‘Brunello: The Gracious Visionary’ Premieres in the Highest Style in Rome

“In this film we tried to combine wisdom, equality, and concord, which are the great pillars of a decent person,” designer Brunello Cucinelli told the audience at the premiere of Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, a new documentary about his life and work. The largest theater in Europe, Cinecittà’s Theater 22, played host to the occasion Thursday. Outside, a double white carpet, illuminated by a wall of candles and the natural decor of a brightly glowing supermoon in the sky, led the way to the premiere event, littered with thoughtful and stylish details befitting the film’s subject.

At the center of the carpet, the full Cucinelli family—Brunello, wife Federica Benda, daughters Carolina and Camilla, and an assortment of grandchildren—held court. A bevy of guests from the fashion industry, entertainment, and government were among the guests: Actors, media personalities, and models such as Bianca Balti, Anna Foglietta, Alessandro Cattelan, Anna Ferzetti, Alessandra Mastronardi, and Valentina Bellè, rubbed shoulders with former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who arrived to the screening alongside Cucinelli. Hollywood showed up and showed out as well: Jeff Goldblum, Edgar Ramirez, Chris Pine, Jessica Chastain, Ava DuVernay, Jonathan Bailey, and model Tina Kunakey were among the attendees.

The film’s director, Giuseppe Tornatore, took the stage before the screening to recount the origin of the project: “When I met Brunello for the first time, I didn’t know anything about him. So then, listening to his stories, I found myself involved in his adventure and what has turned out to be an experimental movie, as I like to call it. I thank Brunello for allowing me to enter his story and tell it in my own way.”

The director then extended his thanks to the team, saying, “I can’t really list them all, but I would like to make one name and single out one single person: Maestro Nicola Piovani, who composed the score for the whole movie.”

Piovani, greeted by applause, also spoke. “I’m extremely pleased of the opportunity to be able to enter in this movie through my music. It is not always easy to find movies where you can apply a score and music that is poetical. Working in this movie, I’m especially honored, because I worked with a director who is a poet, a true poet, and I was attracted to this storyline, which is extremely fascinating and charming. It is fascinating as a story because it tells pieces of utopia. I’m always fascinated by people who want to translate into reality pieces of their utopia. What I wanted to say, I said through the score.”

Brunello: The Gracious Visionary took director Tornatore two years, the visuals alternating between auteur reconstructions (the young Cucinelli is played by Saul Nanni) and real-life testimonies from those who know the designer, one balancing the other. The result is a portrait that starts from the country house where it all began and reaches the present, chronicling the birth of a company that has become an international model. The cast also includes many non-professional performers from Umbria, chosen precisely to restore the community dimension that runs through the entrepreneur’s story.

After the screening, the evening continued at the studio’s reconstruction of the ancient Basilica Aemilia, which was opened specially to host a celebratory dinner. A path of candles crossed the Roman set, creating a suspended atmosphere that led to the spaces set up for the occasion. Here, among the columns of the Forum, the evening came to a close in one of Cinecittà’s most evocative settings.