MovieChat Forums > Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston (2011) Discussion > The director....what a preening, foppish...

The director....what a preening, foppish a-hole....

posted 12 years ago by moviefool09
7 replies | jump to latest

Like others have pointed out, Whitney Smith made anyone who watched this want to throw up. He is clearly interested in having himself look 'cool', hence putting himself in nearly every shot next to his interview subject, wearing a different outfit each time....and desperately trying to impress.

I am of the belief that, in a documentary, a great interviewer is one who's almost invisible and whom you never see. At one point, when Smith rudely pushed someone out of the way when they got too close to the camera and made a snide remark, I started to wonder just who he intended to be the subject of this film.

His questions to his subjects were amateurish, filled with slang and jargon, trying to give the impression that he's 'one of them'. Still, the subject matter is interesting and would have made for a better film....had Whitney Smith not tried to stick himself smack-dab in their world as one of their players. He comes off as a preening, snidely, slightly better-dressed version of Michael Moore.

[–] roses2013 12 years ago

You are so right I just watched this on TMC. I was really expecting something interesting on Halston and he was a foppish twit. He needs to leave documentary film making alone. Simply horrible. He seemed ignorant on the topic as well as condescending and giggling when her was talking to the designer early on . Andre Leon Talley was so right being annoyed, your cell phone ringing in an interview ?!?! This was crap

[–] moviefool09 12 years ago

Exactly. UNPROFESSIONAL is the key word I would use in describing Whitney.

"Incompetent" would be the 2nd.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] moviefool09 11 years ago

Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen a real documentary before where the director essentially tried to make himself the star, subject be damned.

Knowing what a vile egomaniac Whitney is, I'm sure he comes to this board to check things out on his "film". Surely by now, he knows how he's really perceived.

[–] sigmundfreud79 11 years ago

Unfortunately I have to agree. It's really disappointing how the film turned out considering Halston and the era he embodied are so fascinating. I gave it a 6/10 for all the amazing archival footage and photos. I really hope someone more competent eventually makes a doc about Halston that's worthy of the subject.

[–] cache-thomas7 10 years ago

I agree with everyone that this documentary is a FARCE ! It's like this was supposed to be the directors final project to graduate and the professor gives him an incomplete...the only reason I feel he did this documentary was just to have access with the people that he had access to and if you watch the interviews you notice that each interviewee was not very impressed with the intelligence of this so called director...for him to come to london England to speak with Nicky Haslam just shows this was more about him trying to create social ties than finding out key elements concerning Halston. It's kind of showing all his cards when interviews Nicky because no one else would talk to him.

[–] DivingIntheBlue 9 years ago

I've watched this a few times on Netflix and I have to agree. While I thoroughly enjoyed the archival footage and the majority of the interviews, the director inserting himself into nearly every scene (walking around pensively, driving his doofy car around) is annoying as is his interviewing technique. It's almost like he had no idea who Halston was and didn't both to do any research beforehand to get to know the subject or familiarize himself with the era or fashion history. The scene with Andre Leon Talley was hilarious for all the wrong reasons. It's obvious Talley doesn't suffer unprepared fools and was annoyed. It would be almost impossible to be as well versed in fashion and fashion history as Talley is but the director didn't even know who Diana Vreeland was!

I also didn't understand the far too long segment featuring Chris Makos. Makos seemed high and kept rudely answering the phone. Makos literally gave a sound byte's worth of information about Halston but we still had to watch him answer the phone and act like a spaz? Bizarre.

This film could have been great because the few people from that era that are still alive provided him a wealth of info and nearly everything about Halston's life is well documented.