His haute couture creations appeared in legendary films, famous and beautiful actresses wore on the red carpet the glamorous dresses he created and he was the only designer who accepted to appear as himself in David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada, but there was still something missing in Valentino’s life, a film about himself. At least that was until special correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine Matt Tyrnauer decided to direct a docu-film about the Italian designer.

Shot during a period of two years – from 2005 to 2007 – Valentino: The Last Emperor was finally premiered yesterday at the Venice Film Festival. The designer, accompanied by top model Eva Herzigova, watched the film with his partner Giancarlo Giammetti and director Matt Tyrnauer. First screened in the morning for the press and privately premiered in the evening at La Fenice Theatre, the film received a generally positive critical reception.

The Last Emperor follows Valentino Garavani’s career from its early beginnings. Born in Voghera and named by his mother after her screen idol Rudolph Valentino, the designer left his hometown at seventeen to learn more about the fashion business in Paris. Even as a young apprentice working for major Parisian ateliers, Valentino showed his passion for style and elegance and his love for luxurious creations. His first successes arrived in the early ‘60s when his collection, showcased at Palazzo Pitti, was unanimously acclaimed. The best parts of The Last Emperor aren’t necessarily the ones showing Valentino’s successes, but the shots of the designer working in his atelier with his entourage of faithful and skilled dressmakers. It’s through these shots that Tyrnauer reveals the designer’s excellence in craftsmanship by following all the different phases in the making of a dress, from its first drawing to the final touches added before a catwalk. Valentino’s vision of femininity is explored through his evening gowns made of the finest fabrics in the most beautiful colours, such as the bright “Valentino red”.

Through The Last Emperor the audience will also get a glimpse of Valentino’s extravagant lifestyle with shots of his villa in Rome, his 17th century French chateau, his winter chalet in Gstaad and his 150ft yacht. Yet Tyrnauer’s film is not all about glamour: the backstabbing which led the Premira investor group to take over the company and the problems with the chairman of the group Matteo Marzotto - son of ex-model, member of Rome’s high society and Renato Guttuso’s muse Marta Marzotto - are also recorded. Trusting Tyrnauer meant that in the end some aspects of Valentino’s life that the designer himself wanted to keep private - including his relationship with business and life partner Giammetti, usually referred to as “Signor Giammetti” by Valentino - were revealed. Maybe bits and pieces about Valentino skiing, getting angry, quarrelling with his partner, crying or maniacally taking care of his pug dogs, might have been avoided, but they are used to show a more human - maybe too human - side of one of the designers who contributed to the birth of the “Made in Italy”.

As a whole, Tyrnauer’s story of Valentino’s self-made empire is an impeccable authorised biography. The best definition of this film was the one given by Venice Film Festival Director Marco Mueller who called it “the most fictionalised non-fiction film”. Valentino’s fable doesn’t end with this film, though. The designer retired in January from the world of fashion after a 45-year long career, appointing Alessandra Facchinetti as creative director, but he hasn’t stopped working. He recently organised the second major retrospective of his work at the Louvre’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs and at present he is planning to design the costumes for an Italian opera to be staged in 2010.

A few years ago in an interview with Italian tailor Bruno Piattelli, the designer stated that until there are women who choose to wear his creations and who feel glamorously beautiful in them, that special and magic relationship between women and Valentino will be alive, and his style will keep on evolving, incarnating women’s dreams and desires. After watching Tyrnauer’s film, this sounds like a genuine prophecy rather than just a simple statement.