We've got issues
If you want cinematic badasses this month, you could go for Brad Pitt
in Inglourious Basterds, bumping off Nazis across France in World War
2. You could go for Channing Tatum in GI Joe, bumping off all notions
of how bad a film can get.
Or...you could go for Anna Wintour, as featured in The September Issue, a rollicking behind-the-scenes look at Vogue magazine.
Director RJ Cutler went behind the scenes of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign for the White House as a producer on The War Room, and he's now hopped into the only world that could rival politics for sheer looniness: fashion. And the result is a ripper of a movie, zipping along and enjoyably superficial. But...it's not all about Anna.
Miss Wintour surely needs no introduction. But here's a quick one anyway (for the lads): she's the boss of the most important fashion magazine in the world. She decides what's in and out, and the whole industry pretty much follows her lead. And she's a right bitch too. Sometimes anyway. Think Josef Stalin with a pageboy bob.
But emerging as a far more intriguing character is her Fashion Editor, Grace Coddington. They started at Vogue on the same day, and if not quite chalk and cheese, are at least chalk and cheeselike dairy product. Wintour is cool, detached, permanently busy. Coddington is romantic, wistful and even mumsy at times. Pick a side (Grace's, duh) and enjoy the clashes.
The movies flies through the meetings, shoots and visits to designers that go into the issue. Along the way we have flying visits to Mario Testino (arty), Sienna Miller (dodgy teeth) and Jean Paul Gaultier (exactly as you'd imagine). Sure, the main players let their guards down only slightly, but the ride is so much fun you won't notice.
The September Issue is at the IFI from September 11th.
Can't wait 'til this comes out! Gotta be better than The Devil Wears Prada
Posted by: Annemarie | August 27, 2009 at 14:00