High & Low - John Galliano

In other words, it’s a moral tale -- or, in this case, an amoral one, since Galliano emerges from Macdonald’s film as being naively tone-deaf to society’s sensitivities. Yet, it’s also clear he inspires great affection in those who have worked with him.

I went into the cinema wanting to hear what Galliano had to say about it all... But the film never properly gets to the bottom of it.

Hats off to Kevin Macdonald.

A rich trove of archive footage captures the bottled lightning thrill of Galliano’s showmanship, both in the designs and shows for his own label and those for Dior.

Portrait of an artist as a seriously flawed man.

The man himself is the star, the villain and, undoubtedly, the draw.

High and Low – John Galliano is a compelling, honest and intelligent examination one man’s meteoric rise and self-inflicted fall.



For Galliano, whose psyche resembles a ball of wool that’s been with the kittens for a few days, his fall from grace seems to have arrived in stages.

You can come for the clothes, the scandal or the so-called redemption arc and feel satisfied by the end. A slam dunk.

This genuinely gripping, warts’n’all portrait of the once-legendary fashion designer John Galliano is one of the best documentaries of the year so far.