Love, Cecil

Oscar-winning set and costume designer, photographer, writer and painter Cecil Beaton was not only a dazzling chronicler of his time, but a supreme arbiter of its tastes. From the Bright Young Things, to the front lines of World War II, and from the international belle monde and the pages of Vogue to a role as the Queen’s official photographer, Beaton embodied the cultural and political schisms of the twentieth century. In this warm – though critical – portrait, director Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict) blends archival footage and photographs with voice over from Beaton’s famed diaries to capture his legacy as a complex and unique creative force. Dynamic and lyrical, Love, Cecil is an examination of Beaton’s singular sense of the visual, which dictated a style that set standards of creativity that continue to resonate and inspire today.