When photographer Francesco Carrozzini confided in Baz Luhrmann that he had always wanted to make a movie, Baz told him firmly: “Make the movie only you can make.” The result is Franca: Chaos and Creation, a revelatory and moving portrait of the auteur’s mom who happens to have been the visionary editor in chief of Italian Vogue since 1988. After a screening at the Metrograph that left many in tears for its vivid depiction of an intense parent and child relationship, a Valentino-clad Franca Sozzani and her son Francesco were feted by Anna Wintour (in runway-fresh Pierpaolo Piccioli Valentino) in her townhouse among a market garden full of plate-size dahlias, Franca’s intimates, and a bouquet of luvvies, including Helen McCrory, fresh from her triumphant turn at The National Theater in London in an eviscerating revival of Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea (likely coming to New York soon); Gaycation’s Ian Daniel; and Damian Lewis, with Dominic West arriving late from rehearsals.
The toasts came thick, fast, affectionate, and erudite. “She’s always been like a fairy godmother,” said Diane von Furstenberg, who noted that Franca’s “biggest and most fulfilling role is to be Franscesco’s mother.” Baz noted that through the freshness of Francesco’s work “you are awakened again to the movies.” “Truthful and elegant and very, very moving,” added Jonathan Newhouse. “You taught me to ‘live it,’ ” said Franca’s long-time collaborator Bruce Weber, “you have my heart.” Jonathan Newhouse, meanwhile, admitted that in the early days he did not understand Franca’s outré, rule breaking vision, but praised not only her brave choices, but her astute business acumen, and lauded her as a “warrior queen.”