Plot summary

Lisa Immordino Vreeland directs this documentary about Academy Award-winning costume designer Cecil Beaton. A respected photographer, artist and set designer, Beaton was best known for designing on award-winning films such as ‘Gigi’ (1958) and ‘My Fair Lady’ (1964). The film features archive footage and interviews with a number of models, artists and filmmakers who worked closely with Beaton during his illustrious career. Beaton was not only a dazzling chronicler of his time, but a supreme arbiter of its tastes. From the Bright Young Things, to the front lines of World War II, and from the international belle monde and the pages of Vogue to a role as the Queen’s official photographer, Beaton embodied the cultural and political schisms of the twentieth century. In this warm – though critical – portrait, director Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict) blends archival footage and photographs with voice over from Beaton’s famed …