I really wanted to see The September Issue, not because I read Vogue which I haven’t in years, but because I find Anna Wintour fascinating. As a New Yorker I see her face eveywhere yet until this year I don’t think I actually heard her voice. I was also impresed by the fact that in an industry where people seem to last 10 minutes in a job, she has remained at the helm of her magazine for 20 years.
RJ Cutler who was a producer on The War Room breaks out here as a director bringing us behind the scenes into the making of the most famous magazine. It’s kind of funny that the focus was on the September 2007 issue which ironically was the biggest issue ever because the recession has humbled the magazine business in a big way. So the movie is a kind of a coda to a different time, one we will never return to.
Anna Wintour is the most powerful woman in fashion and she and everyone else knows it. It must be really bizarre living in her skin which by the way seemed completely natural. In the business where everyone seemed botoxed, her skin and face looked real with lines and everything. She wields her power decisively and leaves lots of bodies and hurt feelings in her wake. She doesn’t come off as warm or caring except when she is around her daughter (who by the way has no interest in becoming involved with fashion.)
But the most interesting part of the film was the portrait of Grace Coddington who arrived at American Vogue the same day as Wintour. She is the opposite of Anna Wintour. Wintour looks like everything is in place and Coddington looks like nothing is in place. The two of them clearly respect each other but I can’t see them as friends. For all of Wintour’s briskness, Coddington is all warmth and fire. She is a true artist. Seeing how she designs photo shoots and the passion she puts into her work was amazing. Each picture is like a little play with all the sets, costumes and actors.
While the film is a strong portrait of a woman in power I’m not letting her off the hook for all the shit she does to make it hard for those of us who don’t give a crap about fur or the latest styles or the ones who are not a size 0 or 2.
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