Thursday was Valentino day at the Venice film festival, where “Valentino: The Last Emperor” had a glittering evening premiere at the Teatro La Fenice opera house. The Italian designer, who retired in January this year after nearly half a century in the business, gave the festival a much-needed boost on a day when glamour was otherwise in short supply. Liz Hurley and Eva Herzigova showed up for the screening, where long, flowing dresses and diamonds the size of marbles were in abundance.

The great man, wearing a white tuxedo and his locks typically well-coiffed, shared a few moments with us on his way into the screening.

“I left (the fashion business) with joy, I left because I knew that I wanted to live a little my life and I did a lot in fashion, so now I think about myself,” he said, speaking in heavily accented English.

The film is a fly-on-the-wall look at the couturier, and it features several amusing scenes starring his six pug dogs. One clip shows one of the pampered canines having its teeth brushed and a squirt of breath freshener added for good measure, while another shows a dog leaving a fashion shoot to relieve itself near the photographer.