The September Issue

This film will do nothing to disabuse those, who already believe it, of the notion that people who live and work in the fashion industry are pretentious twits. Nor will anyone much doubt that Anna Wintour, who is referred to early in the film either as the “ice queen” or an “ice woman” (I don’t recall which, and I wasn’t taking notes), lives up to either moniker. She is the editor of Vogue (the American one), and the film is the hastily assembled story of the production of that venerable magazine’s annual September issue, which is apparently a big deal in the fashion world. Filmed during the summer of 2007, as Vogue was readying its biggest issue ever - a whopping 840+ page doorstop with Sienna Miller on the cover - the film is an attempt to get inside Vogue and show the audience the non-fiction side of what more people than will see this film saw in The Devil Wears Prada (which was based on a novel written by a former personal assistant to Wintour - although Meryl Streep’s version of Wintour hewed closer to Cruella De Vil than to Charles Montgomery Burns, which is how Wintour comes off in the doc).

Director R.J. Cutler wisely focuses on the magazine more than on Wintour - dealing with her efficiently rather than indulgently (at least in the final cut) - and this is wise because Wintour clearly doesn’t want much of anything to do with this documentary, as evidenced by the economy of her speech and the way she is almost always trying very hard not to look at the camera out of the corner of her eye, particularly when the scene at hand involves anything other than a sycophantic adoration of her. For someone who is referred to (again, early in the film) as the most powerful woman in America, she is terribly uncomfortable being seen - never mind photographed - in anything but the most flattering light. There is precious little information about her background and there are no real confrontations between her and any of her staff or any of the freelance designers who bring work to her; in fact, most of the damning-with-faint-praise bits are done by the magazine’s creative director, Grace Coddington, who would appear to be Wintour’s right-hand woman and one of the few people in the magazine’s Times Square offices who would be permitted to speak candidly to Wintour.

Too bad she never does - or that when she does, she does so meekly and doesn’t press the point. She does a lot of complaining about the bits she has done for the issue, but which Wintour has “killed.” By the end of the film, Grace’s contribution to the issue has been reduced to practically nothing, and we’ve heard her snipe and whine behind the scenes while only occasionally talking about how much she loves fashion and working in the industry - more damning with faint praise. The overarching feeling you get is that no one much likes working at Vogue under Wintour - but that nearly all of them consider it an honor and do it because it means they are the best at what they do.

Okay, I guess. If that’s your thing, who the hell am I to argue? Most documentaries are not going to appeal to a wide audience, and this one is no exception; but to the extent that it upholds Vogue as a good place to be despite the presence of its Führer, the film feels a little more like the Pevensie children defending Narnia from the White Witch - except that in this case, the White Witch has already won the war and has, pretty much to a person, subjugated everyone in her domain. By showing Vogue in this light - and shunting Wintour off to the side, at least a little bit - the film works, even if it isn’t going to reel in very many non-fashionistas and even though it doesn’t (or, more likely, wasn’t permitted to) explain Wintour well enough to pique the interest of the non-fashionistas.

I’ll give it this, though - it sort of made me want to buy an issue of Vogue. I didn’t - but I thought about it, and I could not possibly care less about fashion. Whether I liked the film or not (I didn’t), that it stirred in me at least that much interest means that, for the most part, it works.