneously considered one).

There are few choices being made here, except to tell Ferragamo's story chronologically and as quickly as possible. The early sections, with the man wandering to and fro in search of a purpose, are somewhat evocative, until it becomes apparent that Guadagnino is simply padding out his thin material. Considering that the documentary's final point is about the importance of family in Ferragamo's life, it's unfortunate that the movie spends so little time talking with them or examining the man's home life.

One unmistakable choice has been made here. Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams ends with a dance of computer-generated shoes, which is the sort of weird spectacle that leaves us certain of Guadagnino's directorial uncertainty.

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