Weltnachrichten – AU – “The collaboration with Pierre Cardin was a dream”: The filmmakers of the House of Cardin remember the designer

Pierre Cardin’s death was something we believed could never happen. Although he was 98 years old, Pierre seemed like someone who could live forever.

We knew his job before we knew the man himself. It all started with a coffee table. We were looking for one for our new Palm Springs home and found a space age circular design by Pierre Cardin. He was the first designer to really get into lifestyle and the first to make bed linen, towels and glasses. When we found out, we filled our house with it. Then we got the car – a 1972 AMC Javelin, made by Pierre Cardin – and collected records from Les Disques Pierre Cardin, his record label.

We were in Paris in July 2016 looking for more records when we discovered he had a museum there. At this point in time, we weren’t looking at Pierre as a real person – just a larger than life brand like Betty Crocker.

We went to his shop and found out that he was there most on Tuesday morning. The next time we came to Paris, we were flying on a Monday evening specifically to « accidentally » come across our design hero. That afternoon we had coffee together at Minim – next to Maxim, the Cardin restaurant in Paris.

We excitedly showed him pictures of all of our Cardin-alia and he stopped at a photo of the car. « Are you going with it? » he asked. We said yes and he said, « OK, let’s get started. What do you want to do and when do you want to start? “

When he paid the bill, we asked the waiter if we could keep the receipt as it had his signature. At that point we didn’t want anything – just a selfie for Facebook to impress our friends. We had no plan, no funding, nothing. But we went down the Champs-Élysées and danced. It was love at first sight. He was just so fascinating. And so nice.

With Pierre, you never felt like you were in the presence of a legend. They realized that genius can be simple and that brilliant people are masters of common sense. And he wanted us to make a film about him – that records his design archive and long career – so it had to happen.

So many people have said yes to interviews without hesitation. Sharon Stone was wearing a dress that was flown in from the Pierre Cardin Museum when we shot hers. We filmed Naomi Campbell herself at the museum – they took a dress from a mannequin and put it on properly.

Here is the list of people who said yes but who we didn’t interview: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon, Dapper Dan, Dame Diana Rigg, and Marisa Berenson. Everyone wanted to take part – from a deadline perspective that was simply impossible. It turned out that Pierre had a lot of fans in front of us.

We interviewed Dionne Warwick. She said that when she went to Europe to perform at Espace Pierre Cardin – the performance space he owned in Paris – he treated her with the respect she never got in America. Pierre pretended he wasn’t anything that really moved her.

Dionne also mentioned something that we experienced ourselves: Pierre was a night owl. He would take you to dinner at midnight. You’d finish shooting and he’d just get in. We often thought he was just inviting us, but he would take our entire crew to Maxim.

Then there were the stories he told that brought us back to Paris in the 1940s when he was an attractive young man with Jean Cocteau and the intellectual Haute Society. He was aware of this, but did not want to use his youth and beauty to get ahead – although he knew it was an option.

People say you shouldn’t meet your idols because they will let you down. We had the opposite feeling.

Working with Pierre was like driving this car with his name – a dream. People are drawn to it. They run out of bars and chased us down the street talking about this car. Pierre had exactly the same effect on everyone he met.

His nephew Rodrigo told us he was in good health – only handicapped by age. He was tired, it was obvious and slower than before. We thought we’d give him his 100th birthday next time. See birthday.

Our documentary was premiered this year in Venice in the presence of Pierre – he received a standing ovation. He then personally hosted the French premiere in September. It was a beautiful night. We have to sit next to him and hold his hand. That felt like a closure. We didn’t expect this final shutdown to happen anytime soon.

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Pierre Cardin, Dior, French fashion