A World of Excess, Gone for Good

The documentary “The September Issue,â€� is about making the September 2007 issue of Vogue. At more than 800 pages and nearly five pounds in weight, this was the largest issue in the magazine’s history (and the largest ever carried by the Postal Service).  

   Entertaining, facile and superficial, this film says almost nothing about fashion or the inner workings of an iconic publication. Rather it focuses on Anna Wintour, the brilliant editor and intimidating taskmaster, who, during 20 years at its helm, has made Vogue the bible of world fashion.

   Wintour is unlike Miranda Priestly in the roman à clef  “The Devil Wears Prada,â€� the ferocious character created by Meryl Streep. Wintour is ice itself:  She speaks few words and those in low volume; she rarely shows emotion or reaction; her attitude toward the work of her minions conveys dubiousness; and she makes swift decisions from which there is no appeal. She can demand that a cover personality (Sienna Miller) be Photoshopped into unreal perfection and that a photographer’s tummy bulge (he appears in his own shot) be erased.

   There is no doubt Wintour is single-minded. Other than her two children, the magazine is her whole life. This is just as well, since the film’s maker, R. J. Cutler, worships at Wintour’s feet and reveals only what the editor chooses to reveal about herself.  

   The closest we come to insight is at the beginning of the film, when Wintour rather wistfully suggests the people who mock high fashion do so because they are afraid they don’t belong in it. (Thank goodness.)  

   And at the end, the idea emerges again when she says her family of three highly educated, successful siblings think what she does is “silly.â€� (Her daughter tells us she admires Mummy but wants no part of fashion in her future.)

   The film is beautiful with extravagant color, locations and over-the-top fashion shows. And there are wonderful supporting characters along the way: Grace Coddington, the magazine’s creative director and visual genius who started work on the same day as Wintour, will steal the movie for many viewers; and Andre Leon Talley, at 6 feet- 8 inches and nearly 300 pounds, Wintour’s muse and the leading black person in fashion.  (Just try not to laugh at the voluminous robes and fur capes he wears over his business suits.)

   So don’t go to “The September Issueâ€� expecting explication.  Go to remember the world of excess and mindless consumerism that existed only two years ago and now seems of another age; go to see two incomparable professionals — Wintour and Coddington — in top form; and go to have a good time.  ­— Leon Graham

                                                               

     “The September Issue,â€� rated PG-13, will be playing at the Moviehouse in Millerton, NY, soon.

     

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