Thanks.

I would not say the Valentino-Giancarlo exchanges are ever a bitch session at all. Their bickering is a running theme that adds humor to the film but they have too much class for it ever to cease being discreet. Mostly it's about Valentino's accomplishment, how the two work together, and why the partnership succeeded.

The thing is, this whole corporate takeover thing has grown enormously in recent years, and that is one of the themes that emerges from the film--that with global marketing and corporate management the big fashion names are a hundred times more profitable than they were relatively in the past. Hence this sell-out thing is on another scale altogether. Valentino quit because he would not take orders from a corporation. Valentino is still Valentino. But he has retired, and would have retired anyway sooner or later. At 77 he's a bit old for the pace of haute couture at the top level. It's enormously demanding work, even if you have hundreds of people at your beck and call.

I have tasted the experience of compromising some to sell my art work--or at least, being in constant touch with dealers and working with them, being aware of their considerations and what kinds of tings the clients say. I was glad to leave the marketing to others but I knew what would not sell and I didn't try to force unsaleable work on dealers. But my work was never cheapened by mass production and I never did anything I didn't like. Neither did Valentino. But of course, when you become a household word, your name is in a sense no longer yours. But it also still is, because as long as you have control over sales, you control what goes out under your name.

Valentino and Giancarlo are resting on their laurels now, mostly, for the moment anyway as I understand it. They have actually been traveling around promotiing Tyrnauer's documentary, which is after all a celebration of them. You can see this in their interview on Charlie Rose recently.