Rome put on a star-studded show for one of Italy\u2019s own on Thursday, with the premiere of Brunello Cucinelli documentary Brunello: The Gracious Visionary bringing the glam one would expect from the top designer.<\/p>\n
Directed by Oscar-winner Giuseppe Tornatore, the two-hour doc chronicles the life and philosophy of the famed \u201cKing of Cashmere\u201d \u2014 who grew up in a rural agricultural community in Italy before starting his luxury fashion brand<\/a> in 1978. The film (in Italian called Brunello: Il Visionario\u00a0Garbato) features three different actors in reconstructed scenes\u00a0from Cucinelli\u2019s past, alongside Nicola Piovani\u2019s score.<\/p>\n More from The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Jessica Chastain, Chris Pine, Edgar Ramirez, Ava DuVernary and Kyle MacLachlan (all wearing Cucinelli) were among the Hollywood A-listers who came out to support the project, alongside Cucinelli (accompanied by wife Federica Benda and their family) and the young men who play him, actors Francesco Cannevale, Saul Nanni and Francesco Ferroni.<\/p>\n The event took over Cinecitt\u00e0, the largest film studio in Rome, where Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Sergio Leone and Tornatore have all previously shot. The premiere also served as the opening of the\u00a0new\u00a0Teatro\u00a022,\u00a0one of the two\u00a0largest film studios in Europe.<\/p>\n For the special night, Cinecitt\u00e0 was bathed in shades of beige, ornately decorated with statues and lit by candlelight, as 1,000 guests \u2014 including former Prime Minister of Italy Mario Draghi \u2014 enjoyed a dinner before sitting down to watch the film, the crowd featuring a who\u2019s who of Italian cinema. Sayings from philosophers like Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius were also projected through the space, inspired by Cucinelli\u2019s love of philosophy.<\/p>\n At a press conference the following day at the Teatro Nazionale, Cucinelli was joined by Tornatore, the two-time Oscar-winning Piovani and Nanni to speak to reporters from around the world, with the chat translated into four languages. They revealed that the project has been in the works for three years \u2014 two years of filming plus a year of editing \u2014 as the director admitted he \u201cdidn\u2019t know anything\u201d about Cucinelli before the fashion mogul came to him about doing the film.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Brunello approached me about doing this, I told him docs about people who haven\u2019t passed away don\u2019t really work. They\u2019re too lenient,\u201d Tornatore \u2014 who won an Oscar for Cinema Paradiso<\/a>, a film that is often considered one of the greatest movies of all time \u2014 said. \u201cBut he did not want that. It was great, he became like a dead person. He only saw the whole thing when it was done.\u201d He added that when it was finished, he asked Cucinelli if there was anything he wanted to change, \u201cand\u00a0he said, \u2018Absolutely not, it\u2019s fine just as it is.\u2019 I was struck by that.’\u201d<\/p>\n Cucinelli chimed in, \u201cThe director\u00a0gave me a piece of paper and said, \u2018Write down all the scenes you don\u2019t like.\u2019 But at the end I had nothing on the paper. I said, \u2018Run it like it is,\u2019 \u2014 but maybe cut a few minutes!\u201d<\/p>\n The film\u2019s poster sees Cucinelli surrounded by a sea of books, which all come from his own personal collection; he told reporters he owns 60,000 novels that they gathered together for the promotional imagery, as he spoke about his love of poets and philosophers. The quiet luxury designer also revealed the mathematical tricks and strategy he learned while he was playing cards in a local bar growing up \u2014 which serves as the movie\u2019s opening and is a constant reference \u2014 and credited that for his career success. The bar, Gigino, has not been touched since Cucinelli spent time there, and cards are such a big part of his life that the actors portraying him were told that playing cards was a prerequisite for the role.<\/p>\n Another theme of the film is Cucinelli\u2019s belief in benevolent capitalism, as he\u2019s known for the positive work environment he\u2019s created and has used his success to give back; that includes buying lots of property in the village, Solomeo, that his wife grew up in and building public spaces throughout Italy. During the press conference he noted, \u201cAt our company you are fired on the spot if you offend anyone, regardless of your position or title. I do not care. I make the rules and I report only to the eternal ruler,\u201d while explaining that this ethos came from seeing his father mistreated at work.<\/p>\n Cucinelli also said of his entrance into Hollywood, \u201cIt\u2019s so amusing, but what I prefer focusing on is the human experience and soul. I feel like we are experiencing a strong malaise in our soul that the movie was trying to address. I would like to have become the pope \u2014 but not a producer.\u201d Though of course Cucinelli is no stranger to the entertainment industry, as the brand has become a Hollywood uniform \u2014 even featured heavily this year on The Studio \u2014 with Angelina Jolie, Kevin Costner, Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Seth Rogen and Jon Hamm all regular customers.<\/p>\n Brunello: The Gracious Visionary opens in Italian cinemas on Dec. 9, with plans to screen in the U.S. in March.<\/p>\n Best of The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for THR’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rome put on a star-studded show for one of Italy\u2019s own on Thursday, with the premiere of Brunello Cucinelli documentary Brunello: The Gracious Visionary bringing the glam one would expect from the top designer. Directed by Oscar-winner Giuseppe Tornatore, the two-hour doc chronicles the life and philosophy of the famed \u201cKing of Cashmere\u201d \u2014 who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2188530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[350464,348511,422319,350465,358188,305572,422318,31190],"class_list":["post-2188529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-brunello-cucinelli","tag-chris-pine","tag-francesco-cannevale","tag-giuseppe-tornatore","tag-jeff-goldblum","tag-jonathan-bailey","tag-saul-nanni","tag-the-hollywood-reporter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Brunello-Cucinelli-Unveils-Documentary-on-His-Rags-to-Riches-Story-at-Glamorous.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2188529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2188531,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188529\/revisions\/2188531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2188530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2188529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2188529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2188529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span><\/div>\n
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