August 20, 2009, 11:01 am
“The September Issue”
By Cathy Horyn
It seems smart to focus on what the editors of American Vogue do best: put out blockbuster issues that remind everyone else—the competition, the trembling designers, the fawning retailers—of their editorial power. And no issue in Vogue’s history was bigger than the September 2007 issue. R.J. Cutler’s documentary is not, then, about Anna Wintour, the magazine’s editor in chief. She dominates the opening scenes; he asserts that she has papal powers and that her short attention span and dislike of dark colors make designers cluck like chickens before the dinner hour (the scene when she visits YSL designer Stefano Pilati for a preview of his collection is alone worth the price of admission). But Mr. Cutler seemed to realize that he couldn’t handle everything in his movie. Besides, the popular view of Ms. Wintour as an ice queen of chic has already been covered in another film, “The Devil Wears Prada.” Mr. Cutler would have farce if he lingered there—Ms. Wintour imitating Meryl Streep imitating Miranda Priestley. As it is, there are a number of joyless scenes of Ms. Wintour walking alone through the Vogue hallways or being driven in her car, life happening elsewhere.
A friend of mine who saw “The September Issue” used the word joyless to describe the mood captured by Mr. Cutler. Where’s the fun and the passion for fashion that one reasonably expects? Ms. Wintour certainly knows what she wants in her magazine, and you can’t disagree with her decisions about some of the layouts and clothing choices for the September book. But for reasons unexplored, her editors seemed to lack the confidence not so much to stand up to her as to surprise her with new ideas.
The exception is Grace Coddington, the magazine’s creative director, whose editorial career spans 40 years (British and American Vogues), and who got her start in fashion as a model in 60s London. Ms. Coddington shows flint in her relationship with Ms. Wintour but more than that, she has passion for the work and for beauty. With her crinkly red mane and sense of solidarity with the picture-makers in the industry—the photographers, models, hairstylists and makeup artists—it is Ms. Coddington who supplies the film’s creative and emotional center. It seemed to me that each of the editors dutifully plays his or her role at the magazine, and thus in the film. Ms. Wintour is demanding, aloof, impatient; at other times she is girlishly shy. Andre Leon Talley is OTT; his feet never seem to touch the ground. Ms. Coddington, though, gives a break-through performance. You learn things about the role of a top magazine stylist, things that have been hazed over, or excessively pumped up, by silly reality television shows.
And that’s sort of the problem with “The September Issue,” in my opinion. You don’t learn enough about the making of a magazine or its special culture. One advantage of the “Valentino” documentary, which has been enjoying a long run in theatres, is that peoples’ expectations about Valentino and his partner Giancarlo Giammetti were relatively low. The two men essentially wrote a script about their lives some 50 years ago, and then stuck to it: glamorous women, divino clothes, great homes, a tight, if operatic, partnership. The surprise of the Valentino movie is that there is actually more to their lives than we knew. We know a lot about Vogue under Ms. Wintour. Let’s see if audiences want more.
), model Raquel Zimmerman and designer Thakoon.
Other than that video of her eating the pie? 
I guess I'll just have to wait to pre-order.
