CANNES, France — Miu Miu didn’t let anything rain on their parade, or beachside luncheon as it were.

The brand was in town to celebrate “Grande Envie,” the directorial debut from four-time Academy Award-winning costume designer Catherine Martin of “Moulin Rouge” and “The Great Gatsby” fame.

To call it a splashy luncheon wouldn’t be quite accurate, as the splashes were more puddles due to the buckets of rain. Still, the cast gathered to celebrate Martin’s first time behind the camera.

Her “Grand Envie” clocks in at just three minutes but is rich in visual storytelling.

“It’s my directorial debut. I’m embarrassed calling it a ‘film’ because it is only three minutes long, but it is a little film,” she said.

A little film with a big cast that includes Willem Dafoe, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Callina Liang, Daisy Ridley, Diana Silvers and Eliot Sumner and was shot at the UNECSO-listed Château d’Esclans in the hills above Nice.

The film features costumes from Miu Miu’s Upcycled Collection, Martin’s collaboration with the brand. The idea started as a way to feature the collection in a Miu Miu universe, but with Martin’s experience on production design, it quickly took on a life of its own.

“What the design team wanted was an Imaginarium,” she said. “They wanted me to build a visual world for them and cast characters that we could then costume in upcycled clothes.”

The story began as an illustrated diary created by Martin, part mood board, part narrative sketchbook, layered with vintage postcards, textures and references from the French Riviera in the 1920s and ’30s. Martin wrote the initial story herself.

The result was an intricately designed visual narrative. She created a moving story board of sorts, cut and edited with music and dialogue to get a visual idea of the film. It was scripted, then cast with friends of the house.

Dafoe, who has been involved with the Prada Group for 30 years, was the first to join. Verdi Visconti suggested the actor.

“You’re not going to say no to that,” Martin joked. “And then it became a puzzle.” They filled out the glamorous world with young stars in the Miu Miu universe.

“It all felt like a dream,” Liang said. “We were in this beautiful castle, all dressed up, running around and having a lot of fun.”

Liang plays a singer, and though she doesn’t sing, Martin created deep backstories and monologues for each character. She also wrote each actor a welcome letter to make them feel at home on set.

“It came so naturally to her,” Liang said. “I couldn’t believe it was her directorial debut. She worked like magic.” Liang added that she was so obsessed with the costumes that she tried to buy some from the set, including a favorite belt from her look.

Martin approached with her usual detail. “Preparation is the only way I know how to keep my rather large amount of anxiety at bay,” she said.

The team shot for three days, and despite the summery shots, it was actually filmed in January.

“It was cold, but it was astounding to be somewhere with such history, like it really felt like [with the film] that what we were bringing to life was something that actually happened there, like Catherine captured something real in the space,” Brown said.

Brown shot with Dafoe, who impressed her with his genuineness and generosity, despite being such a seasoned actor and world-famous star.

There was an unscripted moment. “If you watch closely, you’ll see we almost shared a smooch once or twice, but we didn’t,” she said. “That’s my story — the time I almost kissed Willem Dafoe.”

Letting Loose With Notes From Baz

Martin’s first cut was “very linear,” she said. But she happens to have a great coach, with husband and longtime collaborator Baz Luhrmann as an adviser. He encouraged her to both tighten it and let loose.

“’You’ve got to just make it more poetic and less focused on trying to hit all the story points,’ he advised. ‘Just go crazy. Let yourself be free and just tell the story how your heart wants to tell it.’ And I really took his note, and it came to life in a minute.”

With editor Annika Damon, Martin approached from a new perspective. “We put together something that was so much better than the original idea, more lyrical and fit so much better with the work.”

Due to budget constraints, Martin wasn’t able to get the rights to the music she initially wanted. She turned to Elliott Wheeler and Jamieson Shaw, who worked on Luhrmann’s “Elvis.”

They created a piece that was much more magical and a better fit for the film.

“Something I really have learned over the years is that obstacles or people saying no or things not going your way, or critique is so helpful,” she said. The notes can be hard to take, but “there’s usually a kernel of truth inside it.”

“As I get older, I’m actually finding my ego is less connected to criticism,” she said. She’s also aware of the things she doesn’t know and leaned on director of photography Mandy Walker for “crossing the line” shots that she found challenging. It was a creative team effort, all in a castle.

The wardrobe was crafted entirely from upcycled garments from the collection. That added a layer of meaning for Martin.

If “Grande Envie” is a little film, as Martin said, she is aware of the big scope of the climate crisis. The collection with Miu Miu was more than a reason to make a film; it was a chance to reckon with fashion’s role in damaging the environment.

“It becomes kind of overwhelming, and it feels like no one can make a difference,” she said, of being aware of the scope. “We’re all going to just be buried in thousands of T-shirts and discarded jeans.”

She approached the collection with the idea of creating value. “I just love the idea of taking something imminently disposable, like a T-shirt, and something that we assign value to, like vintage lace, and making a precious object,” she said. “It’s about taking something from the past and reinventing it for the future in a meaningful way.”

The result is a collection with patchworked jeans, recut silhouettes and vintage fabrics reimagined for a new era.

That philosophy has extended into her personal life, too, and she now prefers to have something altered or adapted instead of buying something new. “I’m investing in craft, and in a garment that will have a longer life,” she said.

“Joan of Arc” and a Fashion Film in the Future

So will she direct again? Martin says “never say never,” but it’s not in the immediate future. Instead, she’s busy working on the costumes for Luhrmann’s upcoming film about Joan of Arc.

That project has taken on new significance in the current political climate. “There’s so much to learn and digest, but I think it’s really a story for our time when I think a lot of women’s freedoms are being — how shall I say it — curtailed or attacked, at least nibbled at the fringes.”

A rumored fashion film from her and Luhrmann is “still in the wings,” she said. “But we’ve sort of been bulldozed by Joan of Arc, kind of she’s come to the fore. She’s wielded a sword and said, ‘You’re coming my way, folks.’ But who knows? We love the world of fashion.”