Dior and I

In the wake of Project Runway, there has been a boom in documentaries about the fashion world, many simplistic and self-serving, and almost all of them structured in the manner of a reality show. Frédéric Tcheng's Dior and I, ostensibly a behind-the-scenes look at the first haute couture collection that noted minimalist Raf Simons created for the legendary Christian Dior house, goes for something more ambitious and complex. With eight weeks to assemble an entire collection and the mercurial ghost of Dior looming over his shoulder, the highly neurotic, prêt-à-porter-trained Simons struggles to express himself in an environment of hand-stitched glamour, and the film becomes a cross-generational dialogue about artistic authorship. Simons tries to make his mark on a brand that will always belong to someone else, just as his team of overworked artists and designers press their fingerprints onto a finished work that will be fully credited to Simons. D.B.