It seemed unfair to write any review on "The September Issue" when my husband Chris had so much to say about it. Cleveland Style File presents contributing editor, Chris Mulligan.
Documentaries often fall into one of two categories. First, there is the “PBS informational” category where audiences are forced to sit through 2 (or more) hours of talking heads and narration constantly telling you what you should know about a particular subject. And second, there are those documentaries that are merely vehicles for propaganda. Each category can be executed well. Ken Burns is a master at the talking head, and his takes on a range of subjects, from the civil war to his recent film on America’s national parks, are entertaining and obviously quite informative. The propaganda documentary, as well, can occasionally produce an interesting product. Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” was thought provoking (if also fast and loose with the facts) at times. More often than not, however, each of these styles of documentaries fall generally into the categories of boring (PBS’s “People Like Us”), ridiculous (most films by Mr. Moore) or preachy (“Food, Inc.”).
There is a third type of documentary—one that is rarely attempted and quite difficult to execute, but most satisfying when it is done well. RJ Cutler, who has been involved in a range of documentaries (he produced the excellent documentary on the 1992 Clinton campaign, the “War Room” and directed another outstanding political documentary, the “Perfect Candidate” about Oliver North’s failed bid for a Senate seat), has given us a remarkable example of such filmmaking with “The September Issue” (currently playing at Cedar Lee).
As you probably already know, The September Issue is documentary about the process of designing, and the people involved in creating, Vogue’s now famous 2007 September issue. Vogue’s publication of its September issue is always Conde Nast’s most circulated and most-sought (by advertisers anyway) magazine of the year. But in 2007, at the height of the last economic bubble, the September Vogue issue and the seeming never-ending global thirst for luxury goods collided, resulting in an 800-page record-setting publication.
At the center of this consumer-driven storm that now seems so long ago is, of course, Anna Wintour, Vogue’s long time Editor in Chief. Ms. Wintour has seemingly been forever the emperor of global fashion taste, but she is likely known to most people as the real-life inspiration behind the book, the Devil Wears Prada (and later the movie by the same name, starring Meryl Streep as a pseudo Ms. Wintour). But co-staring in The September Issue is Vogue’s creative director Grace Coddington—an ex-model who is likely a virtual unknown outside of the fashion industry.
Viewers expecting a real life Devil Wears Prada will be disappointed—and not just because Ms. Wintour likely behaves in front of cameras. What makes The September Issue so fascinating is that Mr. Cutler is not interested in judging Vogue, Ms. Wintour, Ms. Coddington or the fashion industry. As I watched the film, I was amazed at how Mr. Cutler ruthlessly avoided temptation—few are neutral when it comes to the fashion industry. On one hand, you have family values spokesmen, animal rights advocates, women’s rights lobbyists, etc. all claiming that the fashion industry is ruining civilization in a multitude of ways. The fashion industry is not a helpless victim of course, as it spends million of dollars promoting itself through every conceivable avenue (movies, music, magazines of course, celebrities), all in an attempt to convince consumers to spend money on its products.
The September Issue does not address these well-worn issues, nor does it care about them. Instead, Mr. Cutler takes viewers on a much less traveled and much more interesting journey—he actually takes the time through terrific filmmaking to explain how the most influential players in a $300 billion industry coordinate, fight, work and eventually, perform their jobs.
By focusing on such a narrow topic (how one issue of one magazine is produced), Mr. Cutler also avoids falling into the dreaded “classroom informational” routine. Because there is a single goal, limited time, warring egos, The September Issue truly “shows” and is not forced to “tell.” Narration is non-existent and talking heads are kept to a minimum.
At the heart of the movie is nothing less than the central conflict in fashion. In Ms. Coddington, we have the talent and the idealism that drives the fashion industry’s creative engine. Ms. Coddington is charged with putting together what makes Vogue Vogue—the feature photo shoots. Ms. Coddington, who is fascinated by the fantasy and escapism of fashion, constantly bucks against the more commercial-friendly aspects of the magazine world (she likes her pictures a little out-of focus and she detests using celebrities as models). For Ms. Coddington, clothes, the models and the stories she tells with pictures should be like movies, paintings or the orchestra—they are tools used to reflect creative instincts.
Ms. Wintour understands that she needs Ms. Coddington’s creative genius, despite her rather harsh attitude towards Ms. Coddington’s work. While Ms. Wintour is certainly not the monster depicted elsewhere, she is curt and very passive aggressive—for example, her process just involves removing pictures she doesn’t like, rather than actually speaking directly with the creative designer responsible for such pictures. But Ms. Wintour knows that, without the imaginations of people like Ms. Coddington, Vogue would merely be an advertising flyer filled with brain-dead “how to” and advice columns (one of the funniest scenes was watching Ms. Wintour zone out when one of the writers tells her that she is preparing a story about “eyes”). Ms. Wintour even reluctantly admits that no one is capable of putting together photo essays like Ms. Coddington—one of the very few compliments heard from Ms. Wintour.
But Ms. Wintour also understands that for Vogue to succeed, it must sell issues and attract advertisers and she pursues this mission with a laser focus. Ms. Wintour made Vogue the first fashion magazine (much to the dismay of many inside the fashion world) to prominently and frequently feature celebrities, rather than models, on its cover. While this creates virtual crises for perfection-obsessed photographers (Sienna Miller is not treated well in this movie), Ms. Wintour understands that in a world dominated by US Weekly and People, Vogue had to be a leader in combining fashion and celebrity.
Other stories are told—a young designer is given a big break by Ms. Wintour, designers tremble while showing their latest designs to Ms. Wintour—but this is the central theme: how practical, results-driven people utilize brilliant, yet sometimes unrealistic talent, to create a quality product that also keeps up with commercial reality. A lesser director surely would have veered, either because he/she didn’t want to invest the time to actually learn something new or out of some juvenile belief that his movie could “make a difference”, from this complicated, yet fascinating story about a world that touches almost all of us in some way and instead given us a thousand loosely-connected criticisms about the fashion industry. To his great credit. Mr. Cutler refuses to do anything other than what is actually one of the most difficult things to do in a documentary: show the audience a fascinating story about something many of us know little about.
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