Alberto San Juan stars in an ambitious Disney Plus production directed by the authors of ‘Handia’, which begins a four-month shoot today in the Basque Country and France
The first hundred pairs of Full Destroyed sneakers (completely destroyed) that Balenciaga launched on May 9 sold out in minutes. Lovers of the Paris-based brand paid 1,450 euros to wear a shoe full of holes that appears to be dirty, but with the name of the designer written on the sole as if it were graffiti. It has been 54 years since the Getaria couturier closed his workshops, but his new creative director, the Georgian Demna Gvasalia, has turned Balenciaga into one of the most influential and desired fashion firms.
This Monday the filming of ‘Balenciaga’ began in San Sebastián, the provisional title of a biographical series that Disney Plus will premiere worldwide. The great secret of the leading actor 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 audition, we felt that we had found our Cristóbal Balenciaga”, affirm the Gipuzkoan directors. “We are very proud to have him. His dedication and involvement in the project is total. He is the absolute protagonist, present in almost all the scenes of the series and playing a fashion designer, which implies learning to sew or to manipulate a fabric».
Alberto San Juan during the characterization process. /
Cristobal Balenciaga (Getaria, 1895. Jávea, 1972) surrounded his figure with mystery and secrecy. At the age of twelve he learned to use the sewing machine from his mother, Martina Eizaguirre, a seamstress for the Marquises of Casa Torres. His father, a sailor and mayor of the Liberal Party of Sagasta, used to transport Queen María Cristina and her children on his boat during the summer on the Basque coast. He left his town at the age of ten to settle in San Sebastián and there he learned the tailor’s trade.
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 stewardesses of Air France, the only concession of an elite couturier, who wanted nothing to do with prêt-à-porter. He only gave two interviews at the end of his life. The death of his great love, Wladzio d’Attainville, the son of one of his clients, coincided with the disappearance of his mother. After his retirement, Balenciaga retired to his farmhouse in Igeldo, where he kept his housekeeper’s sewing machine by the fireplace.
Winner of two Goyas, for best leading actor for ‘Under the Stars’ (2008) and for best supporting actor for ‘Sentimental’ (2021), Alberto San Juan describes the series as a “challenge”. “It’s almost like shooting three movies in four months, in multiple languages, with several decades between the beginning and the end.” The most ambitious Spanish series that Disney Plus undertakes has required a meticulous investigation and recreation work. Costume designer Bina Daigeler, nominated for an Oscar for the live-action movie ‘Mulán’, and costume designer Pepo Ruiz Dorado, direct a department of 30 people that is recreating the Getaria master’s designs.
Cristobal Balenciaga with one of his creations.
They are part of a team of 100 professionals and 2,000 extras who, during the eighteen weeks of filming, play a hundred characters. ‘Balenciaga’ takes place from the Spanish Civil War to the early 1970s and will be filmed in more than 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 give the last clapperboard hit on October 7. Javier Agirre is the director of photography and Mikel Serrano is in charge of the art direction. There will be six episodes of fifty minutes that will be released 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 status 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”.
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