0
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1
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2
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Mr. Beaton, you've been
described at various times

3
00:00:25,430 --> 00:00:28,295
as an author,
a designer, a dandy...

4
00:00:28,297 --> 00:00:30,794
you may not report yourself
a dandy, but other people have...

5
00:00:30,796 --> 00:00:32,162
a painter, a photographer.

6
00:00:32,164 --> 00:00:34,895
Now, which of these
is your main profession?

7
00:00:34,897 --> 00:00:36,527
I wish I knew.

8
00:00:36,529 --> 00:00:37,694
I'm afraid that's been
my trouble

9
00:00:37,696 --> 00:00:39,661
for a very long time.

10
00:00:41,296 --> 00:00:42,461
The visual, really,

11
00:00:42,463 --> 00:00:44,894
guides my life
more than anything.

12
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"There is scarcely
a flattering self-portrait."

13
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"Yet truth begins
with one's self."

14
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"Of all the forms
of writing,

15
00:01:19,762 --> 00:01:22,228
diaries are
the most personal."

16
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"My obsession stems from
those same obscure motives

17
00:01:31,696 --> 00:01:33,827
that have impelled me
to take snapshots

18
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all my life."

19
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"I exposed thousands
of rolls of films,

20
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wrote hundreds
of thousands of words,

21
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in a futile attempt to preserve
the fleeting moment."

22
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"Some people seem to know
their vocation instinctively

23
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and follow a single path
their whole lives.

24
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Others wander
in the labyrinth of choice."

25
00:02:08,229 --> 00:02:12,461
"I started out
with very little talent,

26
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but I was so tormented
with ambition."

27
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"Once you've started
for the end of the rainbow,

28
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you can't very well turn back."

29
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It's interesting
looking through his career

30
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to break it up
into categories, genres.

31
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The fashion work,
the portraiture,

32
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the film and theater work.

33
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But, in fact,
they meld into one.

34
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It's always Beaton's look,
Beaton's touch.

35
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He just gave over his life
to expressing beauty,

36
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however he could do it.

37
00:03:04,297 --> 00:03:07,693
In fact, he was... if he hadn't
have done photography,

38
00:03:07,695 --> 00:03:08,894
if he had just done
My Fair Lady,

39
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that would have
been enough for me.

40
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He's looking very nostalgically
to the period

41
00:03:22,763 --> 00:03:25,327
immediately before
the First World War,

42
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the High Belle Époque,
Edwardian England,

43
00:03:27,763 --> 00:03:31,593
and it's this wild escapism

44
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that is kind of
hand in hand

45
00:03:33,197 --> 00:03:37,627
with an extraordinary
futurism and modernism.

46
00:03:37,629 --> 00:03:41,461
In fact, Cecil, you could even
say invented the Edwardian

47
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and gave it a different look,

48
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'cause he invented it
with My Fair Lady

49
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'cause nobody
ever looked like that.

50
00:03:46,297 --> 00:03:50,360
I mean, this... it's like,
uh, I mean, ever.

51
00:03:55,428 --> 00:03:56,560
Come on.

52
00:03:56,562 --> 00:03:58,461
Come on, Dover.

53
00:03:58,463 --> 00:03:59,464
Come on.

54
00:04:00,830 --> 00:04:02,761
Come on, Dover!

55
00:04:02,763 --> 00:04:04,830
Move your bloomin' arse!

56
00:04:06,396 --> 00:04:09,161
Beaton had this wonderful eye

57
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that could assimilate
and draw magic

58
00:04:12,164 --> 00:04:15,427
from the best of everything
that happened around him

59
00:04:15,429 --> 00:04:17,360
and from the past.

60
00:04:17,362 --> 00:04:21,561
But it's the approach of
somebody with this relentless,

61
00:04:21,563 --> 00:04:25,260
restless visual hunger
and appetite for beauty.

62
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What is beauty to you?

63
00:04:29,695 --> 00:04:31,861
I think that
Francis Bacon said it

64
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when he considered there should
be something curious in it.

65
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I think that beauty
is only static for so long

66
00:04:43,328 --> 00:04:45,694
and then we move on
with our own eyes.

67
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I mean, if you see too much
of something too long,

68
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then change
your attitude to beauty

69
00:04:54,629 --> 00:04:59,860
and new wonderful vicissitudes
of beauty appear.

70
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He had a relationship
with the idea of the person,

71
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not actually the person.

72
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There's truth in fantasy,

73
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and I think Beaton was one of
the pioneers in that concept.

74
00:05:17,863 --> 00:05:20,461
When you started, it wasn't
at all the fashionable,

75
00:05:20,463 --> 00:05:23,528
trendy thing it is today
to be a photographer.

76
00:05:23,530 --> 00:05:24,628
Oh, heavens, no.

77
00:05:24,630 --> 00:05:26,427
No, a photographer had

78
00:05:26,429 --> 00:05:28,927
a very ambiguous position
in society.

79
00:05:28,929 --> 00:05:31,494
He was very much
looked down upon.

80
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Not that I really settled

81
00:05:33,196 --> 00:05:34,827
for being a photographer
when I started.

82
00:05:34,829 --> 00:05:38,294
I think that that was
really a means to an end.

83
00:05:43,229 --> 00:05:45,727
As a boy,
I was stage-struck

84
00:05:45,729 --> 00:05:50,326
and I used to haunt
the outside of theaters

85
00:05:50,328 --> 00:05:53,561
looking at the photographs
of the leading actresses.

86
00:05:55,229 --> 00:05:59,293
And one morning I saw
this photograph postcard

87
00:05:59,295 --> 00:06:01,461
of Lily Elsie,

88
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and I thought I'd never
seen anything so beautiful.

89
00:06:07,862 --> 00:06:11,761
He took such inspiration
from the theater,

90
00:06:11,763 --> 00:06:14,828
from a world
into which you step,

91
00:06:14,830 --> 00:06:16,627
you suspend disbelief,

92
00:06:16,629 --> 00:06:20,426
you give yourself up to whatever
is happening on that stage,

93
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and... and you leave in
this sort of cloud of delight.

94
00:06:25,596 --> 00:06:29,327
That was the way he determined
to live his life.

95
00:06:32,495 --> 00:06:36,426
I used to take photographs
of my sisters

96
00:06:36,428 --> 00:06:38,761
and I used to dress
my sisters up.

97
00:06:38,763 --> 00:06:41,828
They were very gauche,
rather ugly little school girls.

98
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I was entirely self-taught

99
00:06:49,695 --> 00:06:51,827
and I've always been
extremely bad

100
00:06:51,829 --> 00:06:55,294
about anything mechanical
or technical.

101
00:06:55,296 --> 00:06:58,594
But still I did learn
exactly how I wanted

102
00:06:58,596 --> 00:07:02,494
to get the effects
that I was aiming at.

103
00:07:02,496 --> 00:07:04,694
When the time came for you
to go to school,

104
00:07:04,696 --> 00:07:09,160
was this a relief
or did you find it a burden?

105
00:07:09,162 --> 00:07:12,361
Oh, I found it appalling.

106
00:07:12,363 --> 00:07:14,461
At school I really was a dud.

107
00:07:14,463 --> 00:07:16,597
I was a very bad scholar.

108
00:07:18,396 --> 00:07:23,493
I'm pretty near uneducated.

109
00:07:23,495 --> 00:07:28,827
I didn't read a book
until I was 18, really.

110
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I learned a lot in school,

111
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but nothing to do
with the things

112
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that I should
have learned.

113
00:07:39,296 --> 00:07:44,226
"In 1922,
I arrived at Cambridge.

114
00:07:44,228 --> 00:07:47,493
I set about becoming
a rabid aesthete.

115
00:07:47,495 --> 00:07:51,393
I took a passionate interest
in the Italian Renaissance,

116
00:07:51,395 --> 00:07:53,727
in Diaghilev's Russian Ballet,

117
00:07:53,729 --> 00:07:57,694
and, of course, in the theater
and in photography."

118
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The new doors
were opening to me.

119
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This was something that
I had never known before,

120
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and I was thrilled by the fact
that certain people

121
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would give up their life
to aestheticism.

122
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I thought it was lots of fun.

123
00:08:15,529 --> 00:08:18,260
Did you go in for the rather
more bizarre extremities

124
00:08:18,262 --> 00:08:21,261
of this style of dressing
in fancy clothes and so on?

125
00:08:21,263 --> 00:08:24,693
I think I dressed in
a rather peculiar garb, yes.

126
00:08:26,662 --> 00:08:29,828
I wanted to show
my individuality.

127
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In fact, I'm not so sure

128
00:08:31,929 --> 00:08:34,895
that I didn't rather
like shocking people.

129
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Couldn't help it.

130
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I think he couldn't help
getting in drag at college.

131
00:08:45,328 --> 00:08:47,194
He couldn't help himself
putting on

132
00:08:47,196 --> 00:08:49,193
his mum's nail varnish
when he was five years old.

133
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He wasn't being provocative
and rebellious.

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It was in him and it came out.

135
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"During the three years
I spent at the university,

136
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I never went to any lectures.

137
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Instead, I formed
the theater club,

138
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designed scenery,

139
00:09:07,696 --> 00:09:10,293
and performed
in stage productions."

140
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He also promoted himself hugely.

141
00:09:16,863 --> 00:09:20,460
He would send up a photograph of
himself to newspapers, saying,

142
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"This is Cecil Beaton,

143
00:09:21,562 --> 00:09:22,560
he's currently working
on the sets

144
00:09:22,562 --> 00:09:24,293
of Pirandello's Henry IV,"

145
00:09:24,295 --> 00:09:27,494
and in a sense you could say
he's almost the first PR man

146
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because his line was,

147
00:09:29,762 --> 00:09:31,727
"The more people
who know about the play,

148
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the more money we can spend,"

149
00:09:32,863 --> 00:09:36,160
and the money would be spent
in the absolute priority

150
00:09:36,162 --> 00:09:39,694
of sets and costumes
by Cecil Beaton,

151
00:09:39,696 --> 00:09:41,527
written by the playwright
and starring the actors

152
00:09:41,529 --> 00:09:42,561
in that order.

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00:09:44,295 --> 00:09:45,761
Running through
Beaton's career

154
00:09:45,763 --> 00:09:49,293
principally devoted
to photographing others

155
00:09:49,295 --> 00:09:51,560
is an obsession with
photographing himself,

156
00:09:51,562 --> 00:09:53,161
staging himself.

157
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Just one of this world
of style and elegance

158
00:09:56,695 --> 00:09:59,794
and fantasy
that he was creating.

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His life was a stage.

160
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"In 1925, I came to the end
of my Cambridge years

161
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without a degree,
having failed, as usual,

162
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in all my examinations."

163
00:10:13,663 --> 00:10:16,494
Did you feel totally
confident and successful

164
00:10:16,496 --> 00:10:17,793
in anything
that you had done

165
00:10:17,795 --> 00:10:19,660
or were you still insecure?

166
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Most insecure.

167
00:10:21,762 --> 00:10:24,694
What were your ambitions
at that time?

168
00:10:24,696 --> 00:10:28,761
To be able
to demonstrate

169
00:10:28,763 --> 00:10:33,694
that I was not just
an ordinary anonymous person.

170
00:10:33,696 --> 00:10:38,660
"The truth is, I didn't know
what I wanted to do or be.

171
00:10:38,662 --> 00:10:41,226
I should have liked
to have been an actor,

172
00:10:41,228 --> 00:10:45,628
but somehow I was diffident
or even terrified about this.

173
00:10:45,630 --> 00:10:47,527
I wanted to write plays,

174
00:10:47,529 --> 00:10:50,693
but I could find
nothing to write about.

175
00:10:50,695 --> 00:10:53,593
I longed to design
for the theater,

176
00:10:53,595 --> 00:10:56,561
but how is one
ever to get an offer?

177
00:10:56,563 --> 00:10:59,394
The only thing I could do
without being invited

178
00:10:59,396 --> 00:11:01,893
was to indulge
my photographic hobby."

179
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"My sisters continued to show
compassion to me in my mania."

180
00:11:17,696 --> 00:11:20,561
But it was absolute torture

181
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'cause the more
I tried to keep still

182
00:11:22,162 --> 00:11:23,693
the more I twitched.

183
00:11:23,695 --> 00:11:25,326
It was so uncomfortable,
I remember,

184
00:11:25,328 --> 00:11:27,294
'cause you would say,
"Put your head on one side,

185
00:11:27,296 --> 00:11:29,926
stick your chin in, your
stomach out, cross your leg,"

186
00:11:29,928 --> 00:11:32,294
I mean, I was like
a ruddy corkscrew in the end.

187
00:11:34,730 --> 00:11:35,728
He couldn't do much
with the father,

188
00:11:35,730 --> 00:11:37,461
but he could do
quite a lot with the mother

189
00:11:37,463 --> 00:11:39,628
and the two sisters
and he did.

190
00:11:39,630 --> 00:11:42,160
He would put notices in
if his mother gave a party,

191
00:11:42,162 --> 00:11:43,561
and that would get
printed in the paper

192
00:11:43,563 --> 00:11:45,426
and she would be kind of like...

193
00:11:45,428 --> 00:11:46,461
she'd know he'd done it

194
00:11:46,463 --> 00:11:48,260
but get sort of half-irritated

195
00:11:48,262 --> 00:11:50,294
but half probably
quite excited.

196
00:11:50,296 --> 00:11:52,660
And he used to dress
the two sisters up identically,

197
00:11:52,662 --> 00:11:54,293
and because
there were two of them

198
00:11:54,295 --> 00:11:56,160
and they looked quite similar
in many ways,

199
00:11:56,162 --> 00:11:59,426
they very often appeared
in the society columns.

200
00:11:59,428 --> 00:12:02,461
Cecil was very vain
in a certain way

201
00:12:02,463 --> 00:12:04,594
and very, very insecure.

202
00:12:04,596 --> 00:12:08,594
I think the insecurity
stems from those early years

203
00:12:08,596 --> 00:12:12,461
of never really feeling that
his family was grand enough

204
00:12:12,463 --> 00:12:16,628
or, you know, it's not the kind
of family he wanted to be from.

205
00:12:17,462 --> 00:12:19,560
Going right back
to your childhood,

206
00:12:19,562 --> 00:12:23,594
you come of a prosperous
upper middle class family,

207
00:12:23,596 --> 00:12:26,628
so it seems to me
from reading your diaries.

208
00:12:26,630 --> 00:12:29,894
You've written very fully
about your father.

209
00:12:29,896 --> 00:12:31,760
Now what was it that
made it difficult for you

210
00:12:31,762 --> 00:12:34,493
to get on with your father?

211
00:12:34,495 --> 00:12:36,161
Well, I think
it was very difficult

212
00:12:36,163 --> 00:12:38,161
for my father
to get on with me.

213
00:12:42,495 --> 00:12:45,859
"My father insisted
on living in Hampstead,

214
00:12:45,861 --> 00:12:48,660
a suburb of London,

215
00:12:48,662 --> 00:12:52,894
as he considered the air
healthier for children.

216
00:12:52,896 --> 00:12:55,561
I was born in 1904.

217
00:12:55,563 --> 00:12:57,694
There were two boys,
my brother, Reggie,

218
00:12:57,696 --> 00:13:00,594
being a year younger than me.

219
00:13:00,596 --> 00:13:02,661
Five and seven years later,

220
00:13:02,663 --> 00:13:05,859
my two sisters,
Nancy and Baba, were born."

221
00:13:07,730 --> 00:13:11,594
Until I reached the age
of puberty, shall we say,

222
00:13:11,596 --> 00:13:14,792
I had an idyllically
happy childhood.

223
00:13:16,663 --> 00:13:19,326
I wasn't conscious until later

224
00:13:19,328 --> 00:13:23,528
that perhaps there wasn't
as much money as I would like.

225
00:13:23,530 --> 00:13:26,294
My father
was a timber merchant,

226
00:13:26,296 --> 00:13:28,528
and he wanted, obviously,

227
00:13:28,530 --> 00:13:31,627
to have somebody who was
going to be like him.

228
00:13:31,629 --> 00:13:33,628
And I found that
very difficult.

229
00:13:33,630 --> 00:13:37,793
Intuitively, I went against
many of the things

230
00:13:37,795 --> 00:13:40,627
that he stood for and liked.

231
00:13:42,562 --> 00:13:45,527
"Reggie was my father's
favorite son."

232
00:13:48,695 --> 00:13:51,426
"The two understood one another.

233
00:13:51,428 --> 00:13:53,528
They were kindred spirits."

234
00:13:59,328 --> 00:14:02,461
"My mother's dressing table
drawer of powder, rouge,

235
00:14:02,463 --> 00:14:06,294
and mascara held
an uncanny fascination for me."

236
00:14:09,196 --> 00:14:13,693
"One day, I stole into her
bedroom and painted my face."

237
00:14:15,829 --> 00:14:18,527
"My father caught sight of me.

238
00:14:18,529 --> 00:14:22,293
He became so enraged that
I was locked in my bedroom."

239
00:14:26,262 --> 00:14:27,427
Now, did your mother know

240
00:14:27,429 --> 00:14:28,827
about this feeling
of yours at the time?

241
00:14:28,829 --> 00:14:31,427
Did she sympathize with you?

242
00:14:31,429 --> 00:14:35,193
In a vague way,
but she was too busy

243
00:14:35,195 --> 00:14:38,426
getting on with the job
of looking after a family.

244
00:14:38,428 --> 00:14:39,827
She wasn't able to help you

245
00:14:39,829 --> 00:14:41,859
in this particular
difficulty anyway.

246
00:14:41,861 --> 00:14:43,860
No, no one could help me.

247
00:14:43,862 --> 00:14:48,294
It was up to me to find
the sort of world that I wanted.

248
00:14:48,296 --> 00:14:51,528
I think Cecil certainly wanted
to scale the social tree.

249
00:14:51,530 --> 00:14:54,894
And he was the first
photographer, really,

250
00:14:54,896 --> 00:14:57,560
to establish himself
in the world

251
00:14:57,562 --> 00:14:59,659
of what would be called
Fashionable Society

252
00:14:59,661 --> 00:15:01,826
with a capital S,
it doesn't exist anymore,

253
00:15:01,828 --> 00:15:03,827
but he wanted to be up there.

254
00:15:03,829 --> 00:15:06,293
The camera was,
in a way, I suppose,

255
00:15:06,295 --> 00:15:08,427
his passport
into that world,

256
00:15:08,429 --> 00:15:10,692
but what you need,
eventually,

257
00:15:10,694 --> 00:15:14,160
is a patron, and he found that
in Stephen Tennant.

258
00:15:15,694 --> 00:15:17,560
"Stephen Tennant.

259
00:15:17,562 --> 00:15:21,727
I first met this remarkably
poetic looking apparition

260
00:15:21,729 --> 00:15:23,826
while he rode
the papier-mâché horses

261
00:15:23,828 --> 00:15:27,626
on the roundabouts
at the Olympia Circus.

262
00:15:27,628 --> 00:15:29,593
He wore a black leather coat

263
00:15:29,595 --> 00:15:33,561
with a large Elizabethan
collar of chinchilla.

264
00:15:33,563 --> 00:15:36,527
As he blew kisses
to left and right,

265
00:15:36,529 --> 00:15:39,561
he created
an unforgettable sight."

266
00:15:41,428 --> 00:15:43,692
Stephen Tennant was rich,
good looking,

267
00:15:43,694 --> 00:15:46,194
bursts of imagination,
very successful,

268
00:15:46,196 --> 00:15:48,659
he knew everybody,
he was surrounded by a bevy

269
00:15:48,661 --> 00:15:50,560
of Guinness girls
and Bright Young Things,

270
00:15:50,562 --> 00:15:53,394
and that's exactly the world
that Cecil Beaton wanted.

271
00:15:55,529 --> 00:15:58,528
"I became a member
of the Bright Young Things

272
00:15:58,530 --> 00:16:01,394
who did silly things.

273
00:16:01,396 --> 00:16:04,693
Organized treasure hunts,
spoof exhibitions,

274
00:16:04,695 --> 00:16:06,494
and dressed up
for nights on end

275
00:16:06,496 --> 00:16:08,427
in fancy dress costumes."

276
00:16:10,594 --> 00:16:14,660
"Our activities were all done
with zest and originality.

277
00:16:14,662 --> 00:16:16,759
What a rush life had become."

278
00:16:32,262 --> 00:16:33,094
Cecil Beaton,
I should think,

279
00:16:33,096 --> 00:16:35,626
probably photographed
all of them.

280
00:16:35,628 --> 00:16:37,859
Whenever he photographed one,
another one would appear.

281
00:16:37,861 --> 00:16:41,360
I mean, they came in relays,
really, to Sussex Gardens

282
00:16:41,362 --> 00:16:43,361
to be photographed by Cecil.

283
00:16:46,861 --> 00:16:49,659
All those portraits
of Stephen Tennant.

284
00:16:49,661 --> 00:16:52,827
You know, ropes of pearls
and looking in a mirror.

285
00:16:52,829 --> 00:16:55,826
I mean, they are
terribly narcissistic.

286
00:16:55,828 --> 00:16:59,726
The kind of noir quality
to some of those things

287
00:16:59,728 --> 00:17:03,394
that goes back to the decadence
of the 1890s

288
00:17:03,396 --> 00:17:06,693
and Oscar Wilde
and all that sort of thing.

289
00:17:06,695 --> 00:17:08,827
He wanted to be one of them.

290
00:17:10,694 --> 00:17:12,727
Forgetting the formality
and the hierarchy

291
00:17:12,729 --> 00:17:14,427
and the snobbism of the era,

292
00:17:14,429 --> 00:17:18,660
I think just
the basic Bright Young Things

293
00:17:18,662 --> 00:17:22,692
and being with them
would have been amazing.

294
00:17:22,694 --> 00:17:27,559
Just that youth
and that damn elegance.

295
00:17:27,561 --> 00:17:31,427
Part of Beaton's world
of the imagination

296
00:17:31,429 --> 00:17:34,226
obviously was
the dressing up trunk.

297
00:17:34,228 --> 00:17:37,327
The idea of opening this...
this trunk

298
00:17:37,329 --> 00:17:38,893
and pulling out costumes

299
00:17:38,895 --> 00:17:42,326
and becoming
different personalities.

300
00:17:42,328 --> 00:17:44,926
They were traveling
back in time

301
00:17:44,928 --> 00:17:48,161
and having a glorious time
doing it.

302
00:17:52,363 --> 00:17:54,693
Well, I would love to have been
on the bridge with Rex Whistler

303
00:17:54,695 --> 00:17:58,927
and the Jungman sisters,
and, I have to say,

304
00:17:58,929 --> 00:18:02,194
I'd like to insert myself
into that picture.

305
00:18:04,562 --> 00:18:06,426
Beaton was essentially
an outsider

306
00:18:06,428 --> 00:18:07,660
striving to get in.

307
00:18:08,761 --> 00:18:12,459
Stephen Tennant, of course,
was to the manor born,

308
00:18:12,461 --> 00:18:16,792
and Beaton didn't have
an inherited income

309
00:18:16,794 --> 00:18:21,760
and, you know, he had to work
bloody hard for the money

310
00:18:21,762 --> 00:18:23,261
and to keep it all going.

311
00:18:27,694 --> 00:18:30,659
"I often wonder how it was
that none of the beautiful,

312
00:18:30,661 --> 00:18:34,660
eminent, or celebrated
personages I photographed

313
00:18:34,662 --> 00:18:38,493
raised an objection
to being seen upside down

314
00:18:38,495 --> 00:18:41,261
embowered in flowers,

315
00:18:41,263 --> 00:18:43,726
cellophane clouds,

316
00:18:43,728 --> 00:18:45,394
or almost asphyxiating

317
00:18:45,396 --> 00:18:48,426
with their heads under
a Victorian glass dome."

318
00:18:49,395 --> 00:18:52,360
"But, no, it seemed
I could indulge myself

319
00:18:52,362 --> 00:18:54,425
to my heart's content."

320
00:19:00,861 --> 00:19:04,360
The idea of taking silver foil
and putting it up.

321
00:19:04,362 --> 00:19:07,692
I mean, seeing beauty in
something people wrap food in.

322
00:19:09,929 --> 00:19:12,194
It's sort of turning things
on their head

323
00:19:12,196 --> 00:19:14,161
of what they're
not meant to be.

324
00:19:15,561 --> 00:19:17,426
The sitter really became

325
00:19:17,428 --> 00:19:19,392
much less important
than the background

326
00:19:19,394 --> 00:19:22,161
or the whole conception
of the design

327
00:19:22,163 --> 00:19:24,327
that I had made
with the camera.

328
00:19:24,329 --> 00:19:26,526
And yet one very seldom
sees unknown faces

329
00:19:26,528 --> 00:19:27,761
photographed by Beaton.

330
00:19:27,763 --> 00:19:30,560
Was that a conscious policy
to find distinguished sitters?

331
00:19:30,562 --> 00:19:33,193
No, I wouldn't say it was
conscious in that way.

332
00:19:33,195 --> 00:19:35,260
I mean, I've photographed
a lot of friends

333
00:19:35,262 --> 00:19:36,692
who weren't at all well-known.

334
00:19:36,694 --> 00:19:38,592
I think, obviously,
that impression comes

335
00:19:38,594 --> 00:19:40,894
because it was the distinguished
or well-known ones

336
00:19:40,896 --> 00:19:43,359
that got into the newspapers.

337
00:19:43,361 --> 00:19:47,326
And I did have an eye
to publicity.

338
00:19:47,328 --> 00:19:49,792
That was very astonishing
for my father

339
00:19:49,794 --> 00:19:53,692
who was quite baffled at the way
things suddenly moved.

340
00:19:53,694 --> 00:19:57,827
Because very soon
I went to America.

341
00:19:57,829 --> 00:20:00,726
I was confident
that I would really

342
00:20:00,728 --> 00:20:03,692
just take America by storm.

343
00:20:05,862 --> 00:20:09,827
What a marvelous thing
great physical beauty is.

344
00:20:09,829 --> 00:20:12,893
It's nothing less
than a living miracle.

345
00:20:12,895 --> 00:20:17,359
It's not the result
of achievement, skill,

346
00:20:17,361 --> 00:20:19,559
patience,
or endeavor.

347
00:20:19,561 --> 00:20:22,527
It's just a divine happening.

348
00:20:22,529 --> 00:20:25,526
"Soon after my arrival
in New York,

349
00:20:25,528 --> 00:20:28,326
I publicly challenged
the standards of beauty

350
00:20:28,328 --> 00:20:30,792
between English
and American women."

351
00:20:32,494 --> 00:20:34,759
For beautiful necks and heads,

352
00:20:34,761 --> 00:20:38,792
England possesses
the prize winners.

353
00:20:38,794 --> 00:20:42,593
There are many whose beauty
should be immortal,

354
00:20:42,595 --> 00:20:45,693
for their alabaster complexions,

355
00:20:45,695 --> 00:20:48,726
their cheeks
like pink ice creams,

356
00:20:48,728 --> 00:20:50,460
the cherry lips,

357
00:20:50,462 --> 00:20:53,260
pansy eyes,
the feathery lashes.

358
00:21:03,394 --> 00:21:06,326
I think to begin with
in my career,

359
00:21:06,328 --> 00:21:10,259
I was terribly limited
in my approach,

360
00:21:10,261 --> 00:21:14,194
and I only could appreciate
certain forms

361
00:21:14,196 --> 00:21:16,760
of character or beauty.

362
00:21:19,163 --> 00:21:23,259
But the English fail badly
about feet and legs.

363
00:21:23,261 --> 00:21:25,693
And here the New Yorkers win,

364
00:21:25,695 --> 00:21:28,226
for their wrists,
their ankles,

365
00:21:28,228 --> 00:21:30,793
their legs,
their movements,

366
00:21:30,795 --> 00:21:34,592
they are perfect
and essential in 1929.

367
00:21:42,495 --> 00:21:45,693
"I fell in love with the new
energy I found in the streets

368
00:21:45,695 --> 00:21:48,460
and quickly began
recording it with my camera."

369
00:21:53,829 --> 00:21:59,527
I think, with experience,
looking around in life,

370
00:21:59,529 --> 00:22:05,827
the photographer
gets to appreciate beauty

371
00:22:05,829 --> 00:22:09,426
in very much wider fields.

372
00:22:14,695 --> 00:22:17,692
There's that old expression,
"Beauty is where you see it."

373
00:22:17,694 --> 00:22:20,692
I think beauty is there
to be recognized

374
00:22:20,694 --> 00:22:23,460
and I think
it's terribly important

375
00:22:23,462 --> 00:22:28,660
for the photographer
to approach the subject

376
00:22:28,662 --> 00:22:31,893
with a very definite
point of view of his own.

377
00:22:36,662 --> 00:22:39,293
Well, it took some time
and it was touch and go

378
00:22:39,295 --> 00:22:41,827
when then suddenly
things went well.

379
00:22:41,829 --> 00:22:44,292
I got a terribly good contract.

380
00:22:55,294 --> 00:22:57,626
Beaton wasn't the first
fashion photographer.

381
00:22:57,628 --> 00:22:59,426
He didn't invent the genre,

382
00:22:59,428 --> 00:23:01,627
but he certainly took it places.

383
00:23:03,195 --> 00:23:06,392
He brought romance,
he brought a sense of style,

384
00:23:06,394 --> 00:23:08,826
he knew how to pose his models,

385
00:23:08,828 --> 00:23:11,560
he knew how to create the mood,

386
00:23:11,562 --> 00:23:16,325
that ineffable magic
he brought to the mix.

387
00:23:16,327 --> 00:23:20,659
He's the best-known
homegrown British photographer

388
00:23:20,661 --> 00:23:22,859
of that period

389
00:23:22,861 --> 00:23:25,259
crossing the Atlantic and
photographs being published

390
00:23:25,261 --> 00:23:27,426
in both American Vogue
and British Vogue

391
00:23:27,428 --> 00:23:29,860
and also French Vogue.

392
00:23:35,427 --> 00:23:36,459
He's so full of energy,

393
00:23:36,461 --> 00:23:41,292
he finds inspiration everywhere.

394
00:23:41,294 --> 00:23:45,426
You look at the Surrealist
photographs from the 1930s,

395
00:23:45,428 --> 00:23:48,459
it's very much about shadow
and forebodingness

396
00:23:48,461 --> 00:23:50,827
or there's something impending.

397
00:23:50,829 --> 00:23:53,259
And I think a lot of that
is actually taken

398
00:23:53,261 --> 00:23:55,727
from some German
Expressionist cinema.

399
00:23:59,728 --> 00:24:03,893
And, of course,
he makes friends with painters,

400
00:24:03,895 --> 00:24:06,793
Tchelitchew, for example,
and Christian Bérard,

401
00:24:06,795 --> 00:24:09,359
the sort
of French Neo-romantics,

402
00:24:09,361 --> 00:24:12,727
he borrows an awful lot
from them as well.

403
00:24:14,929 --> 00:24:18,359
I think that what he brought
to the world of Vogue

404
00:24:18,361 --> 00:24:22,527
was something that no other
contributor brought,

405
00:24:22,529 --> 00:24:27,159
which was not only was he
a great fashion photographer

406
00:24:27,161 --> 00:24:30,160
and a witty illustrator...

407
00:24:31,529 --> 00:24:36,225
...but he was also
a very, very evocative writer.

408
00:24:39,628 --> 00:24:41,826
"Each winter,
I returned to New York

409
00:24:41,828 --> 00:24:46,592
to take photographs
with a passionate enthusiasm.

410
00:24:46,594 --> 00:24:50,359
But I did not feel I had yet
expressed myself completely."

411
00:24:52,828 --> 00:24:56,493
"I still had a gnawing haunting
for the stage."

412
00:25:07,928 --> 00:25:10,826
I was making a little money
with my photographs,

413
00:25:10,828 --> 00:25:15,359
but I didn't deserve
to have even a cottage.

414
00:25:15,361 --> 00:25:17,827
And I was staying
with Edith Olivier,

415
00:25:17,829 --> 00:25:20,160
who was a great friend of mine.

416
00:25:20,162 --> 00:25:22,593
I said to her, "I wonder if
you know of any little place

417
00:25:22,595 --> 00:25:23,659
that just
would be big enough

418
00:25:23,661 --> 00:25:27,559
to put a pot of honeysuckle
on the windowsill."

419
00:25:27,561 --> 00:25:29,826
And she said, "Well,
there's a deserted place

420
00:25:29,828 --> 00:25:31,759
that had a grotto
in the garden."

421
00:25:31,761 --> 00:25:35,560
Grotto, my heavens,
that's just what we wanted.

422
00:25:35,562 --> 00:25:38,460
I mean, a grotto
sounded so Baroque,

423
00:25:38,462 --> 00:25:43,260
so Sitwellian,
so Romantic, so Italian.

424
00:25:43,262 --> 00:25:47,160
So we went over and eventually
we saw this place.

425
00:25:47,162 --> 00:25:49,293
And we walked down
from the top of the downs,

426
00:25:49,295 --> 00:25:50,927
a very deep descent,

427
00:25:50,929 --> 00:25:54,225
and we looked under
this marvelous archway,

428
00:25:54,227 --> 00:25:56,292
which was part
of the building

429
00:25:56,294 --> 00:25:59,860
that had belonged
to the horses and coaches.

430
00:26:03,495 --> 00:26:08,226
"I was almost numbed by my
first encounter with the house.

431
00:26:08,228 --> 00:26:13,326
It was as if I had been touched
on the head by some magic wand.

432
00:26:13,328 --> 00:26:15,425
It was love at first sight."

433
00:26:17,494 --> 00:26:20,325
"From the moment that I stood
under the archway,

434
00:26:20,327 --> 00:26:23,859
I knew that this place
was destined to be mine."

435
00:26:26,662 --> 00:26:30,692
Ashcombe was really
so remote and so romantic

436
00:26:30,694 --> 00:26:35,760
and so mysterious,
it was magical, really.

437
00:26:40,694 --> 00:26:45,160
I was so proud of this
strange wayward place,

438
00:26:45,162 --> 00:26:47,527
that I tried to bring down
from London

439
00:26:47,529 --> 00:26:50,659
as many friends
as I possibly could to see it,

440
00:26:50,661 --> 00:26:53,693
and they all came under
its rather haunted spell.

441
00:27:03,427 --> 00:27:05,393
When you read
about Ashcombe

442
00:27:05,395 --> 00:27:08,560
and when he was
hosting parties there,

443
00:27:08,562 --> 00:27:09,560
I mean, I just don't know

444
00:27:09,562 --> 00:27:13,292
how the guests had even
one minute to breathe.

445
00:27:16,862 --> 00:27:19,793
If you went to Ashcombe
as a guest,

446
00:27:19,795 --> 00:27:22,292
I can imagine that you'd be
crawling out of there

447
00:27:22,294 --> 00:27:26,360
on Sunday night,
unable to even think

448
00:27:26,362 --> 00:27:28,360
because there was
so much going on.

449
00:27:33,561 --> 00:27:37,426
"Ashcombe had become
a much-painted beauty spot.

450
00:27:37,428 --> 00:27:43,326
Many painters, Tchelitchew,
Whistler, Bérard,

451
00:27:43,328 --> 00:27:46,459
and Dalí made drawings
of the place."

452
00:27:52,425 --> 00:27:54,926
"Tchelitchew at first
intimidated me,

453
00:27:54,928 --> 00:27:59,359
but soon cast an almost hypnotic
influence over me."

454
00:28:02,494 --> 00:28:05,293
"Sometimes, in order
to look at the landscape

455
00:28:05,295 --> 00:28:07,526
from a fresh point of view,

456
00:28:07,528 --> 00:28:10,726
I would employ the simple device
I'd learned from him

457
00:28:10,728 --> 00:28:14,692
of gazing upside down
at my panorama.

458
00:28:14,694 --> 00:28:16,560
It is quite astonishing
to discover

459
00:28:16,562 --> 00:28:19,659
how much more clearly
one can see the picture

460
00:28:19,661 --> 00:28:22,226
without preconceived ideas."

461
00:28:29,328 --> 00:28:33,559
"I decided to give
a fête champêtre at Ashcombe.

462
00:28:33,561 --> 00:28:37,225
Drawings were made of costumes
that my friends must wear."

463
00:28:43,194 --> 00:28:46,225
"Before leaving my house
for the first time,

464
00:28:46,227 --> 00:28:49,693
my guests were made to trace
the outlines of their hands

465
00:28:49,695 --> 00:28:52,792
on the walls
of one of my bathrooms.

466
00:28:52,794 --> 00:28:56,292
By degrees, an extraordinary
connection was achieved."

467
00:28:58,762 --> 00:29:03,293
"For me, the years that followed
were the gayest of my life."

468
00:29:04,495 --> 00:29:10,460
"In that time, life took on
a sudden color and warmth."

469
00:29:14,461 --> 00:29:16,791
"Peter Watson.

470
00:29:16,793 --> 00:29:19,160
His acute sensibility,

471
00:29:19,162 --> 00:29:20,858
subtlety of mind,

472
00:29:20,860 --> 00:29:23,493
wry sense of humor,

473
00:29:23,495 --> 00:29:26,726
and mysterious qualities
of charm

474
00:29:26,728 --> 00:29:29,593
made him unlike anyone
I had known."

475
00:29:32,228 --> 00:29:34,459
"I wish I had
some of his gifts."

476
00:29:38,529 --> 00:29:41,360
I read not long ago
about Peter Watson.

477
00:29:41,362 --> 00:29:44,292
Peter Watson
was absolutely shocking.

478
00:29:44,294 --> 00:29:46,791
And for Cecil he was like, "Oh!"

479
00:29:46,793 --> 00:29:48,527
He was like a god, a young god.

480
00:29:48,529 --> 00:29:50,660
He wasn't that young or wasn't
that god or that beautiful,

481
00:29:50,662 --> 00:29:54,759
but for Cecil it seems to me
that he was like that.

482
00:29:56,328 --> 00:29:58,726
"I have never been
in love with women,

483
00:29:58,728 --> 00:30:00,892
and I don't think
I ever shall be

484
00:30:00,894 --> 00:30:04,925
in the way that I have
been in love with men.

485
00:30:04,927 --> 00:30:09,259
I'm really a terrible,
terrible homosexualist

486
00:30:09,261 --> 00:30:11,792
and try so hard not to be."

487
00:30:19,295 --> 00:30:22,892
The Peter Watson love affair
was very, very troubled.

488
00:30:22,894 --> 00:30:24,627
Peter Watson kept him
very close to him,

489
00:30:24,629 --> 00:30:26,527
but on a sort
of like no-touch basis,

490
00:30:26,529 --> 00:30:28,758
so Cecil Beaton
was kind of like feeling

491
00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:31,758
all the frustrations
of the rejected lover.

492
00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:32,459
What does Peter Watson do?

493
00:30:32,461 --> 00:30:34,359
He goes off with Oliver Messel,

494
00:30:34,361 --> 00:30:36,160
under Cecil's own roof.

495
00:30:41,428 --> 00:30:44,826
"Oliver Messel was my friend
and my rival."

496
00:30:49,629 --> 00:30:52,826
"We had shared lovers,
though I am bound to admit,

497
00:30:52,828 --> 00:30:55,492
I did not do well
in the race."

498
00:31:05,529 --> 00:31:10,293
"There are no regrets in my
amorous friendship with Peter.

499
00:31:10,295 --> 00:31:13,858
I am sad that it was never
a mutual love affair."

500
00:31:34,294 --> 00:31:37,691
"My next stop
was the celluloid oasis.

501
00:31:37,693 --> 00:31:44,226
At this time, all the Hollywood
studios were a buzzing hive.

502
00:31:44,228 --> 00:31:47,426
Not only was this the center
of motion pictures,

503
00:31:47,428 --> 00:31:51,193
but the talkies
had just been invented.

504
00:31:51,195 --> 00:31:54,160
It was a time
when Hollywood was alive."

505
00:31:55,394 --> 00:31:57,626
Then when he went to Hollywood
in the '30s,

506
00:31:57,628 --> 00:31:59,260
he captures Hollywood

507
00:31:59,262 --> 00:32:01,826
and American elegance
like no one.

508
00:32:01,828 --> 00:32:06,426
He managed to make it more
American and chic at the time.

509
00:32:06,428 --> 00:32:10,560
Come on, that picture of
Gary Cooper is beautiful.

510
00:32:10,562 --> 00:32:13,925
"To watch the antics of this
lanky lad in Hollywood

511
00:32:13,927 --> 00:32:16,160
was like watching
and enjoying

512
00:32:16,162 --> 00:32:20,626
the obvious discomfort
of a caged eagle."

513
00:32:20,628 --> 00:32:23,592
I don't think anybody has really
captured the 20th century

514
00:32:23,594 --> 00:32:26,226
in many, many decades
like he has.

515
00:32:44,228 --> 00:32:46,559
"My Hollywood photographs
were widely published

516
00:32:46,561 --> 00:32:48,561
and had a great influence
in the film capital."

517
00:32:51,728 --> 00:32:55,293
"Meanwhile, the unexpected
in all its forms

518
00:32:55,295 --> 00:32:57,193
is always lurking."

519
00:32:59,694 --> 00:33:03,293
"It can strike
at any moment."

520
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:16,826
He was often asked to illustrate
articles in Vogue.

521
00:33:16,828 --> 00:33:18,625
Into this particular article,

522
00:33:18,627 --> 00:33:20,825
he introduced
some very unpleasant

523
00:33:20,827 --> 00:33:22,558
anti-Semitic slogans,

524
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:24,692
in particular the word "kike."

525
00:33:24,694 --> 00:33:26,658
But very, very small,
and you'd really need

526
00:33:26,660 --> 00:33:31,625
a magnifying glass
to see what he had written.

527
00:33:31,627 --> 00:33:33,825
Condé Nast,
the proprietor of Vogue,

528
00:33:33,827 --> 00:33:38,193
has to order the pulping
of 130,000 copies

529
00:33:38,195 --> 00:33:40,726
of the magazine.

530
00:33:40,728 --> 00:33:44,859
"Condé was very
emotionally upset.

531
00:33:44,861 --> 00:33:47,692
It was so serious
that I had to resign."

532
00:33:51,693 --> 00:33:55,159
It's very hard to understand
what he was thinking,

533
00:33:55,161 --> 00:33:58,826
'cause half his friends
in New York were Jewish,

534
00:33:58,828 --> 00:34:02,426
and American Vogue
was run by Jewish people.

535
00:34:02,428 --> 00:34:05,393
I mean, it was
an extraordinary thing to do.

536
00:34:10,261 --> 00:34:12,791
"Why did I do that?

537
00:34:12,793 --> 00:34:15,525
I was baffled.

538
00:34:15,527 --> 00:34:20,591
I can only tell you
how deeply sorry I am.

539
00:34:20,593 --> 00:34:23,326
It was done unconsciously.

540
00:34:23,328 --> 00:34:24,558
I am not anti-Jewish

541
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:29,558
and I am violently hostile
to Hitler."

542
00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:31,425
Why did he do it?

543
00:34:31,427 --> 00:34:34,691
The incident was caused by
thoughtlessness, arrogance,

544
00:34:34,693 --> 00:34:37,825
and misunderstanding of
the gravity of the situation.

545
00:34:37,827 --> 00:34:41,292
And generally just
getting above himself.

546
00:34:41,294 --> 00:34:42,527
And down he went.

547
00:34:44,927 --> 00:34:50,192
And he didn't really work for
a year and a half after that.

548
00:34:50,194 --> 00:34:52,360
It was a wake up moment for him.

549
00:34:52,362 --> 00:34:54,459
He worked very hard
to overcome it,

550
00:34:54,461 --> 00:34:58,692
but it was something
that he didn't forget.

551
00:34:58,694 --> 00:35:01,428
He had some amends to make.

552
00:35:11,594 --> 00:35:15,659
"In July 1939,
the telephone rang.

553
00:35:15,661 --> 00:35:18,424
'This is the lady in waiting
speaking.

554
00:35:18,426 --> 00:35:20,759
The Queen wants to know
if you will photograph her

555
00:35:20,761 --> 00:35:22,558
tomorrow afternoon.'"

556
00:35:25,362 --> 00:35:28,691
"At first I thought
it might be a practical joke,

557
00:35:28,693 --> 00:35:31,359
the sort of thing
Oliver Messel might do."

558
00:35:33,294 --> 00:35:34,825
"But it was no joke.

559
00:35:34,827 --> 00:35:39,626
My pleasure and excitement
were overwhelming.

560
00:35:39,628 --> 00:35:41,859
Another lease of life
extended to me

561
00:35:41,861 --> 00:35:44,160
in my photographic career."

562
00:35:48,394 --> 00:35:51,160
"I decided that of all painters,

563
00:35:51,162 --> 00:35:54,692
the most suitable to express
the Queen's personality

564
00:35:54,694 --> 00:35:56,658
would have been Renoir."

565
00:35:58,195 --> 00:36:01,591
"But there was no Renoir
and I was to face my job

566
00:36:01,593 --> 00:36:04,492
that afternoon
with a camera."

567
00:36:19,161 --> 00:36:21,293
"When I entered the gates
of Buckingham Palace

568
00:36:21,295 --> 00:36:22,826
for the first time,

569
00:36:22,828 --> 00:36:26,791
on my way to photograph that
ravishing and wonderful person,

570
00:36:26,793 --> 00:36:29,858
Queen Elizabeth,
I thought,

571
00:36:29,860 --> 00:36:31,826
'How did I get here?'"

572
00:36:37,660 --> 00:36:40,425
That very first sitting
that Beaton had

573
00:36:40,427 --> 00:36:43,324
with Queen Elizabeth
as she was then,

574
00:36:43,326 --> 00:36:46,159
later the Queen Mother,
was in 1939.

575
00:36:46,161 --> 00:36:48,325
And in his diary
he writes about the fact

576
00:36:48,327 --> 00:36:52,293
that he's expecting the sitting
to last 20 minutes or so.

577
00:36:52,295 --> 00:36:54,859
And, in fact,
he spent a full three hours

578
00:36:54,861 --> 00:36:57,725
at Buckingham Palace
in many of the state rooms,

579
00:36:57,727 --> 00:37:01,325
out in the garden taking
those incredibly romantic,

580
00:37:01,327 --> 00:37:04,160
beautiful pictures of the Queen
with a parasol.

581
00:37:04,162 --> 00:37:09,324
So it was an immediate rapport
that he struck up with the Queen

582
00:37:09,326 --> 00:37:12,159
that then led to so many
subsequent sittings

583
00:37:12,161 --> 00:37:13,925
with her family
and her children.

584
00:37:31,494 --> 00:37:34,160
Beaton photographed
nearly 30 members

585
00:37:34,162 --> 00:37:35,559
of the British royal family,

586
00:37:35,561 --> 00:37:38,925
including the Duke
and Duchess of Windsor.

587
00:37:38,927 --> 00:37:41,826
Beaton's images
of the couple together

588
00:37:41,828 --> 00:37:45,525
helped to promote that idea
of a royal love story

589
00:37:45,527 --> 00:37:50,259
and the king who abdicated
for the woman who he adored.

590
00:37:53,293 --> 00:37:57,226
"Wallis Simpson, the lady who
became the Duchess of Windsor,

591
00:37:57,228 --> 00:38:00,160
was one of my
most frequent subjects."

592
00:38:01,426 --> 00:38:03,391
"For those who enjoy gossip,

593
00:38:03,393 --> 00:38:05,592
she was a particular treat."

594
00:38:07,494 --> 00:38:09,758
I think it's an
extraordinary testament

595
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:14,858
to his strength of character
that he was able to,

596
00:38:14,860 --> 00:38:18,224
on one hand, photograph
the marriage of Wallis Simpson

597
00:38:18,226 --> 00:38:19,859
to the Duke of Windsor,

598
00:38:19,861 --> 00:38:25,858
and also to then take
photographs of Queen Elizabeth

599
00:38:25,860 --> 00:38:28,859
and her husband,
the reigning king.

600
00:38:28,861 --> 00:38:31,659
These are two sides
of the family

601
00:38:31,661 --> 00:38:34,160
that absolutely
despised each other,

602
00:38:34,162 --> 00:38:35,591
and Beaton
successfully manages

603
00:38:35,593 --> 00:38:39,591
to keep in
with both factions.

604
00:38:43,594 --> 00:38:46,258
"The afternoon light
began to fade,

605
00:38:46,260 --> 00:38:49,160
and the Queen, with all
the wistful symbolism

606
00:38:49,162 --> 00:38:51,459
of a Chekhov character, said,

607
00:38:51,461 --> 00:38:53,359
'You watch, Mr. Beaton,

608
00:38:53,361 --> 00:38:57,159
in a little while the sky
will be rose-colored.

609
00:38:57,161 --> 00:39:01,625
I sometimes think Piccadilly
is on fire every evening.'

610
00:39:01,627 --> 00:39:05,594
Her words, alas,
were only too prophetic."

611
00:39:33,193 --> 00:39:35,826
"The Blitz began in 1940.

612
00:39:35,828 --> 00:39:40,825
For months, London
was terribly bombed.

613
00:39:40,827 --> 00:39:46,558
Once more, I was faced with
my old vocational vertigo.

614
00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:49,925
It was clear that in anything
connected with soldiering,

615
00:39:49,927 --> 00:39:53,459
I would be a real sad sack.

616
00:39:53,461 --> 00:39:55,692
But I wanted to be useful."

617
00:39:57,527 --> 00:40:00,392
"I went down to the city
to photograph the damage done

618
00:40:00,394 --> 00:40:02,292
by Sunday night's raid."

619
00:40:14,628 --> 00:40:17,826
The Minister of Information
was desperate

620
00:40:17,828 --> 00:40:21,159
for international understanding
and support,

621
00:40:21,161 --> 00:40:23,425
particularly from America.

622
00:40:23,427 --> 00:40:25,825
Cecil Beaton's unique style
of photography,

623
00:40:25,827 --> 00:40:29,158
it was felt,
would catch the eye.

624
00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:33,158
It was different to
the normal press photography.

625
00:40:33,160 --> 00:40:35,558
They regularly used
five photographers,

626
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:38,158
and Beaton
is the most celebrated.

627
00:40:41,728 --> 00:40:44,826
He still felt
that sense of shame

628
00:40:44,828 --> 00:40:51,558
for what he had done in 1938
with American Vogue.

629
00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:55,391
He genuinely did long
for redemption.

630
00:40:55,393 --> 00:40:58,292
And it's really
only the war years

631
00:40:58,294 --> 00:41:00,658
that sort of save
his reputation

632
00:41:00,660 --> 00:41:02,692
'cause he does go
out of his way to be

633
00:41:02,694 --> 00:41:05,325
an extraordinary
documentary photographer

634
00:41:05,327 --> 00:41:07,859
from 1939 onwards.

635
00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:14,392
During the war, Cecil Beaton
took over 7,000 photographs.

636
00:41:15,828 --> 00:41:18,626
He published eight books.

637
00:41:20,227 --> 00:41:23,492
Writing for innumerable
magazine features

638
00:41:23,494 --> 00:41:25,492
and articles,

639
00:41:25,494 --> 00:41:27,626
as well as drawing for them.

640
00:41:32,394 --> 00:41:36,825
That began to open the door
for Beaton to make a return,

641
00:41:36,827 --> 00:41:40,725
and it certainly made American
Vogue and British Vogue

642
00:41:40,727 --> 00:41:43,425
think that maybe
they ought to think again

643
00:41:43,427 --> 00:41:45,528
about employing him.

644
00:41:46,828 --> 00:41:52,659
I treated it always
in a sort of visual way.

645
00:41:52,661 --> 00:41:55,391
I think it was
a marvelous opportunity

646
00:41:55,393 --> 00:42:00,158
for me to be dug out
of my little rut.

647
00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:03,325
"I went to most
of the theaters of war.

648
00:42:03,327 --> 00:42:06,726
I went to Burma
and China and Egypt."

649
00:42:08,927 --> 00:42:11,158
"I remember
a most extraordinary sight

650
00:42:11,160 --> 00:42:13,625
when a whole lot of tanks
had been blown up

651
00:42:13,627 --> 00:42:15,224
and left there,

652
00:42:15,226 --> 00:42:17,192
and these strange
circular objects

653
00:42:17,194 --> 00:42:19,726
were half-buried
in the sand.

654
00:42:19,728 --> 00:42:23,158
They just remained looking
like a Surrealist picture."

655
00:42:36,260 --> 00:42:38,792
So different from
conventional war photography

656
00:42:38,794 --> 00:42:40,292
because he's an aesthete

657
00:42:40,294 --> 00:42:42,292
and he's looking
for beautiful things,

658
00:42:42,294 --> 00:42:45,558
even in extremis
and despair and hardship.

659
00:42:48,193 --> 00:42:51,692
Which is very, very powerful
and enduringly so, I think,

660
00:42:51,694 --> 00:42:53,826
it's just this idea that,
you know,

661
00:42:53,828 --> 00:42:55,925
culture and beauty
is going to survive

662
00:42:55,927 --> 00:42:57,659
whatever they throw at us.

663
00:43:16,627 --> 00:43:19,291
I think his sexuality
is extremely important

664
00:43:19,293 --> 00:43:22,592
in those photographs, because
the portrayals of, you know,

665
00:43:22,594 --> 00:43:24,924
the airmen and the soldiers
and the sailors

666
00:43:24,926 --> 00:43:28,159
are very, very loving

667
00:43:28,161 --> 00:43:30,858
and sometimes eroticized and...

668
00:43:32,861 --> 00:43:35,758
...and I think that's also
something that you don't get

669
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:38,259
with conventional
war photography.

670
00:43:50,360 --> 00:43:52,359
"In the hangars of an aerodrome,

671
00:43:52,361 --> 00:43:54,424
I found more thrilling sets

672
00:43:54,426 --> 00:43:56,491
than in the Hollywood studios."

673
00:44:00,828 --> 00:44:04,291
"In the hospitals, there are
characters and personalities

674
00:44:04,293 --> 00:44:05,759
to be seen,

675
00:44:05,761 --> 00:44:08,758
more vivid than
in any stage drama."

676
00:44:10,528 --> 00:44:12,825
"With her little head bandaged,

677
00:44:12,827 --> 00:44:15,224
four-year-old
Eileen Dunne was in bed

678
00:44:15,226 --> 00:44:19,626
with wild, staring eyes
and a gray face

679
00:44:19,628 --> 00:44:22,659
and clutching a gray toy.

680
00:44:22,661 --> 00:44:25,591
Perhaps all that remained
of her former life."

681
00:44:30,294 --> 00:44:33,458
Becomes the cover
of Life magazine.

682
00:44:33,460 --> 00:44:39,158
You know, and it really does
help persuade American opinion

683
00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:41,792
in favor of helping out Europe.

684
00:44:47,361 --> 00:44:49,826
Beaton worked
extraordinarily hard

685
00:44:49,828 --> 00:44:53,159
and often fell ill.

686
00:44:53,161 --> 00:44:57,158
He traveled
in great discomfort.

687
00:44:57,160 --> 00:45:01,758
He was in a very serious
airplane crash.

688
00:45:01,760 --> 00:45:04,691
Before that he was like
a sugared almond,

689
00:45:04,693 --> 00:45:07,791
a sort of pretty little sweet,

690
00:45:07,793 --> 00:45:10,625
and then the inside of him
he was like a hard nut.

691
00:45:10,627 --> 00:45:13,224
And he just got on a plane,

692
00:45:13,226 --> 00:45:14,759
the plane crashed,

693
00:45:14,761 --> 00:45:16,759
he got out of that plane
and got on the next one,

694
00:45:16,761 --> 00:45:18,625
kept going, I mean,
that's an incredible...

695
00:45:18,627 --> 00:45:22,525
for that sort of foppish dandy,
that fondant piece of icing,

696
00:45:22,527 --> 00:45:25,391
he actually had
a very hard interior.

697
00:45:26,561 --> 00:45:28,325
Have you ever,
at any stage in your life,

698
00:45:28,327 --> 00:45:31,559
had to do something which was
really too difficult for you?

699
00:45:31,561 --> 00:45:33,758
Oh, I'm always
having to do things

700
00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:34,925
which are
too difficult for me,

701
00:45:34,927 --> 00:45:38,525
and I think that that is
the thing that keeps me going.

702
00:45:38,527 --> 00:45:41,225
I'm perfectly willing
to take on any job

703
00:45:41,227 --> 00:45:45,558
that I think may help
make me a little better

704
00:45:45,560 --> 00:45:47,259
as a human being.

705
00:45:58,393 --> 00:46:01,759
"Pelham Place,
my home in London,

706
00:46:01,761 --> 00:46:05,458
was no longer habitable.

707
00:46:05,460 --> 00:46:06,725
The street
was roped off

708
00:46:06,727 --> 00:46:11,258
with an unexploded bomb
in the vicinity.

709
00:46:11,260 --> 00:46:13,191
So I was
particularly blessed

710
00:46:13,193 --> 00:46:16,425
to have Ashcombe
as a retreat.

711
00:46:16,427 --> 00:46:20,492
It became, more than ever,
a refuge."

712
00:46:23,694 --> 00:46:26,626
When the time came,
eventually,

713
00:46:26,628 --> 00:46:29,525
for me to go
and see my landlord

714
00:46:29,527 --> 00:46:36,592
and to hear that he wanted
to take over the place,

715
00:46:36,594 --> 00:46:38,291
I... I just couldn't believe it.

716
00:46:38,293 --> 00:46:40,492
It was like a death knell.

717
00:46:40,494 --> 00:46:42,891
I couldn't imagine
that I would be expelled

718
00:46:42,893 --> 00:46:47,592
from this loveliness
that I had made my own.

719
00:47:05,161 --> 00:47:07,691
"I've been going through
all the old boxes."

720
00:47:09,826 --> 00:47:13,191
"The past comes alive
with shocking vividness."

721
00:47:19,760 --> 00:47:23,458
"Some of the letters
and documents make me sad.

722
00:47:23,460 --> 00:47:27,592
Some almost stop
my heart beating.

723
00:47:27,594 --> 00:47:30,491
The telegram announcing
my father's death."

724
00:47:32,460 --> 00:47:34,691
"A piece of paper
left on the hall table

725
00:47:34,693 --> 00:47:38,392
indicating that my brother,
Reggie, was out.

726
00:47:38,394 --> 00:47:41,424
He would never come back
to write that he was in."

727
00:47:46,394 --> 00:47:49,690
"The evening that Reggie was
killed by an underground train,

728
00:47:49,692 --> 00:47:51,425
I felt unmoved."

729
00:47:54,261 --> 00:47:58,626
"His suicide was the crowning
blow to my father's life.

730
00:47:58,628 --> 00:48:00,225
I thought,

731
00:48:00,227 --> 00:48:03,924
'Dear Daddy, what a
nightmare ordeal for you.'"

732
00:48:05,826 --> 00:48:08,424
"'Reggie was your favorite son.

733
00:48:08,426 --> 00:48:10,259
You'd been such friends.'"

734
00:48:15,693 --> 00:48:17,324
"I'm thinking now
of all the days

735
00:48:17,326 --> 00:48:19,558
Reggie and I
spent together.

736
00:48:19,560 --> 00:48:21,924
We grew up in great intimacy,

737
00:48:21,926 --> 00:48:25,291
fighting a lot
but really devoted.

738
00:48:25,293 --> 00:48:27,658
I feel full
of regret and guilt

739
00:48:27,660 --> 00:48:29,857
for having been so selfish."

740
00:48:37,827 --> 00:48:39,825
His mother was very much
his responsibility

741
00:48:39,827 --> 00:48:43,159
after the father died.

742
00:48:43,161 --> 00:48:44,691
He was very protective
of his mother

743
00:48:44,693 --> 00:48:46,691
and very devoted to her.

744
00:48:46,693 --> 00:48:49,925
Wherever he lived,
she always had her own room

745
00:48:49,927 --> 00:48:52,259
and she was part
of the scenery.

746
00:48:54,394 --> 00:48:56,658
"Since I was thrown out
of Ashcombe,

747
00:48:56,660 --> 00:48:58,690
I have found a small house
in the country

748
00:48:58,692 --> 00:49:01,259
to take its place.

749
00:49:01,261 --> 00:49:03,658
Of course,
Reddish House did not possess

750
00:49:03,660 --> 00:49:07,724
the wayward romantic
remoteness of Ashcombe.

751
00:49:07,726 --> 00:49:11,757
This was the abode
of an adult person.

752
00:49:11,759 --> 00:49:14,891
Is it because it is my own
that I love it so much?"

753
00:49:18,561 --> 00:49:20,191
He not only grew up

754
00:49:20,193 --> 00:49:25,425
and began to value things
in life beyond himself,

755
00:49:25,427 --> 00:49:27,690
but it was also
the point at which

756
00:49:27,692 --> 00:49:30,291
his life
changed direction,

757
00:49:30,293 --> 00:49:35,159
which was less photography
and more about stage design.

758
00:49:40,893 --> 00:49:43,258
After the war, when he did
that famous production

759
00:49:43,260 --> 00:49:45,425
of the Wilde play
Lady Windermere ' s Fan,

760
00:49:45,427 --> 00:49:48,224
I mean, that gave a glamour
after 1945,

761
00:49:48,226 --> 00:49:51,624
after the dreadful, dull, gray,

762
00:49:51,626 --> 00:49:56,558
bleak, ruined, shitty
kind of atmosphere.

763
00:49:56,560 --> 00:50:00,158
Post 1945,
suddenly to see this vision

764
00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:02,791
of Edwardian grandeur,
splendor,

765
00:50:02,793 --> 00:50:04,557
I mean, we needed that.

766
00:50:07,260 --> 00:50:09,392
"It was Diaghilev
who set me on the track

767
00:50:09,394 --> 00:50:11,491
of designing for the theater
and the ballet."

768
00:50:12,593 --> 00:50:15,424
"He was neither a dancer,
a painter,

769
00:50:15,426 --> 00:50:18,690
a choreographer,
nor a musician,

770
00:50:18,692 --> 00:50:20,691
but he had the vision,

771
00:50:20,693 --> 00:50:22,491
the taste,

772
00:50:22,493 --> 00:50:25,425
the knowledge to embrace
all these things."

773
00:50:27,592 --> 00:50:30,325
Cecil Beaton was inspired by

774
00:50:30,327 --> 00:50:33,292
the two great Russian icons
of ballet

775
00:50:33,294 --> 00:50:35,825
who came from
the same generation

776
00:50:35,827 --> 00:50:37,658
and were totally opposed
to each other...

777
00:50:37,660 --> 00:50:40,724
Anna Pavlova
and Serge Diaghilev.

778
00:50:40,726 --> 00:50:42,758
Ballet people talk about
the word "perfume,"

779
00:50:42,760 --> 00:50:45,292
and Anna Pavlova was
the ultimate perfume ballerina.

780
00:50:45,294 --> 00:50:47,624
She would leave essences
of herself,

781
00:50:47,626 --> 00:50:50,824
and had a wonderful quality
of upper body acting,

782
00:50:50,826 --> 00:50:52,625
so people thought
she was like a flame.

783
00:50:56,160 --> 00:50:57,758
The ballet I wish we could see

784
00:50:57,760 --> 00:51:00,158
is the original version
of Apparitions.

785
00:51:00,160 --> 00:51:02,591
Just see these extraordinary
splashes of color

786
00:51:02,593 --> 00:51:03,757
where the whole
corps de ballet,

787
00:51:03,759 --> 00:51:06,324
one section's wearing
purple and lilac,

788
00:51:06,326 --> 00:51:07,858
one section's wearing scarlet,

789
00:51:07,860 --> 00:51:10,790
and that gives us such an idea
of pure beauty.

790
00:51:15,293 --> 00:51:16,525
I don't think Cecil Beaton
was like

791
00:51:16,527 --> 00:51:17,658
anybody else
in the world of dance

792
00:51:17,660 --> 00:51:20,858
because he was a photographer
and he was a designer.

793
00:51:20,860 --> 00:51:24,457
I can't really think of people
who did those two things.

794
00:51:24,459 --> 00:51:27,158
But he was, you know, he was
a personality and opinion,

795
00:51:27,160 --> 00:51:29,691
and he was like all these
post-Diaghilev people,

796
00:51:29,693 --> 00:51:31,557
he was a dandy.

797
00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:39,525
Everything about him was style.

798
00:51:39,527 --> 00:51:42,857
The way he dressed,
the way the table was laid.

799
00:51:42,859 --> 00:51:44,825
The flowers in the house.

800
00:51:44,827 --> 00:51:48,725
All those little details
of a kind of dandy.

801
00:51:58,526 --> 00:52:00,658
It goes far beyond clothes.

802
00:52:00,660 --> 00:52:03,458
It's an attitude,
and in his case

803
00:52:03,460 --> 00:52:07,825
the way he documented
the world around him.

804
00:52:07,827 --> 00:52:09,825
Do you think you were,
when you were younger,

805
00:52:09,827 --> 00:52:12,292
abnormally self-conscious
about your appearance?

806
00:52:12,294 --> 00:52:14,325
- Oh yes.
- Are you still so?

807
00:52:14,327 --> 00:52:16,292
Luckily, no.

808
00:52:16,294 --> 00:52:19,590
I've got rid of the past
except for this hat.

809
00:52:21,527 --> 00:52:25,892
This hat I wear because
I think it has a certain...

810
00:52:25,894 --> 00:52:28,258
Edwardian bravura,

811
00:52:28,260 --> 00:52:32,525
and also it hides the fact
that I'm going bald.

812
00:52:32,527 --> 00:52:35,524
And I don't like to exhibit
myself quite bald, you know.

813
00:52:38,660 --> 00:52:42,457
Cecil had an aura about him
that really drew you in.

814
00:52:44,392 --> 00:52:46,625
He was extremely stylish,

815
00:52:46,627 --> 00:52:49,857
but he looked totally unlike
anybody else.

816
00:52:51,226 --> 00:52:53,690
He's both very vain

817
00:52:53,692 --> 00:52:56,225
and very modest
at the same time.

818
00:52:57,659 --> 00:53:01,791
He has a kind of social vanity,

819
00:53:01,793 --> 00:53:05,259
which is amusing and unique,
and I like it,

820
00:53:05,261 --> 00:53:07,457
and it's part of his charm.

821
00:53:07,459 --> 00:53:09,624
Am I vain?

822
00:53:09,626 --> 00:53:12,158
Oh no, anything but vain.

823
00:53:12,160 --> 00:53:16,192
I'm my worst critic.

824
00:53:16,194 --> 00:53:17,790
I've got this strange feeling
about vanity.

825
00:53:17,792 --> 00:53:21,423
I think vanity's
when you think you're perfect.

826
00:53:21,425 --> 00:53:23,158
And Cecil didn't think
he was perfect

827
00:53:23,160 --> 00:53:25,323
and tried to improve himself.

828
00:53:25,325 --> 00:53:27,457
But he was hugely critical.

829
00:53:27,459 --> 00:53:30,925
I think he thought some people
didn't rise to his standards.

830
00:53:37,227 --> 00:53:39,694
Who is the most beautiful woman
you've ever photographed?

831
00:53:41,294 --> 00:53:43,295
Uh, I suppose Garbo.

832
00:53:44,326 --> 00:53:46,891
"I am obsessed by her.

833
00:53:46,893 --> 00:53:48,824
The moment I wake
in the morning,

834
00:53:48,826 --> 00:53:50,525
I start to think about her,

835
00:53:50,527 --> 00:53:52,192
and so it goes on all day,

836
00:53:52,194 --> 00:53:55,491
and then in my dreams
at night."

837
00:53:55,493 --> 00:53:57,158
Don't speak.

838
00:54:01,425 --> 00:54:04,290
Miss Garbo, I always wanted
to photograph her,

839
00:54:04,292 --> 00:54:06,558
but she was very averse
to the idea

840
00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:11,159
until suddenly one day,
fate played into my lap

841
00:54:11,161 --> 00:54:13,424
and she said,

842
00:54:13,426 --> 00:54:18,558
"If only you weren't such a
grand and elegant photographer."

843
00:54:18,560 --> 00:54:20,258
So I said, "I suppose
then you'd ask me

844
00:54:20,260 --> 00:54:22,857
to take a passport photograph,
wouldn't you?"

845
00:54:22,859 --> 00:54:24,790
She said, "How did you know?"

846
00:54:25,894 --> 00:54:27,192
Well, the pictures I took

847
00:54:27,194 --> 00:54:29,658
weren't very suitable
for passport.

848
00:54:41,194 --> 00:54:42,824
They were
the most beautiful pictures,

849
00:54:42,826 --> 00:54:44,625
those pictures of Garbo,

850
00:54:44,627 --> 00:54:45,658
and they were loving,

851
00:54:45,660 --> 00:54:48,324
you could feel that
he just adored her, right,

852
00:54:48,326 --> 00:54:49,924
more than other subjects.

853
00:54:51,826 --> 00:54:53,690
These pictures of her
kind of sprawled out on a couch

854
00:54:53,692 --> 00:54:56,357
wearing a turtleneck
and this amazing bracelet.

855
00:54:58,426 --> 00:54:59,892
"She put a penciled line

856
00:54:59,894 --> 00:55:03,490
on the back of those
of which she approved,

857
00:55:03,492 --> 00:55:05,892
and would allow me to publish
one of them in Vogue."

858
00:55:10,726 --> 00:55:13,791
"A week before the magazine
was to be in all the bookstores,

859
00:55:13,793 --> 00:55:16,258
Greta sent me a cable

860
00:55:16,260 --> 00:55:19,825
saying that if more than one of
the photographs were to appear,

861
00:55:19,827 --> 00:55:21,858
I would never be forgiven."

862
00:55:26,492 --> 00:55:32,490
"Frantic calls to my friends
at Vogue, 'Stop everything!'

863
00:55:32,492 --> 00:55:35,158
It was too late,
the copies were already bound

864
00:55:35,160 --> 00:55:36,857
and on their way
throughout the country."

865
00:55:39,425 --> 00:55:42,625
"Through a complete
misunderstanding,

866
00:55:42,627 --> 00:55:44,757
it was now impossible
to prevent her

867
00:55:44,759 --> 00:55:47,424
from feeling
completely betrayed."

868
00:55:51,292 --> 00:55:54,691
"My abject cables, letters,
telephone calls,

869
00:55:54,693 --> 00:55:57,525
and flowers sent to her
were unanswered."

870
00:55:59,293 --> 00:56:01,858
There was a self-destructive
thing there,

871
00:56:01,860 --> 00:56:05,223
not in terms of his career

872
00:56:05,225 --> 00:56:07,257
or what he was doing
as an artist,

873
00:56:07,259 --> 00:56:11,324
much more about the destruction
of relationships, you know?

874
00:56:11,326 --> 00:56:14,290
This compulsion to make things
all the time

875
00:56:14,292 --> 00:56:15,458
is what drives your life,

876
00:56:15,460 --> 00:56:17,524
and you sacrifice
almost everything

877
00:56:17,526 --> 00:56:18,824
on the altar of that.

878
00:56:21,760 --> 00:56:24,324
Beaton is a creative force,

879
00:56:24,326 --> 00:56:27,424
and it's about creating
this illusory world

880
00:56:27,426 --> 00:56:32,290
that the viewer is invited
to step into.

881
00:56:32,292 --> 00:56:36,690
The idea of the scrapbook,
the collage, is pure Beaton.

882
00:56:39,626 --> 00:56:44,791
"So I have now 150 diaries
and 97 scrapbooks,

883
00:56:44,793 --> 00:56:48,158
memorials of
many violated magazines,

884
00:56:48,160 --> 00:56:50,924
repositories of
museum picture postcards,

885
00:56:50,926 --> 00:56:53,858
theatrical programs,
letters, and photographs

886
00:56:53,860 --> 00:56:56,424
which I have accumulated
since childhood."

887
00:57:01,859 --> 00:57:05,458
"If I could bring one thing
to a deserted island,

888
00:57:05,460 --> 00:57:08,423
I would choose
one of my scrapbooks,

889
00:57:08,425 --> 00:57:09,590
because they're full of pictures

890
00:57:09,592 --> 00:57:12,558
of people still alive
in my memory."

891
00:57:16,527 --> 00:57:18,757
"Finally, after six months,

892
00:57:18,759 --> 00:57:21,790
Greta called and left word
with my secretary

893
00:57:21,792 --> 00:57:24,258
that she would visit me
that afternoon."

894
00:57:25,727 --> 00:57:28,624
"My heart started to thump
so violently,

895
00:57:28,626 --> 00:57:30,424
it was almost alarming."

896
00:57:32,192 --> 00:57:36,290
Yes, I think there was some
hanky panky with Greta Garbo.

897
00:57:36,292 --> 00:57:37,691
Something happened,
I don't know what.

898
00:57:37,693 --> 00:57:40,423
It might have just been
a rather...

899
00:57:40,425 --> 00:57:42,458
awkward fumble on the sofa
or something,

900
00:57:42,460 --> 00:57:44,224
I don't know,
but something happened.

901
00:57:44,226 --> 00:57:47,324
He thought he could turn Garbo,

902
00:57:47,326 --> 00:57:49,657
and I think Garbo hoped
she could turn him.

903
00:57:49,659 --> 00:57:52,424
But I'm told actually
Cecil was quite good in bed

904
00:57:52,426 --> 00:57:53,557
with girls.

905
00:57:55,160 --> 00:57:58,558
"I had known that
we were made for each other."

906
00:57:59,827 --> 00:58:02,758
"I asked,
'Why don't you marry me?'"

907
00:58:04,559 --> 00:58:06,290
"I never asked anyone
to marry me,

908
00:58:06,292 --> 00:58:07,291
and yet to make this proposal

909
00:58:07,293 --> 00:58:10,491
seemed the most natural
and easy thing to do."

910
00:58:12,759 --> 00:58:15,423
"But Greta looked
completely astounded."

911
00:58:18,726 --> 00:58:21,690
Garbo, to some extent,
may well have been a lesbian,

912
00:58:21,692 --> 00:58:24,557
but she also had quite a lot
of relationships with men.

913
00:58:26,626 --> 00:58:29,257
The problem certainly about him
sort of settling down

914
00:58:29,259 --> 00:58:30,924
into one of
those cozy partnerships

915
00:58:30,926 --> 00:58:32,757
was unlikely to work
really very well

916
00:58:32,759 --> 00:58:33,758
because there was always

917
00:58:33,760 --> 00:58:36,558
some incredibly tempting
lighted candle somewhere

918
00:58:36,560 --> 00:58:38,791
which was more appealing.

919
00:58:40,425 --> 00:58:42,490
He had this vision
of what he wanted to be,

920
00:58:42,492 --> 00:58:45,127
and he was always in a hurry.

921
00:58:46,325 --> 00:58:48,424
"Anything for the uprise,"
as he once put it.

922
00:58:48,426 --> 00:58:52,290
He was very, very keen
to move in good social circles.

923
00:58:52,292 --> 00:58:54,157
He loved that royalty thing.

924
00:58:54,159 --> 00:58:55,557
I suppose if you looked
at it one way,

925
00:58:55,559 --> 00:58:57,223
it could be kind of endearing

926
00:58:57,225 --> 00:58:59,824
that he was so taken in
by all that stuff,

927
00:58:59,826 --> 00:59:03,223
and, uh, and I think
'cause of his background,

928
00:59:03,225 --> 00:59:06,691
he wanted to be part of
that group of people.

929
00:59:06,693 --> 00:59:08,257
If a person had a crown
on his head,

930
00:59:08,259 --> 00:59:10,158
he liked them much more.

931
00:59:10,160 --> 00:59:12,757
He was a terrible
social climber.

932
00:59:19,560 --> 00:59:21,658
"The call saying the Queen
wanted me to do

933
00:59:21,660 --> 00:59:24,290
her personal coronation
photographs

934
00:59:24,292 --> 00:59:26,357
comes as an enormous relief."

935
00:59:29,159 --> 00:59:32,924
By the time of the Queen's
coronation in 1953,

936
00:59:32,926 --> 00:59:36,590
Beaton was already world famous.

937
00:59:38,860 --> 00:59:42,925
He attended Westminster Abbey
for the ceremony itself.

938
00:59:42,927 --> 00:59:44,924
He was seated very high up
in the abbey,

939
00:59:44,926 --> 00:59:46,690
up near the organ pipes,

940
00:59:46,692 --> 00:59:49,557
and he had his top hat
stuffed full of sandwiches

941
00:59:49,559 --> 00:59:51,490
and drawing materials.

942
00:59:51,492 --> 00:59:56,191
And he recorded,
in very simple black sketches,

943
00:59:56,193 --> 00:59:59,290
the goings on in the abbey
as they unfolded before him.

944
00:59:59,292 --> 01:00:01,690
Long live the Queen!

945
01:00:01,692 --> 01:00:03,491
Long live
the Queen!

946
01:00:10,560 --> 01:00:12,791
When you look at those pictures
of the Queen,

947
01:00:12,793 --> 01:00:14,824
particularly the color images,

948
01:00:14,826 --> 01:00:17,558
there's a real glow about her,

949
01:00:17,560 --> 01:00:21,690
there's a sense that she's
almost radiating light.

950
01:00:29,727 --> 01:00:31,891
The image he created
of the monarchy

951
01:00:31,893 --> 01:00:34,324
was absolutely crucial,

952
01:00:34,326 --> 01:00:35,790
and his ability to create

953
01:00:35,792 --> 01:00:40,691
this seemingly magnificent,
unfolding tale

954
01:00:40,693 --> 01:00:43,690
of romance and glamour
was so important

955
01:00:43,692 --> 01:00:45,191
to inspire the nation.

956
01:00:48,892 --> 01:00:52,824
I don't know if he ever
became an insider himself,

957
01:00:52,826 --> 01:00:55,290
because I think
that he always saw himself

958
01:00:55,292 --> 01:00:58,557
as beneath his subjects,
especially the royal family.

959
01:00:58,559 --> 01:01:01,690
He just felt so privileged
to be near them

960
01:01:01,692 --> 01:01:03,691
in the same room, you know?

961
01:01:03,693 --> 01:01:05,924
And I always found that
a little sad.

962
01:01:05,926 --> 01:01:09,191
But he's English,
so he knows his place.

963
01:01:11,727 --> 01:01:14,490
The British class system
is a very, very interesting

964
01:01:14,492 --> 01:01:17,290
and strange animal.

965
01:01:17,292 --> 01:01:19,157
If you were born
outside that world,

966
01:01:19,159 --> 01:01:20,158
that was just it,

967
01:01:20,160 --> 01:01:22,390
and you could be, you know,
a court jester,

968
01:01:22,392 --> 01:01:25,457
and you could be
a sort of entertainer

969
01:01:25,459 --> 01:01:28,724
and a recorder of it,

970
01:01:28,726 --> 01:01:30,857
but you were never going to be
inside that world.

971
01:01:30,859 --> 01:01:34,557
Underneath it I think there was
always an insecure person.

972
01:01:34,559 --> 01:01:36,591
You know,
he was never, ever confident

973
01:01:36,593 --> 01:01:39,558
that people were accepting him.

974
01:01:39,560 --> 01:01:41,690
That's also a driving force.

975
01:01:45,159 --> 01:01:48,157
He published about 38 books
in his lifetime.

976
01:01:48,159 --> 01:01:50,291
Some of them obviously
were very visual,

977
01:01:50,293 --> 01:01:52,391
some of them were
more like diaries.

978
01:01:54,260 --> 01:01:56,358
I think there are
photographers and stylists

979
01:01:56,360 --> 01:01:58,323
and certainly designers

980
01:01:58,325 --> 01:02:00,923
who have referenced Beaton
heavily through the years.

981
01:02:02,026 --> 01:02:04,424
That incredible book,
The Glass of Fashion,

982
01:02:04,426 --> 01:02:05,591
changed my life.

983
01:02:07,292 --> 01:02:09,258
He's able to do
these incredible drawings,

984
01:02:09,260 --> 01:02:10,790
and it's great writing.

985
01:02:13,160 --> 01:02:17,424
I was 18 and I got a job
as an archivist

986
01:02:17,426 --> 01:02:19,890
in the Vogue Beaton archive.

987
01:02:19,892 --> 01:02:22,324
It was my job
to look at the negatives,

988
01:02:22,326 --> 01:02:23,490
hold them up to a light

989
01:02:23,492 --> 01:02:26,157
and try and choreograph them

990
01:02:26,159 --> 01:02:29,290
to the Beaton pictures
on the page in the magazine.

991
01:02:29,292 --> 01:02:30,691
Of course it rubbed off on me.

992
01:02:34,325 --> 01:02:38,824
I think it was Beaton's romance
that attracted me.

993
01:02:38,826 --> 01:02:44,491
Human beings feed off
escapism and fantasy

994
01:02:44,493 --> 01:02:47,357
in a reaction
to the harshness of reality.

995
01:02:47,359 --> 01:02:50,924
I think there's a sort of
nobility to fantasy

996
01:02:50,926 --> 01:02:52,157
for that reason.

997
01:02:54,559 --> 01:02:58,158
He opened my eyes
to photography,

998
01:02:58,160 --> 01:03:00,756
and I then realized

999
01:03:00,758 --> 01:03:04,657
there are some
good portrait photographers.

1000
01:03:06,360 --> 01:03:09,923
Beaton used the camera
in a very particular way.

1001
01:03:09,925 --> 01:03:14,158
Really what mattered to him
was always the subject.

1002
01:03:14,160 --> 01:03:18,591
Seizing, freezing, holding
that beauty, that glamour,

1003
01:03:18,593 --> 01:03:20,658
that idea.

1004
01:03:20,660 --> 01:03:23,691
Creating this Beaton universe.

1005
01:03:23,693 --> 01:03:25,923
It's not the world
as he found it,

1006
01:03:25,925 --> 01:03:28,391
it's the world
as he transformed it,

1007
01:03:28,393 --> 01:03:29,591
as he wished it to be.

1008
01:03:34,626 --> 01:03:36,724
One of the greatest
contributions

1009
01:03:36,726 --> 01:03:39,157
to the quality of Gigi

1010
01:03:39,159 --> 01:03:44,558
is the fact that the producer
hired Cecil Beaton

1011
01:03:44,560 --> 01:03:47,789
to do everything visual
in the film.

1012
01:03:50,459 --> 01:03:53,689
Can you imagine what that was
like for Cecil Beaton?

1013
01:03:53,691 --> 01:03:56,158
Going to a soundstage
where you could just create

1014
01:03:56,160 --> 01:03:58,890
absolutely anything,
carte blanche.

1015
01:03:59,893 --> 01:04:01,457
That's like a fantasy,

1016
01:04:01,459 --> 01:04:03,357
that's like being in
the biggest space in the world

1017
01:04:03,359 --> 01:04:05,891
and someone saying, like,
"Just create your own reality."

1018
01:04:05,893 --> 01:04:07,823
Hello, Grandmama.

1019
01:04:07,825 --> 01:04:10,358
Gigi, where have you been?

1020
01:04:10,360 --> 01:04:12,690
- Playing in the park.
- Armenonville.

1021
01:04:12,692 --> 01:04:15,657
A lot of the picture
was shot in Paris,

1022
01:04:15,659 --> 01:04:17,757
and then we went back
to Hollywood

1023
01:04:17,759 --> 01:04:19,790
just for the interiors.

1024
01:04:19,792 --> 01:04:23,624
It was the first time that
I've ever worked as a designer

1025
01:04:23,626 --> 01:04:25,856
in a major Hollywood studio.

1026
01:04:25,858 --> 01:04:29,823
You can ask the impossible
and it suddenly appears.

1027
01:04:31,493 --> 01:04:32,856
Look, Gaston.

1028
01:04:32,858 --> 01:04:35,857
Four yards of material
in the skirt.

1029
01:04:35,859 --> 01:04:38,458
Cecil didn't miss a minute.

1030
01:04:38,460 --> 01:04:43,357
He was there every day
from seven o'clock on.

1031
01:04:43,359 --> 01:04:47,923
And then while we were shooting,
he would take pictures.

1032
01:04:47,925 --> 01:04:49,324
"More than anyone else,

1033
01:04:49,326 --> 01:04:51,823
Leslie Caron poses
the question,

1034
01:04:51,825 --> 01:04:55,458
'What makes a face photogenic?'

1035
01:04:55,460 --> 01:04:57,857
In life and onstage,

1036
01:04:57,859 --> 01:05:00,424
we see a delightful
little frog."

1037
01:05:01,258 --> 01:05:03,690
"In the twinkling
of a flashbulb,

1038
01:05:03,692 --> 01:05:05,724
we see a photograph
of a beauty."

1039
01:05:09,560 --> 01:05:14,591
Beaton entered into my realm
subliminally when I was a kid.

1040
01:05:14,593 --> 01:05:19,557
I think that, of the films
that I love of Beaton's,

1041
01:05:19,559 --> 01:05:22,458
the one that I love the most
is My Fair Lady.

1042
01:05:32,459 --> 01:05:36,324
When they came to me
with My Fair Lady,

1043
01:05:36,326 --> 01:05:39,290
I just knew that
I'd really got something

1044
01:05:39,292 --> 01:05:41,558
that I'd always
been wishing for.

1045
01:05:41,560 --> 01:05:45,324
It was really a question

1046
01:05:45,326 --> 01:05:49,589
of delving down into the...
my youth, into my childhood,

1047
01:05:49,591 --> 01:05:51,257
into my adolescence.

1048
01:05:54,426 --> 01:05:56,689
My mother took me to see
My Fair Lady,

1049
01:05:56,691 --> 01:05:58,756
and I remember the credits
coming up.

1050
01:06:00,527 --> 01:06:05,257
I also remember thinking that
he'd got it all horribly wrong

1051
01:06:05,259 --> 01:06:07,358
by giving the Ascot ladies

1052
01:06:07,360 --> 01:06:12,290
that... those kind of early
sixties Cleopatra winged eyes.

1053
01:06:12,292 --> 01:06:14,257
♪ Pulses ♪

1054
01:06:14,259 --> 01:06:16,157
♪ Rushing ♪

1055
01:06:16,159 --> 01:06:17,923
♪ Faces ♪

1056
01:06:17,925 --> 01:06:19,524
♪ Flushing ♪

1057
01:06:19,526 --> 01:06:24,157
And I could already see
that that was entirely un-1912.

1058
01:06:24,159 --> 01:06:27,257
♪ I have never been
so keyed up ♪

1059
01:06:27,259 --> 01:06:29,756
So I was a little bit tut tutty
about the whole thing.

1060
01:06:29,758 --> 01:06:31,623
But I...

1061
01:06:31,625 --> 01:06:32,524
which is a little bit scary

1062
01:06:32,526 --> 01:06:34,823
considering I was seven
or eight, I think.

1063
01:06:34,825 --> 01:06:39,191
Um, but of course
I later came to realize

1064
01:06:39,193 --> 01:06:42,723
that as an ensemble,
it was quite remarkable.

1065
01:06:42,725 --> 01:06:48,457
♪ The rain in Spain stays
mainly in the plain ♪

1066
01:06:48,459 --> 01:06:50,158
♪ I think she's got it ♪

1067
01:06:50,160 --> 01:06:51,790
♪ I think
she's got it ♪

1068
01:06:51,792 --> 01:06:56,557
♪ The rain in Spain stays
mainly in the plain ♪

1069
01:06:56,559 --> 01:06:59,323
You could argue that
after Eliza Doolittle

1070
01:06:59,325 --> 01:07:01,257
learns how to speak properly,

1071
01:07:01,259 --> 01:07:03,524
Cecil carries the rest
of the film completely.

1072
01:07:03,526 --> 01:07:06,323
And it's all visual,
really, after that.

1073
01:07:06,325 --> 01:07:08,424
On top of being a photographer,
on top of being a writer,

1074
01:07:08,426 --> 01:07:09,924
he was a painter.

1075
01:07:09,926 --> 01:07:13,790
And that color sense
that Beaton had was marvelous.

1076
01:07:14,858 --> 01:07:17,824
For me, if you get the color
right, you have it.

1077
01:07:20,159 --> 01:07:22,523
The one production that one
tends to associate with you

1078
01:07:22,525 --> 01:07:24,390
above all others is
My Fair Lady,

1079
01:07:24,392 --> 01:07:26,191
both the play and the film,

1080
01:07:26,193 --> 01:07:28,257
which won you, I think,
two Oscars.

1081
01:07:28,259 --> 01:07:30,557
I got the impression that when
it came to doing the film,

1082
01:07:30,559 --> 01:07:32,823
you were less happy
in Hollywood.

1083
01:07:32,825 --> 01:07:35,657
I loved the preparation.

1084
01:07:35,659 --> 01:07:37,789
I thought that was
the most exciting thing

1085
01:07:37,791 --> 01:07:41,424
because I was rethinking
the whole production.

1086
01:07:41,426 --> 01:07:45,924
But unfortunately,
once we started shooting,

1087
01:07:45,926 --> 01:07:49,291
I felt disappointed

1088
01:07:49,293 --> 01:07:55,158
with certain personal aspects
of the whole set up.

1089
01:07:55,160 --> 01:07:57,456
He was quite wound up
over in Los Angeles,

1090
01:07:57,458 --> 01:07:58,556
'cause he hated it.

1091
01:07:58,558 --> 01:08:00,690
"Oh, that terrible
George Cukor.

1092
01:08:00,692 --> 01:08:02,423
Such a nightmare."

1093
01:08:02,425 --> 01:08:04,357
I gather that you really
didn't get on very well

1094
01:08:04,359 --> 01:08:06,258
with Cecil Beaton.

1095
01:08:06,260 --> 01:08:08,657
No, I didn't.

1096
01:08:08,659 --> 01:08:09,891
Would you like
to expand on that?

1097
01:08:09,893 --> 01:08:11,857
No, no, it's a boring subject.

1098
01:08:11,859 --> 01:08:14,190
I'm sure he's bored with it,
and so am I.

1099
01:08:14,192 --> 01:08:15,857
No, no.

1100
01:08:15,859 --> 01:08:18,422
- But...
- Except he did pick my pockets.

1101
01:08:18,424 --> 01:08:20,290
And he attempted
to strangle me,

1102
01:08:20,292 --> 01:08:23,291
and he's a forger
and everything.

1103
01:08:23,293 --> 01:08:26,422
No, no, it just...
we just didn't get on very well.

1104
01:08:26,424 --> 01:08:27,623
And I was right.

1105
01:08:32,425 --> 01:08:34,824
"I really suffocated
in Hollywood."

1106
01:08:36,825 --> 01:08:38,856
"It is ugly beyond belief,

1107
01:08:38,858 --> 01:08:40,224
and there were very few people

1108
01:08:40,226 --> 01:08:42,358
with whom I could speak
the same language."

1109
01:08:47,826 --> 01:08:49,689
"It is two years
since that night

1110
01:08:49,691 --> 01:08:53,724
when at that strange locale,
among the black leather toughs,

1111
01:08:53,726 --> 01:08:56,789
one very beautiful fawnlike
creature in olive green

1112
01:08:56,791 --> 01:09:00,790
smiled the sweetest,
most tender of smiles at me."

1113
01:09:04,192 --> 01:09:07,524
I think Cecil was very much
in love with Kin Hoitsma.

1114
01:09:07,526 --> 01:09:10,157
He was like a schoolgirl
with Kin.

1115
01:09:10,159 --> 01:09:12,257
He was all...
I remember in the pool,

1116
01:09:12,259 --> 01:09:14,824
and Kin would sort of
pick up Cecil in his arms,

1117
01:09:14,826 --> 01:09:16,358
and Cecil, "Yeah," like that.

1118
01:09:16,360 --> 01:09:19,789
I mean, he was so
sort of girly with Kin.

1119
01:09:19,791 --> 01:09:22,924
"He was a continuous delight
to the eye,

1120
01:09:22,926 --> 01:09:26,190
full of laughter,
unspoiled,

1121
01:09:26,192 --> 01:09:28,723
enchantingly young
and coltish,

1122
01:09:28,725 --> 01:09:31,690
and ceaselessly beautiful.

1123
01:09:31,692 --> 01:09:35,656
He was my most prized
possession."

1124
01:09:37,358 --> 01:09:40,690
I don't think that Kin brought
out the best in Cecil Beaton.

1125
01:09:40,692 --> 01:09:43,257
At that point,
Cecil was experimenting

1126
01:09:43,259 --> 01:09:47,524
with a whole new generation,
a whole new life.

1127
01:09:47,526 --> 01:09:49,191
He must have felt
that this gave him

1128
01:09:49,193 --> 01:09:51,823
a sort of
a great youthful boost,

1129
01:09:51,825 --> 01:09:55,158
but that's not a very good basis
for a long-term relationship.

1130
01:09:57,559 --> 01:10:00,422
"Kin's exit was as if
to an execution."

1131
01:10:01,691 --> 01:10:04,824
"I like to think it was
as bad a moment for him

1132
01:10:04,826 --> 01:10:06,291
as it was for me."

1133
01:10:10,491 --> 01:10:12,390
"I went back to bed,

1134
01:10:12,392 --> 01:10:15,190
not to sleep
but to moan at my loss

1135
01:10:15,192 --> 01:10:17,457
and to feel desperately sad."

1136
01:10:21,358 --> 01:10:24,423
I think he always wanted
to have a longstanding romance,

1137
01:10:24,425 --> 01:10:26,589
and it never really worked.

1138
01:10:26,591 --> 01:10:30,157
I mean, the... he really was
in love with Peter Watson

1139
01:10:30,159 --> 01:10:31,923
all his life, I think.

1140
01:10:31,925 --> 01:10:34,258
Kin was not unlike Peter Watson
in a funny way.

1141
01:10:34,260 --> 01:10:35,323
Same sort of look.

1142
01:10:36,691 --> 01:10:38,258
Cecil Beaton seems
to have had a knack

1143
01:10:38,260 --> 01:10:40,422
of being a pretty bad chooser,

1144
01:10:40,424 --> 01:10:42,890
and maybe we see a little thread
going through all this

1145
01:10:42,892 --> 01:10:44,891
that perhaps, you know,
subconsciously

1146
01:10:44,893 --> 01:10:47,157
he didn't really want
to settle down with any of them.

1147
01:10:51,559 --> 01:10:52,423
Cecil Beaton, I suppose,

1148
01:10:52,425 --> 01:10:55,924
was basically homosexual
without a doubt,

1149
01:10:55,926 --> 01:11:00,322
but he always realized that he
was on the outside of society.

1150
01:11:00,324 --> 01:11:02,489
Cecil was definitely gay

1151
01:11:02,491 --> 01:11:04,158
in a time when it was
against the law.

1152
01:11:05,591 --> 01:11:09,290
He did have a physical life,

1153
01:11:09,292 --> 01:11:13,790
but it was very behind
closed doors.

1154
01:11:13,792 --> 01:11:16,524
He had one
regular black gentleman

1155
01:11:16,526 --> 01:11:19,289
that he used to visit
quite frequently.

1156
01:11:20,858 --> 01:11:22,656
But he was very discreet
about it.

1157
01:11:26,792 --> 01:11:30,158
I think he was genuinely curious
about other people,

1158
01:11:30,160 --> 01:11:34,289
and felt inspired
by great artists.

1159
01:11:34,291 --> 01:11:38,356
He saw himself
in that sort of constellation

1160
01:11:38,358 --> 01:11:41,289
of great creative people.

1161
01:11:41,291 --> 01:11:43,556
You didn't have
to be madly beautiful

1162
01:11:43,558 --> 01:11:45,389
to appeal to Cecil Beaton.

1163
01:11:45,391 --> 01:11:47,890
What he liked was people
who expressed themselves.

1164
01:11:47,892 --> 01:11:50,523
But he was a very good friend
to his friends,

1165
01:11:50,525 --> 01:11:53,322
and his friends were
very, very loyal to him.

1166
01:11:53,324 --> 01:11:55,356
From the beginning,
I've known him all my life,

1167
01:11:55,358 --> 01:11:56,724
he's a friend of a lifetime,

1168
01:11:56,726 --> 01:11:58,823
he always wanted
a very good life,

1169
01:11:58,825 --> 01:12:00,789
and he realized there's
only one very good life,

1170
01:12:00,791 --> 01:12:02,689
and that's the life
that you know you want

1171
01:12:02,691 --> 01:12:03,723
and you make it yourself.

1172
01:12:03,725 --> 01:12:04,757
That's what he's done.

1173
01:12:04,759 --> 01:12:05,890
Don't you think?

1174
01:12:05,892 --> 01:12:08,289
Yes, well,
he's a total self-creation.

1175
01:12:08,291 --> 01:12:09,824
- Mm, total.
- There are very few people

1176
01:12:09,826 --> 01:12:12,257
in the world that are
total self-creations,

1177
01:12:12,259 --> 01:12:13,789
and he certainly is one.

1178
01:12:13,791 --> 01:12:15,689
You see, what I like
about Cecil,

1179
01:12:15,691 --> 01:12:19,357
he's got a great deal
of the outrageous in him.

1180
01:12:19,359 --> 01:12:21,257
He likes all the limits,
doesn't he?

1181
01:12:21,259 --> 01:12:23,657
Well, he certainly goes
to extremes.

1182
01:12:23,659 --> 01:12:25,423
- Yes.
- He can be extremely kind

1183
01:12:25,425 --> 01:12:26,923
or extremely rude.

1184
01:12:26,925 --> 01:12:30,222
He can be the rudest person
I've ever known.

1185
01:12:30,224 --> 01:12:32,556
Yes, and he picks his enemies
beautifully, doesn't he?

1186
01:12:32,558 --> 01:12:36,257
Mm? He knows what he's doing
when he's doing those things.

1187
01:12:36,259 --> 01:12:37,689
I wonder, though, really,

1188
01:12:37,691 --> 01:12:40,222
I mean,
he certainly gathers enemies

1189
01:12:40,224 --> 01:12:41,924
like other people gather roses.

1190
01:12:41,926 --> 01:12:43,824
- That's right.
- I'm not so sure

1191
01:12:43,826 --> 01:12:45,556
that he picks them well.

1192
01:12:45,558 --> 01:12:48,156
But he's very positive,
he's not a negative person.

1193
01:12:48,158 --> 01:12:49,690
He loves, it's very easy
for him to love.

1194
01:12:49,692 --> 01:12:53,690
Well, he positively loves you
or he positively hates you.

1195
01:12:53,692 --> 01:12:57,356
Are there any close friends
from either school or Cambridge

1196
01:12:57,358 --> 01:12:58,923
that you've carried right
the way through with you

1197
01:12:58,925 --> 01:13:01,156
and are still
close friends today?

1198
01:13:01,158 --> 01:13:02,757
Yes.

1199
01:13:02,759 --> 01:13:04,756
Um, enemies?

1200
01:13:04,758 --> 01:13:07,157
Yes.

1201
01:13:07,159 --> 01:13:09,293
No names, I suppose,
no (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

1202
01:13:10,859 --> 01:13:12,724
Uh, I don't mind
giving a few names

1203
01:13:12,726 --> 01:13:14,156
- if you want.
- Tell me a few names

1204
01:13:14,158 --> 01:13:15,257
of friends and enemies

1205
01:13:15,259 --> 01:13:17,556
who've been with you
all the time.

1206
01:13:17,558 --> 01:13:20,289
Well, um...

1207
01:13:20,291 --> 01:13:24,222
Evelyn Waugh, uh, is my enemy.

1208
01:13:24,224 --> 01:13:27,490
We dislike one another
intensely.

1209
01:13:27,492 --> 01:13:31,256
He thinks that
I'm a nasty piece of goods,

1210
01:13:31,258 --> 01:13:34,157
and, oh, brother,
I feel the same way about him.

1211
01:13:36,492 --> 01:13:38,289
"As for Noël Coward,

1212
01:13:38,291 --> 01:13:41,423
I admire everything
about his work.

1213
01:13:41,425 --> 01:13:43,157
Why then have I hated him?"

1214
01:13:44,293 --> 01:13:47,556
"Perhaps I was envious
of the success of his career."

1215
01:13:50,425 --> 01:13:52,823
"I've always despised
the Burtons

1216
01:13:52,825 --> 01:13:54,689
for their vulgarity,
commonness,

1217
01:13:54,691 --> 01:13:57,422
and crass bad taste.

1218
01:13:57,424 --> 01:13:59,624
Richard Burton is
as butch and coarse

1219
01:13:59,626 --> 01:14:01,556
as only a Welshman can be."

1220
01:14:02,525 --> 01:14:06,290
"Elizabeth Taylor is
everything I dislike,

1221
01:14:06,292 --> 01:14:09,556
combining the worst of
American and English taste."

1222
01:14:12,258 --> 01:14:15,724
"Katharine Hepburn's appearance
is appalling.

1223
01:14:15,726 --> 01:14:20,223
A freckled, burned, mottled,
bleached, and wizened piece

1224
01:14:20,225 --> 01:14:22,423
of decaying matter.

1225
01:14:22,425 --> 01:14:27,289
She has no generosity,
no heart, no grace.

1226
01:14:27,291 --> 01:14:29,157
She's a dried up boot."

1227
01:14:32,558 --> 01:14:33,857
Oh, yes, I can hate.

1228
01:14:33,859 --> 01:14:36,257
I can hate unreasonably.

1229
01:14:36,259 --> 01:14:38,490
I mean,
I'm very conscious of that.

1230
01:14:38,492 --> 01:14:40,457
And then a lot of the time
I feel,

1231
01:14:40,459 --> 01:14:42,556
well, I'm only doing it
just for a gag,

1232
01:14:42,558 --> 01:14:44,322
that I really don't hate
this person,

1233
01:14:44,324 --> 01:14:46,489
that it's just a sort of game

1234
01:14:46,491 --> 01:14:48,456
I'm playing with myself
about them,

1235
01:14:48,458 --> 01:14:50,222
but clearly they're not too bad.

1236
01:14:50,224 --> 01:14:53,289
But I take a line about
certain people and stick to it.

1237
01:14:54,925 --> 01:14:57,924
I think he could be
very disapproving.

1238
01:14:57,926 --> 01:15:01,589
You'd suddenly see
a little flash of...

1239
01:15:01,591 --> 01:15:03,257
bitchiness.

1240
01:15:03,259 --> 01:15:06,557
There's a way the English have
of being rude in a nice way

1241
01:15:06,559 --> 01:15:08,823
where you actually quite like
them being rude to you.

1242
01:15:08,825 --> 01:15:11,557
And Cecil didn't have that
rudeness, he just had rudeness.

1243
01:15:15,292 --> 01:15:18,689
I actually really loved Cecil.

1244
01:15:18,691 --> 01:15:21,422
I had a huge soft spot
for him.

1245
01:15:21,424 --> 01:15:26,556
I think that was something
to do with his melancholy side.

1246
01:15:26,558 --> 01:15:28,824
He never gave the impression
of being a happy person,

1247
01:15:28,826 --> 01:15:30,524
although he had a lot of humor

1248
01:15:30,526 --> 01:15:34,623
and he was... he engaged with
people very, very easily.

1249
01:15:34,625 --> 01:15:37,523
I think that probably love,
or the lack of love,

1250
01:15:37,525 --> 01:15:39,489
was an enormous part
of his life.

1251
01:15:39,491 --> 01:15:42,389
Maybe he didn't open his heart
very much.

1252
01:15:42,391 --> 01:15:44,924
He was very hard to read,

1253
01:15:44,926 --> 01:15:46,857
and I think like probably

1254
01:15:46,859 --> 01:15:49,724
most interesting people
in the world,

1255
01:15:49,726 --> 01:15:53,724
he was just this sort of
mass of contradictions.

1256
01:15:53,726 --> 01:15:55,357
Let's face it,
he was two faced.

1257
01:15:55,359 --> 01:15:58,689
I remember one weekend
I was staying with Cecil Beaton

1258
01:15:58,691 --> 01:16:01,289
and he spotted this woman
outside the door and he said,

1259
01:16:01,291 --> 01:16:03,256
"Oh, it's that fucking woman!"

1260
01:16:03,258 --> 01:16:05,289
Opening the door,
"Mary, darling,

1261
01:16:05,291 --> 01:16:06,823
it's so wonderful to see you."

1262
01:16:06,825 --> 01:16:08,624
That got him in one.

1263
01:16:12,159 --> 01:16:15,923
Supposing you had to judge
yourself from your diaries,

1264
01:16:15,925 --> 01:16:19,556
what sort of man do you think
you'd find there?

1265
01:16:19,558 --> 01:16:21,689
Were you a bit shocked
when you looked back

1266
01:16:21,691 --> 01:16:23,824
on the early ones?

1267
01:16:23,826 --> 01:16:28,489
Um, I really looked upon them
from a technical point of view.

1268
01:16:28,491 --> 01:16:32,422
I came across this hoard
and I started reading them,

1269
01:16:32,424 --> 01:16:38,790
and I was appalled by the person
that was revealed there.

1270
01:16:38,792 --> 01:16:42,323
But suddenly,
there would be a little patch

1271
01:16:42,325 --> 01:16:45,156
that I thought had
great vitality,

1272
01:16:45,158 --> 01:16:47,724
that still seemed to...

1273
01:16:47,726 --> 01:16:49,289
be valid,

1274
01:16:49,291 --> 01:16:53,156
and so I collected them
together.

1275
01:16:53,158 --> 01:16:57,523
And even if I came out of them
in a pretty unbecoming light,

1276
01:16:57,525 --> 01:16:59,156
and I thought
they were interesting,

1277
01:16:59,158 --> 01:17:00,689
then I let them go in.

1278
01:17:00,691 --> 01:17:02,824
Of course the most notorious
example of that

1279
01:17:02,826 --> 01:17:04,524
was when he published
his diaries

1280
01:17:04,526 --> 01:17:06,156
about the affair
with Greta Garbo,

1281
01:17:06,158 --> 01:17:08,590
because he thought it was a very
important part of his life

1282
01:17:08,592 --> 01:17:09,823
and it couldn't be ignored.

1283
01:17:09,825 --> 01:17:11,557
Well, she was
a very, very private person,

1284
01:17:11,559 --> 01:17:14,157
and that did not go down well
either with her

1285
01:17:14,159 --> 01:17:15,723
or with a great number
of other people

1286
01:17:15,725 --> 01:17:19,256
who considered that he had not
behaved like a gentleman.

1287
01:17:19,258 --> 01:17:22,856
I do find that my opinion
changes very much

1288
01:17:22,858 --> 01:17:24,456
as time goes by,

1289
01:17:24,458 --> 01:17:26,457
and I'm always
sort of reconsidering,

1290
01:17:26,459 --> 01:17:30,156
and I think perhaps
I've been much too outspoken

1291
01:17:30,158 --> 01:17:31,789
on rather trivial subjects.

1292
01:17:34,658 --> 01:17:37,357
That's marvelous, Penelope,
just like that.

1293
01:17:37,359 --> 01:17:39,457
Good, your fingers straighter.

1294
01:17:39,459 --> 01:17:40,689
And head a bit higher.

1295
01:17:40,691 --> 01:17:42,624
That's right, now then
will you follow me?

1296
01:17:47,458 --> 01:17:50,823
I want you to look ecstatic,
you must be inspired.

1297
01:17:50,825 --> 01:17:53,457
Don't smile, no, very serious.

1298
01:18:15,424 --> 01:18:17,790
Jolly good,
jolly well done.

1299
01:18:17,792 --> 01:18:20,922
I think you're absolutely super.

1300
01:18:20,924 --> 01:18:24,556
I was with David Bailey when
he decided to do a documentary

1301
01:18:24,558 --> 01:18:25,756
on Cecil Beaton.

1302
01:18:28,759 --> 01:18:30,889
You know, I didn't like him,
Cecil.

1303
01:18:30,891 --> 01:18:32,423
He was such a snob.

1304
01:18:32,425 --> 01:18:34,724
But I thought he was
a great photographer

1305
01:18:34,726 --> 01:18:36,757
and a great designer.

1306
01:18:36,759 --> 01:18:38,789
That's absolutely marvelous.

1307
01:18:38,791 --> 01:18:40,557
- Precioso.
- Oh...

1308
01:18:40,559 --> 01:18:43,790
Cecil was very patient
with Bailey,

1309
01:18:43,792 --> 01:18:47,422
but I think that Beaton
absolutely loathed Bailey.

1310
01:18:47,424 --> 01:18:49,290
- All right?
- No.

1311
01:18:49,292 --> 01:18:52,223
In a way, you have to sort of
get the person in the film

1312
01:18:52,225 --> 01:18:53,423
when you're making a film
about them.

1313
01:18:53,425 --> 01:18:55,823
- Thank you.
- Good, and walk towards me.

1314
01:18:55,825 --> 01:18:56,956
- Walk towards you?
- Yeah.

1315
01:18:56,958 --> 01:19:00,222
Drag them in, in a way,
even if you have to annoy them.

1316
01:19:00,224 --> 01:19:01,889
- Good.
- That's right.

1317
01:19:01,891 --> 01:19:04,788
"Bailey, your film
is entertaining

1318
01:19:04,790 --> 01:19:07,290
and is of good value.

1319
01:19:07,292 --> 01:19:09,724
But it is not a good film.

1320
01:19:09,726 --> 01:19:13,556
It is inconclusive
and superficial."

1321
01:19:13,558 --> 01:19:15,290
Well, I got him then, didn't I?

1322
01:19:19,424 --> 01:19:22,422
Right on the head, maybe
it's too close to home, Cecil,

1323
01:19:22,424 --> 01:19:25,423
if you're listening up there
with God,

1324
01:19:25,425 --> 01:19:27,822
decorating His front room.

1325
01:19:31,825 --> 01:19:34,624
A lot of people just dismissed,

1326
01:19:34,626 --> 01:19:37,389
you know,
younger successful people

1327
01:19:37,391 --> 01:19:41,623
as being flash in the pans
or pop culture,

1328
01:19:41,625 --> 01:19:45,390
but Cecil, you know,
he knew what talent was,

1329
01:19:45,392 --> 01:19:48,690
and he... you know,
he followed that.

1330
01:19:48,692 --> 01:19:52,788
He was photographing
the great modern artists

1331
01:19:52,790 --> 01:19:54,422
of the post-war years.

1332
01:19:54,424 --> 01:19:59,623
Bacon and Freud
and Gilbert & George.

1333
01:19:59,625 --> 01:20:02,323
Well, he loved anything,
anything new.

1334
01:20:02,325 --> 01:20:04,290
Loved youth.

1335
01:20:04,292 --> 01:20:07,788
Good, uh, just lean forward
like that awful advertisement,

1336
01:20:07,790 --> 01:20:10,423
"Your cigarette, sir."

1337
01:20:11,591 --> 01:20:14,523
He came in
the Royal College of Art

1338
01:20:14,525 --> 01:20:16,788
when I was a student.

1339
01:20:17,925 --> 01:20:20,623
I knew he was an old queen.

1340
01:20:20,625 --> 01:20:24,524
I knew a few things about him.

1341
01:20:25,526 --> 01:20:30,256
Then he told me
he wanted to buy this painting.

1342
01:20:30,258 --> 01:20:32,756
He offered me 40 pounds for it,

1343
01:20:32,758 --> 01:20:38,356
which I'd never had 40 pounds
for a painting before.

1344
01:20:38,358 --> 01:20:44,688
And so I used that money to come
to America the first time, yeah.

1345
01:20:44,690 --> 01:20:46,823
Look out of the false window.

1346
01:20:46,825 --> 01:20:49,189
"It staggers me
how this young man

1347
01:20:49,191 --> 01:20:51,556
can be so at home in the world.

1348
01:20:51,558 --> 01:20:55,788
He has the golden quality
of being able to enjoy life."

1349
01:20:55,790 --> 01:20:56,855
Scintillating.

1350
01:20:56,857 --> 01:20:58,889
"He is never blasé,

1351
01:20:58,891 --> 01:21:01,657
never takes anything
for granted.

1352
01:21:01,659 --> 01:21:04,557
Life is a delightful
wonderland for him."

1353
01:21:04,559 --> 01:21:06,656
And then just look at me.
That's right.

1354
01:21:06,658 --> 01:21:09,922
I mean, I did get to know him
quite well.

1355
01:21:09,924 --> 01:21:11,789
I had to sketch him for Vogue,

1356
01:21:11,791 --> 01:21:14,723
and he photographed me.

1357
01:21:14,725 --> 01:21:17,756
So the drawings
took a long time.

1358
01:21:17,758 --> 01:21:21,856
I remember if he liked
the drawing, I didn't.

1359
01:21:21,858 --> 01:21:24,656
If I liked the drawing,
he didn't.

1360
01:21:25,824 --> 01:21:27,656
He never really rested.

1361
01:21:27,658 --> 01:21:29,557
I don't see how
he did everything

1362
01:21:29,559 --> 01:21:31,422
and went out every night.

1363
01:21:31,424 --> 01:21:34,290
It's extraordinary
how much he got done.

1364
01:21:36,424 --> 01:21:41,189
"I have always complimented
myself on my stamina,

1365
01:21:41,191 --> 01:21:43,557
and can wear out
even my younger friends

1366
01:21:43,559 --> 01:21:45,756
when it comes to work or play."

1367
01:21:48,324 --> 01:21:49,756
"I can still think of myself

1368
01:21:49,758 --> 01:21:53,289
as a rather appealing
bright young thing."

1369
01:21:53,291 --> 01:21:55,755
Look at Hockney,
you see he's giggling away.

1370
01:21:55,757 --> 01:21:57,289
I love his green shirt.

1371
01:21:57,291 --> 01:21:59,822
I went to Cecil's parties.

1372
01:21:59,824 --> 01:22:01,557
Get him out of here.

1373
01:22:01,559 --> 01:22:05,256
I mean,
I met all kinds of people there.

1374
01:22:05,258 --> 01:22:07,489
I met Vivien Leigh there,

1375
01:22:07,491 --> 01:22:09,322
Laurence Olivier,

1376
01:22:09,324 --> 01:22:12,157
loads of film people.

1377
01:22:12,159 --> 01:22:16,556
That's where I met Mick Jagger,
at Cecil Beaton's.

1378
01:22:22,292 --> 01:22:26,723
I first met Cecil Beaton
in part of Morocco

1379
01:22:26,725 --> 01:22:30,788
which was little known then.

1380
01:22:30,790 --> 01:22:32,688
I was walking in the medina
one day

1381
01:22:32,690 --> 01:22:37,190
and I saw this beautiful figure
clad all in a white suit

1382
01:22:37,192 --> 01:22:39,289
and a beautiful fedora hat.

1383
01:22:39,291 --> 01:22:40,622
It was very nice.

1384
01:22:40,624 --> 01:22:42,156
Take some nice pictures.

1385
01:22:47,224 --> 01:22:49,357
"Mick Jagger is sexy,

1386
01:22:49,359 --> 01:22:52,356
yet completely sexless.

1387
01:22:52,358 --> 01:22:54,556
He is beautiful and ugly,

1388
01:22:54,558 --> 01:22:56,689
feminine and masculine.

1389
01:22:56,691 --> 01:22:59,389
A rare phenomenon."

1390
01:22:59,391 --> 01:23:01,157
Cecil Beaton had a knack

1391
01:23:01,159 --> 01:23:03,423
of always being in the right
place at the right time.

1392
01:23:03,425 --> 01:23:06,289
You know, he wasn't having
a siesta in the hotel

1393
01:23:06,291 --> 01:23:07,589
when the Rolling Stones
came by,

1394
01:23:07,591 --> 01:23:09,788
he was out there
and he saw them

1395
01:23:09,790 --> 01:23:12,556
and he took their pictures
by the pool.

1396
01:23:12,558 --> 01:23:14,422
Terribly good of Andy Warhol.

1397
01:23:14,424 --> 01:23:16,290
I like that one the most.

1398
01:23:16,292 --> 01:23:18,655
He continually embraced
what was exciting and new

1399
01:23:18,657 --> 01:23:21,423
and modern and happening
and of the moment

1400
01:23:21,425 --> 01:23:25,389
and up to the minute and with it
and swinging and hip.

1401
01:23:25,391 --> 01:23:27,289
Delightful.

1402
01:23:27,291 --> 01:23:29,290
The mind boggles to think
what he could have made

1403
01:23:29,292 --> 01:23:34,589
of today's internet,
Instagram, selfie world.

1404
01:23:34,591 --> 01:23:39,856
I'd love to see a Beaton
portrait of Kim Kardashian,

1405
01:23:39,858 --> 01:23:43,223
and I'd particularly like
to read the diary entry.

1406
01:23:50,691 --> 01:23:54,156
"I come down to the country
by the earliest train possible."

1407
01:23:56,891 --> 01:24:00,688
"The landscape is
everything I love,

1408
01:24:00,690 --> 01:24:03,655
with dry grasses
in the hedges

1409
01:24:03,657 --> 01:24:06,223
and all the cottage gardens
ablaze."

1410
01:24:14,824 --> 01:24:17,390
When you found
the real Cecil,

1411
01:24:17,392 --> 01:24:20,156
it was delightful.

1412
01:24:20,158 --> 01:24:22,889
The real Cecil would come out
when he was home at Reddish,

1413
01:24:22,891 --> 01:24:27,622
in the garden with
his old garden clothes on.

1414
01:24:27,624 --> 01:24:29,289
He was happy.

1415
01:24:29,291 --> 01:24:32,522
There was no grandeur.

1416
01:24:32,524 --> 01:24:34,855
He really was himself,

1417
01:24:34,857 --> 01:24:36,656
which was very nice to see.

1418
01:24:38,425 --> 01:24:39,555
Here's my little cat.

1419
01:24:39,557 --> 01:24:42,922
He likes very much staying
in the herbaceous border.

1420
01:24:42,924 --> 01:24:45,488
I wonder if I might be able
to get you.

1421
01:24:45,490 --> 01:24:47,222
Come on, Timothy, yeah.

1422
01:24:47,224 --> 01:24:50,423
Oh, I'm so pleased to see
a nice cat.

1423
01:24:52,291 --> 01:24:54,157
Timothy White.

1424
01:24:54,159 --> 01:24:56,655
Timothy White.

1425
01:24:56,657 --> 01:25:01,156
I have no plans
for settling down at all.

1426
01:25:01,158 --> 01:25:04,890
I think my idea of
a peaceful old age

1427
01:25:04,892 --> 01:25:09,356
is continuing to experiment
and develop

1428
01:25:09,358 --> 01:25:13,422
and tackle each new hurdle
as it comes along.

1429
01:25:17,292 --> 01:25:19,156
London's
National Portrait Gallery

1430
01:25:19,158 --> 01:25:22,190
is paying an unprecedented
compliment to Cecil Beaton

1431
01:25:22,192 --> 01:25:25,223
with an exhibition of 700
of his portrait photographs.

1432
01:25:26,657 --> 01:25:30,223
It was a landmark show.

1433
01:25:30,225 --> 01:25:32,555
It put Beaton
back in the limelight.

1434
01:25:32,557 --> 01:25:34,189
It put
the National Portrait Gallery,

1435
01:25:34,191 --> 01:25:38,256
up until then thought of as
the dowdiest gallery in London,

1436
01:25:38,258 --> 01:25:41,555
at the height
of glamour and excitement.

1437
01:25:41,557 --> 01:25:45,689
And no national collection
had ever staged

1438
01:25:45,691 --> 01:25:48,388
an exhibition of
a living photographer.

1439
01:25:48,390 --> 01:25:51,822
So it put photography
on the map as never before.

1440
01:25:57,625 --> 01:25:59,456
"Barbra Streisand.

1441
01:25:59,458 --> 01:26:00,889
She has star quality.

1442
01:26:00,891 --> 01:26:02,556
She's a natural.

1443
01:26:02,558 --> 01:26:05,256
She is above all else
intelligent.

1444
01:26:05,258 --> 01:26:08,655
Her brain works so clearly,
so healthily,

1445
01:26:08,657 --> 01:26:10,189
she could be a lawyer."

1446
01:26:11,590 --> 01:26:13,788
Would you have liked your life
all to be different?

1447
01:26:13,790 --> 01:26:14,923
Very different, yes.

1448
01:26:16,059 --> 01:26:23,421
I think that I wish that
I were able to dig down deeper.

1449
01:26:24,625 --> 01:26:27,822
I think that
I relied on my instinct

1450
01:26:27,824 --> 01:26:31,688
and tried to perfect
my inner sense of reality,

1451
01:26:31,690 --> 01:26:34,156
but I don't think
that I have made

1452
01:26:34,158 --> 01:26:38,190
an intellectual enough approach

1453
01:26:38,192 --> 01:26:41,755
to my work and my life.

1454
01:26:42,757 --> 01:26:45,822
And the winner is Cecil Beaton
for Coco.

1455
01:26:53,591 --> 01:26:55,522
This is simply spiffy.

1456
01:26:58,191 --> 01:27:00,290
I'm very lucky to get this.

1457
01:27:00,292 --> 01:27:03,290
I'm lucky because
I don't think any other designer

1458
01:27:03,292 --> 01:27:06,823
has ever had such a marvelous
inspiration to work to

1459
01:27:06,825 --> 01:27:09,556
as Mademoiselle Coco Chanel.

1460
01:27:14,558 --> 01:27:17,289
Beaton's relationship
with the V&A Museum

1461
01:27:17,291 --> 01:27:21,822
began when he was invited
to stage an exhibition

1462
01:27:21,824 --> 01:27:25,223
called Fashion: An Anthology.

1463
01:27:25,225 --> 01:27:26,455
It was a huge success.

1464
01:27:26,457 --> 01:27:28,389
It was wildly popular.

1465
01:27:28,391 --> 01:27:31,556
And it included garments
and clothing

1466
01:27:31,558 --> 01:27:34,923
from virtually everyone
Cecil Beaton knew.

1467
01:27:38,490 --> 01:27:41,756
Cecil got a CBE in 1957.

1468
01:27:41,758 --> 01:27:44,723
That's Companion of the Order
of the British Empire.

1469
01:27:44,725 --> 01:27:47,889
And for a long time
he wasn't knighted.

1470
01:27:47,891 --> 01:27:50,855
But what he actually said when
he did get knighted finally

1471
01:27:50,857 --> 01:27:53,589
in 1972 was,

1472
01:27:53,591 --> 01:27:55,421
"Oh, it's practically
posthumous."

1473
01:27:57,524 --> 01:28:00,157
Good, and the hands, give it
a little more sort of...

1474
01:28:01,658 --> 01:28:02,889
"As the years pass,

1475
01:28:02,891 --> 01:28:06,556
I have found that I must work
harder than ever I did before."

1476
01:28:06,558 --> 01:28:08,788
It's good, it's very nice.

1477
01:28:08,790 --> 01:28:12,655
"The whole problem of the future
is one of anxiety."

1478
01:28:27,691 --> 01:28:31,157
After a very intense
working career,

1479
01:28:31,159 --> 01:28:33,356
Beaton suffered his stroke.

1480
01:28:33,358 --> 01:28:35,156
He was greatly debilitated.

1481
01:28:35,158 --> 01:28:37,589
He was paralyzed
down his right side

1482
01:28:37,591 --> 01:28:42,289
and he never really got the use
of his right hand back.

1483
01:28:44,223 --> 01:28:45,523
Worst of all perhaps for him

1484
01:28:45,525 --> 01:28:48,623
is that he lost
his particular elegance,

1485
01:28:48,625 --> 01:28:50,421
and that he resented very much,

1486
01:28:50,423 --> 01:28:52,756
and he was
very, very, very depressed.

1487
01:28:57,158 --> 01:29:00,722
"It is awful how easily I weep.

1488
01:29:00,724 --> 01:29:03,157
Why have I not
any self control?"

1489
01:29:04,824 --> 01:29:08,255
"Suddenly I realized
I was appalled

1490
01:29:08,257 --> 01:29:10,422
by the sadness of life."

1491
01:29:12,591 --> 01:29:15,623
"I was weeping
for my own lost youth,

1492
01:29:15,625 --> 01:29:18,755
and I was weeping for
the dead people I had loved.

1493
01:29:18,757 --> 01:29:20,788
My mother and my brother

1494
01:29:20,790 --> 01:29:23,422
and all who had been
part of my childhood."

1495
01:29:28,457 --> 01:29:32,321
"Why should I feel sad
about the passing of so much

1496
01:29:32,323 --> 01:29:35,688
rather than gratitude that so
much has been fitted into life?"

1497
01:29:45,358 --> 01:29:49,222
He was on this endless quest
for something,

1498
01:29:49,224 --> 01:29:50,556
not immortality

1499
01:29:50,558 --> 01:29:53,455
but to achieve something
that he was proud of.

1500
01:29:55,324 --> 01:29:57,156
But I feel in some kind of way

1501
01:29:57,158 --> 01:30:00,288
that none of the things he did
really satisfied him.

1502
01:30:01,591 --> 01:30:04,322
I don't think he thought
that he really...

1503
01:30:04,324 --> 01:30:05,421
was all he could have been.

1504
01:30:08,223 --> 01:30:11,856
He was so much more interesting
and so much more curious,

1505
01:30:11,858 --> 01:30:15,923
and so much more complex
as a person.

1506
01:30:15,925 --> 01:30:21,388
But I think that complexity
he had is what artists have.

1507
01:30:22,558 --> 01:30:25,688
It's not... it's not
for the ordinary.

1508
01:30:30,224 --> 01:30:32,322
He gave up writing diaries

1509
01:30:32,324 --> 01:30:35,655
when he had this bad stroke
in 1974,

1510
01:30:35,657 --> 01:30:38,822
but there was actually
a post-stroke diary as well,

1511
01:30:38,824 --> 01:30:42,289
because when I went to see Cecil
and Eileen, his secretary,

1512
01:30:42,291 --> 01:30:45,421
they told me that they'd had
this terrible drama

1513
01:30:45,423 --> 01:30:48,321
because the cat, Timothy,
after 17 years

1514
01:30:48,323 --> 01:30:50,421
had had to be put to sleep.

1515
01:30:51,390 --> 01:30:54,689
And when I actually got my hands
on the diary,

1516
01:30:54,691 --> 01:30:57,321
the last thing Cecil Beaton
ever wrote was,

1517
01:30:57,323 --> 01:30:59,855
"So Timothy has passed through
to oblivion.

1518
01:30:59,857 --> 01:31:01,722
Is he perhaps the lucky one?"

1519
01:31:02,825 --> 01:31:05,289
And exactly a week later,

1520
01:31:05,291 --> 01:31:07,355
he himself got flustered
in the night

1521
01:31:07,357 --> 01:31:08,555
and out he went.

1522
01:31:16,624 --> 01:31:18,489
Cecil Beaton died
at Reddish House

1523
01:31:18,491 --> 01:31:21,288
on the 18th of January 1980.

1524
01:31:21,290 --> 01:31:24,155
There were three photographs
in his room when he died.

1525
01:31:24,157 --> 01:31:26,755
One was of Peter Watson,
one was of Kin Hoitsma,

1526
01:31:26,757 --> 01:31:27,790
and one was of Greta Garbo.

1527
01:31:27,792 --> 01:31:30,421
Those were the three people
that he considered

1528
01:31:30,423 --> 01:31:32,188
the great loves of his life.

1529
01:31:38,790 --> 01:31:41,155
I was sad for him

1530
01:31:41,157 --> 01:31:43,689
because I know
he would have hated dying.

1531
01:31:45,591 --> 01:31:47,523
He loved life too much,

1532
01:31:47,525 --> 01:31:50,588
and it would... he would have felt
he was missing something

1533
01:31:50,590 --> 01:31:51,756
by being dead.

1534
01:32:04,290 --> 01:32:09,556
His life was about
living for the wondrous,

1535
01:32:09,558 --> 01:32:11,755
living for beauty,

1536
01:32:11,757 --> 01:32:15,855
rejecting the banal,
rejecting the commonplace,

1537
01:32:15,857 --> 01:32:19,622
and believing
that you can create a life,

1538
01:32:19,624 --> 01:32:22,855
you can create a personality,
you can create a world

1539
01:32:22,857 --> 01:32:24,788
for yourself
and those around you.

1540
01:32:30,757 --> 01:32:35,455
No one has had the ability
to wave the wand

1541
01:32:35,457 --> 01:32:39,222
and scatter the magic
over somebody like Cecil Beaton.

1542
01:32:45,157 --> 01:32:49,556
He was uniquely connected
to so many different worlds,

1543
01:32:49,558 --> 01:32:54,256
and it's always fascinating
having his perspective.

1544
01:32:56,725 --> 01:33:00,822
The pointed observation that
someone else might have missed.

1545
01:33:03,223 --> 01:33:07,756
It's very interesting to get
the unvarnished truth sometimes.

1546
01:33:09,557 --> 01:33:13,822
And I think he could always
be relied upon to furnish that,

1547
01:33:13,824 --> 01:33:18,421
you know, even in
his most private writings.

1548
01:33:25,491 --> 01:33:28,155
"If I knew anyone
had read this,

1549
01:33:28,157 --> 01:33:29,689
I'd almost go mad."

1550
01:33:31,358 --> 01:33:33,588
"And yet I feel
I had to write it."

1551
01:33:35,658 --> 01:33:38,823
"Perhaps
I have digressed in life.

1552
01:33:38,825 --> 01:33:41,422
But what if one
doesn't want to specialize?"

1553
01:33:45,323 --> 01:33:47,321
"Be daring."

1554
01:33:48,591 --> 01:33:49,589
"Be different."

1555
01:33:51,291 --> 01:33:52,389
"Be impractical."

1556
01:33:54,158 --> 01:33:59,422
"Be anything that will assert
integrity of purpose

1557
01:33:59,424 --> 01:34:03,488
and imaginative vision
against the play-it-safers,

1558
01:34:03,490 --> 01:34:05,489
the slaves of the ordinary."

1559
01:34:12,791 --> 01:34:15,288
"What if one is a dreamer?"

1560
01:34:35,160 --> 01:34:38,322
Subtitles by explosiveskull