The spirit of the Dolce Vita era is captured in Bvlgari’s latest Cinemagia high jewellery collection. “There were a lot of stars who wore our jewels during the Dolce Vita period, and looking through our archives, they wore them for both formal and informal occasions, and with a kind of attitude. Right now, we want to create jewels that the ladies can also wear outside of a formal setting—in different layers, as a choker, with a chain, basically playing around with jewels,” jewellery creative director Lucia Silvestri enthused during the collection’s regional launch in July at the newly opened Six Senses Thimphu in Bhutan.

Presenting the collection against a backdrop of majestic mountains and sacred monasteries in the Himalayan kingdom, a country synonymous with the concept of “gross national happiness”, was a deliberate decision. “It’s the kingdom of happiness and we want to share the same feeling with our clients, in the same way we want the Bvlgari jewels to communicate joy and happiness, as well as our approach to living larger than life,” said high jewellery director Giampaolo della Croce.

And who better than Taylor truly embodied this spirit of joie de vivre? Burton would often lavish his lover with sparkling baubles. One of these was a sautoir with a 65-carat sugarloaf cabochon sapphire he gifted her for her 40th birthday in 1972, and that is now part of the Bvlgari Heritage Collection.

Bvlgari returned Taylor’s affection by reimagining the necklace in a bold, geometric design anchored with a 24.46-carat octagonal step-cut emerald, calling it the Emerald Affair.

Much like how an actress portrays a role in a film, Silvestri highlighted that unique gemstones define an entire creation.

The X factor that she looks for in the perfect gem: “Colour is the most important; then clarity, size and cut. I also like stones with personality. They don’t have to be perfect, there can be some inclusions which means that the stones are alive. We’d then announce the beauty of the stone with our creativity, mixing it with other colours and stones.”

One only has to look at the combination of precious gems (emerald drops, rubies and diamonds) and coloured stones in unconventional cuts (vivid cabochon-cut spinels) in the Dolce Vita Colours necklace to understand.

There are plenty of cinematic references across the over 150-piece collection—from Cleopatra’s poncho necklace and Pinocchio’s mother-of-pearl collar, to Captain Hook’s Pirate Treasures collar necklace and Tinker Bell’s Fairy Wings earrings—but the Action! necklace is perhaps the most literal interpretation of the theme. Taking the form of a celluloid film, it is crafted from black-silver zirconium, a hyper-resistant metal the brand uses for the first time in high jewellery. Besides ensuring that it sits comfortably around the wearer’s neck, the necklace’s sinuous and flexible form hides a surprise mechanism—the round film, when rotated, reproduces the sound of old projectors.

(Related: The 2019 High Jewellery Report: The Best Of The Best)

While Bvlgari may be the jeweller to the stars, its jewels are also divas in their own right, having starred in more than 40 films, from The Visit with Ingrid Bergman to Casino with Sharon Stone. The latter film’s most epic scene, where Robert De Niro presented Stone with a trunk full of Bvlgari jewels, is Silvestri’s favourite cinematic moment involving the brand. Della Croce concurred: “The scene represents the concept behind our jewels—it’s pure pleasure.” And just like a film-maker, Bvlgari is a storyteller with a heart for beautiful things.

Click through the slideshow below for a closer look at the stunning pieces: