{"id":1508,"date":"2019-01-28T22:03:54","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T22:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/?p=1508"},"modified":"2019-02-06T22:04:59","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T22:04:59","slug":"frederic-tcheng-investigates-unknowable-fashion-designer-with-halston-sundance-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/frederic-tcheng-investigates-unknowable-fashion-designer-with-halston-sundance-studio\/","title":{"rendered":"Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Tcheng Investigates Unknowable Fashion Designer With \u2018Halston\u2019 \u2014 Sundance Studio"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"deadline-hollywood-logo-o\"A documentarian drawn to examine fashion luminaries, through films like Dior and I, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Tcheng most recently set his sights on Halston. An iconic and mysterious fashion designer, Halston became an internationally recognized name in the 1970s, redefining American fashion in that decade. In his heyday, the designer could often be spotted at Studio 54, with the likes of Liza Minnelli and Andy Warhol, little knowing that his downfall would come, in the form of a corporate takeover.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Roland Ballester, the eventual producer of the doc, Tcheng was able to get in touch with Lesley Frowick, Halston\u2019s niece, who was \u201cvery close to Halston at a period of time where Halston\u2019s life was turned upside down.\u201d Hearing the designer\u2019s story from Frowick\u2019s point of view, the director suddenly saw his film\u2014a story that was \u201cbigger than life,\u201d and \u201ca little bit like a corporate thriller.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with Frowick\u2019s participation, Halston was a tough nut to crack, whose life story was \u201cfull of holes and ellipses.\u201d Making the film presented an artistic quandary, akin to the one Adam McKay took on with his Best Picture contender, Vice: How is a director supposed to present a compelling, revealing portrait of \u201ca guy that is really hard to know\u201d?<\/p>\n

Eventually, Tcheng came to the notion of crafting a \u201ccool, kaleidoscopic\u2026portrait,\u201d grappling with the complexity of Halston\u2019s story by turning to narrative film, rather than other docs. \u201cDocumentaries tend to very often be sort of [a] birth-to-death, linear story, but I felt like Halston, that\u2019s not how I found out about his story,\u201d Tcheng said, sitting down recently at Deadline\u2019s Sundance Studio. \u201cThere were too many things\u2026to investigate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bringing the film to life, the director found his greatest inspiration in Orson Welles\u2019 enduring classic Citizen Kane, and its unknowable protagonist, Charles Foster Kane. \u201cI really love the way that Orson Welles frames the story as an investigation, and takes you on this journey to find out who Charles Foster Kane is. I felt like as a documentary filmmaker, it\u2019s very much the same journey, where you have some images, you have some testimonies\u2014sometimes conflicting, sometimes going in the same direction. But eventually, you\u2019re trying to find the Rosebud of, who is this guy?\u201d Tcheng explained. \u201cIt helped that Halston was such a self-made man, and created this entire empire just like Charles Foster Kane, and then he had a very abrupt downfall, where you could see he started to believe his own publicity.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Tcheng, Halston presented \u201cthe perfect storm of a great story,\u201d which would allow him to work through his own thoughts on the \u201cart-versus-commerce dichotomy,\u201d a theme also explored at Sundance this year in Dan Gilroy\u2019s wild art-world satire, Velvet Buzzsaw.<\/p>\n

To hear more from our conversation with Tcheng\u2014as he discusses his collaboration on the doc with 22-year-old fashion blogger and actress Tavi Gevinson\u2014take a look above.<\/p>\n

View this article at Deadline<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A documentarian drawn to examine fashion luminaries, through films like Dior and I, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Tcheng most recently set his sights on Halston. An iconic and mysterious fashion designer, Halston became an internationally recognized name in the 1970s, redefining American fashion in that decade. In his heyday, the designer could often be spotted at Studio 54,
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