I start to scream when I try to thread a needle. So, I throw it back in the box and I just don't sew. My favorite clothes are my worn-thin t-shirt with the jagged scissor cut neck...and the cut-off pajama bottom shorts I dearly love. I just haven't cared much at all about the sewing arts. And yet, one day after viewing this stunning documentary...MEN OF THE CLOTH, produced and directed by Vicki Vasilopoulus, I am still resonating with one of the most delicious, heart-opening inspiring films I've ever seen. And films are something I really care very much about.
From the very start...the pristinely emotional score embraces the camera's divinely honest introductions to the films stars...the tailors and their assistants.The camera also quickly teaches us that the tailors' hands, the families of threads on the walls of the intimate workshops, the worn silver thimbles around old and younger bent thumbs, the silken textures of fine cloth and all the other unforgettable specialized tools of the trade...these glistening things too, become supporting stars in this dynamic drama. Though not actually shot in sepia, the visual tone of this film possesses what sepia suggests...historical significance, beautifully vital remembrances of times lost and the deeper implications of the subject's under-life. It is all there throughout. We are immediately relaxed and compelled by something that is weaving a magical spell around us with exquisite keenness. It is the simple purity and unfettered truthfulness of the men and the camera. I want to be pushed around by artistic experience. But I don't want to see how they're doing it. Ms. Vasilopolous and her team masterfully sneak up and break my heart. She and her subjects lift my spirit, muck around in my doubts and desires and stir my soul by introducing me to these joyful, devoted artisans. I immediately respect and adore their gleeful, yet abjectly serious commitment to their dying art of fine tailoring. We are immersed in only their worlds. The intimate shops and work stations where they conjure their beautiful, one-of-a- kind creations. The sound-scape, sometimes just the hiss of an iron, the rapid thump of sewing machine, and the heart-stopping deep cutting sounds of huge silver shears as they chew their way through a wildly expensive swatch of rare imported cloth...exactly on the lines!
No matter how long or short the camera lights on any one craftsman (yes, there is one woman in the film) we somehow feel that we are truly knowing them...and that we are proud and encouraged and lucky to meet them! Whether it is the glorious giggle that bubbles up from Master Tailor Joe Centofani's 90 year old laughter, or the subtlest nod like a priest giving blessing as he so meticulously inspects the seam of a newly formed jacket sleeve, we are heart -to-heart with these old world gentlemen. The filmmakers allow their subjects to unabashedly remind us of a world of fineness, dedication, the delicate emotional complexity of teacher and student. And most of all, we get to witness the glorious fruitful reward of following one's passion!
Over and over again it blossoms throughout this film! Passion, as the most vital concomitant of a life well-lived. Even as these men face the twilight of their careers...their passion, excitement and even renewing hope about the future remains vibrant! We need reminders like these.And Vasilopoulus, in this marvelous debut achievement, does this with an expertly gentle touch. Like the tailors themselves, as they translate their love and artistry into divinely handsome living works of art.
Though lives change throughout the eleven year gestation of this film, the viewpoint of the featured story tellers, as well as the filmmakers never wavers. Love, and its infinite manifestations continues to jump off the screen throughout. We see it, and feel it when the monasterial silence is broken for a rare moment as the men sit closely and sew, in the full-face testimonials of the older masters as they proudly...so proudly...declare their commitment to their beloved marriages to tailoring "until the day they die". And we see it in the serious smiling eyes of the young apprentices, who devoutly honor the gifted fathers of their craft and dream of attaining their same supreme standing in this rarefied world.
Don't miss the opportunity to view a most unusual gateway to love and honor. I left the theater full of both. Even for needles and thread.
Lauren Robert/Actor/ singer/Writer