This documentary traces with visual gusto the life of a self-made man whose passion and perseverance took him from a Jewish orphanage in London to the absolute pinnacle of his craft.
A shame...that interviewer Teper didn’t probe deeper into Sassoon’s inner world and perhaps explore the latter’s sense of identity after a lifetime of reinvention and self-improvement.
Hardly hard-hitting but a thoughtful and spirited look at a man at the top of his game and a moment in time that refused to fade.
A celebration rather than a conventional documentary, its laudatory tone does wear thin.
While the film does have several highlights it could still benefit from a trim.
Vidal Sassoon emerges as an genuinely likable figure of some substance in this admittedly hagiographic documentary.
"His creativity was at an epic level," someone says of his Royal Hairness, without joking. Please – he was a hairdresser, for God's sake.
Sassoon deserves this tribute and there are some interesting social insights.
I could have done with something a little more critical than this polished, adulatory film, which comes over like a curtain raiser to be shown at a gathering of his 10,000 employees worldwide.
Interview: Vidal Sassoon.
Another view on Vidal Sassoon: the Movie
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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