Luca Guadagnino on His Latest Project, Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams

Though he’d file for many patents relating to his field over the years, Ferragamo’s first was for an orthopedic support, which he devised while recuperating from a crushing car crash in which his brother Eliodoro lost his life. Back on his feet, in 1923, Salvatore opened the Hollywood Boot Shop, and continued working with directors and stars, on and off screen. In 1926, the same year that he became an American citizen, Ferragamo returned to Italy and set himself up in business in Florence, where he devised a production system that borrowed from both American and Italian traditions. Despite his talent and innovations, Ferragamo declared bankruptcy in 1933. Down, but not out, he found a way to start again and established Salvatore Ferragamo in 1936, acquiring Palazzo Spini Feroni, which remains the company headquarters today. There, Guadagnino notes, Ferragamo’s “kids [were] making homework on the floor of the same rooms where the artisans were making shoes.”

Shoemaker of Dreams does touch on some of Ferragamo’s most famous shoes designs, such as the wedge of 1937, the much copied caged metal heel, the stacked rainbow platform made during material shortages in the 1940s, and the ruby slippers, but, again, this is not a movie about fashion, it’s about a man following his passion in work and love, and it’s on a family note that the documentary part of the film comes to its first conclusion. “Ferragamo went to Italy to look for a family. He invented himself all the time; he invented the idea of Made in Italy being from Florence—he wasn’t from Florence. And then he decided that he had to have a family and he went to his village and he decided that he was going to marry that girl. And it worked, it worked; they loved each other so dearly. They made six children and then [Wanda] became the woman who ran the company after he passed away. And to end with beautiful home movies in which you see the affectionate life of a family in Italy, I thought it was quite touching,” remarks Guadagnino.

I asked the director, who grew up between Italy and Africa, if he felt any identification with Ferragamo, who also lived between two worlds. “My mom is Algerian and I grew up in Ethiopia, and then in Sicily; I moved a lot throughout my life and I always find myself in the position of the maverick somehow,” he replied. “At the same time, I have a very disciplined sense of self to find ways to do things the way I want and to complete myself through what I do. Not to compare myself to the Master Ferragamo, but I think there are some sort of touching qualities in his way of being that remind me how to approach my own life.”

Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams happens to open just weeks after the company removed Salvatore from the brand name, shortening it to Ferragamo. The film is a fitting tribute to the man behind the shoes. Vita brevis, as they say, ars longa. Guadagnino teamed up with the stop motion artist/animator Pes to create a coda to the autobiographical part of the film. A Dream of Hollywood: Shoe Ballet by Pes is a kaleidoscope of digitized shoes tapping, stepping, and spinning in the manner of Busby Berkley. The film ends on a high in a period in which the world seems to have sunk really low.

“We live in the oppression of the digital, in the oppression of hyper-capitalism, in the oppression of hyper-information,” notes Guadagnino. “I hope the movie showcases how many things you can achieve without your phone and without relying on other people’s opinion. Ferragmo did it.” The takeaway is we all can.