A four-part docu-drama about the incredible life of the
"First female fashion photographer of our time" (Vogue)
Fashionistas, stars and starlets - they all came to Madame d'Ora's studio to be captured and captivated. No-one could resist the allure of the revolutionary photographer's lens. The greatest fashion houses of 1920s and 30s Paris beat a path to her door, with names like Chanel, Lanvin and Balenciaga relying on Madame d'Ora to present their collections to the world. She created a new style of
photography and produced eternal works with her very personal innovative and radical approach to aesthetics.
Her portraits bared the souls of the era's greatest stars and contributed to their iconic status: Josephine Baker, Pablo Picasso, Gustav Klimt, Maurice Chevalier, Marc Chagall, the Rothschild family, Eva Rubinstein, Alma Mahler and many, many more put their trust in Madame d'Ora.
Her works were published in Paris Match, Harper's Bazaar, Tatler, Vanity Fair and Vogue. They are not merely representations of a period in time, but rather contributed to the newfound freedoms of the 1920s and growing female empowerment. Bob haircuts, cigarettes, nudity, the Charleston, cocaine, nightlife and intoxication replaced the conservative mores of old.
The rise of the Nazis marked the end of the great liberation and the onset of tragedy. Madame d'Ora became the Jewess Dora Kallmus and was forced to flee Paris. Her sister was murdered in a concentration camp. Penniless, Dora went into hiding in a small mountain village in southern France...
This four-part series is based on an unpublished autobiographical manuscript and tells the true, moving story of Dora Kallmus. Now almost forgotten, she was once one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. Her manuscript provides fascinating insights into the worlds of art, nobility and royalty and honestly and openly reveals numerous secrets about her work with artists, designers, starlets, models and celebrities. It also records her friendships with fashion icons like Cristóbal Balenciaga, who desperately tried to save her sister from the Nazis.
THE EYES OF MADAME D'ORA explores the photographer's extraordinary rise and her struggle to be accepted as a woman in the fashion and art worlds, as well as the events that shaped her: the dreams, low points, doubts, affairs and misfortunes she experienced right up until her death. The former fashion photographer survived the Nazi terror and subsequently turned her camera on the suffering of those displaced by the horrors of war.
Her last big exhibition took place in Paris in 1958. Once again, the greats of the art and culture worlds gathered to pay their respects to the celebrated photographer, now 77 years old. In his opening speech, Jean Cocteau described Madame d'Ora as
"...fanned by the wing of genius, (...) more lucid than any young man".
Gripping narrative scenes are interspersed with documentary sequences filmed at original locations in Vienna, Frohnleiten, Karlsbad, Berlin, Paris, Nice, Mâcon, Lalouvesc and the French Alps. Photographers, fashion designers, publishers, journalists and historians put Madame d'Ora's life and work in context, and the
documentary also features many of her more than 200,000 photos, which continue to shape our modern-day understanding of her era.
Four-part-docu-drama (in development)
4 x 45 min. (4K)
Written and directed by Klaus T. Steindl
A production by EPO-Film
Versions: German, English, French
