The real-time narrative is spliced with footage from Abel Gance’s Napoléon , and Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell’s The Red Shoes . Each has parallels with Galliano’s story: he was an outsider who conquered Paris and he pushed himself to the limits of sanity through dedication to his craft. But the cinematic references were also a way to bring “a bit of John’s sense of panache and fantasy into the film”.
”� So how can someone like Galliano be forgiven today? One of the first people Macdonald spoke to was Rabbi Barry Marcus, who worked with the designer to educate him on the Jewish faith and history, and to help repair his relationship with the Jewish community: “I wish had said this on camera, but he said to me, ‘What’s the point of religion if we don’t believe that people can change?’” But in the absence of the redemptive mechanisms offered by religion, High & Low raises an important human...