Alberto San Juan stars in an ambitious Disney Plus production directed by the authors of ‘Handia’, which begins today with a four-month shooting in the Basque Country and France
The first 100 pairs of Full Destroyed sneakers (completely destroyed) that Balenciaga launched on May 9 sold out in minutes. Lovers of the Parisian brand paid 1,450 euros to wear a shoe full of holes that looks dirty, but with the designer’s name written on the sole as if it were graffiti. It’s been 54 years since the Getaria couturier closed his studios, but his new creative director, Georgian Demna Gvasalia, has made Balenciaga one of the most influential and sought-after fashion companies.
This Monday, the shooting of ‘Balenciaga’ in San Sebastián, the tentative title of a biographical series set to premiere at Disney Plus worldwide, began. The great secret of the protagonist has been revealed: Alberto San Juan will play the fashion designer in one of the most ambitious productions of the year, directed by Jose Mari Goenaga, Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi, the authors of ‘Loreak’ and ‘ Handia’, winner of ten Goyas in 2019. “As soon as Alberto San Juan arrived at the test, we felt that we had found our Cristóbal Balenciaga,” confirm the directors of Gipuzkoan. “We are very proud to have him. His dedication and commitment to the project is total. He is the absolute protagonist, present in almost all scenes of the series and playing a fashion designer, which means learning to sew or fabric manipulate”.
Cristobal Balenciaga (Getaria, 1895. Jávea, 1972) surrounded his figure with mystery and secrecy. At the age of twelve, she learned to use the sewing machine from her mother, Martina Eizaguirre, a seamstress for the Marquesses of Casa Torres. His father, a sailor and mayor of the Liberal Party of Sagasta, transported Queen María Cristina and her children on his boat on the Basque coast during the summer. At the age of ten he left his city to settle in San Sebastián and learned the tailoring trade there.
In the midst of the civil war, he went to Paris, where he became the most exquisite name in haute couture. Four years before he died of a heart attack, he dressed the flight attendants of Air France, the sole concession of an elite couturier, who wanted nothing to do with ready-to-wear. He only gave two interviews towards the end of his life. The death of her great love, Wladzio d’Attainville, the son of one of her clients, coincided with the disappearance of her mother. After retirement, Balenciaga retired to his farm in Igeldo, where he kept his mistress’s sewing machine by the fireplace.
Winner of two Goyas, Best Lead Actor for ‘Under the Stars’ (2008) and Best Supporting Actor for ‘Sentimental’ (2021), Alberto San Juan describes the series as a “challenge”. “It’s almost like making three movies in four months, in multiple languages, with decades between the start and the end.” The most ambitious Spanish series Disney Plus undertakes required painstaking research and recreation work. Costume designer Bina Daigeler, nominated for an Oscar for the live-action film ‘Mulán’, and costume designer Pepo Ruiz Dorado, lead a department of 30 people that mimic the designs of the Getaria master.
They are part of a team of 100 professionals and 2,000 extras who play a hundred characters during eighteen weeks of filming. Set from the Spanish Civil War to the early 1970s, ‘Balenciaga’ will be filmed in over 90 sets in Spain (San Sebastián, Getaria, Irun, Pasaia, Hondarribia, Balmaseda, Pamplona, Vitoria, Madrid… ) and France (Paris, Bordeaux and Toulouse). More than 3,000 people showed up for the casting of a production that plans to deliver the final clapperboard hit on October 7. Javier Agirre is the director of photography and Mikel Serrano is responsible for the art direction. Six fifty-minute episodes will appear next year.
According to the official synopsis, the series will “tell the story of a man who, through his natural talent, perseverance and business acumen, dared to challenge his social standing as the son of a seamstress and a fisherman, becoming one of the most relevant. ” designers of all time. ‘Balenciaga’ is “a portrait of the search for identity in the face of adversity and the challenge of social conventions over the years.” Obsessed with finding his own style among the voices that judged his work and with the loneliness that comes with being an artist, the public will witness the constant deconstruction and reconstruction of the great losses of this master: his life partner, his mother and his country”.
Source: La Verdad
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