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A must see film for fashion lovers
Film review: The September Issue.
The September Issue (dir. RJ Cutler) was recently screened to a full house in the Galway Omniplex as part of the Galway Film Fleadh. The film is an American documentary on Anna Wintour, who has been editor of the fashion magazine Vogue for the past twenty years. It was filmed in 2007 and follows Anna and her team as they put together the September issue of Vogue, which was the biggest issue they had ever published at the time, running at 840 pages. The documentary was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Most people will be familiar with Anna Wintour from Meryl Streep’s portrayal of a character based on her in The Devil Wears Prada. The basis of that film was the fictional book by Lauren Weisberger, who worked as Anna’s assistant at Vogue. I have to say that Anna doesn’t come across as evil as Meryl Streep’s character but she is just as entertaining to watch because she is poised and commanding and her put-downs are legendary. Anna’s father was the editor of the London Evening Standard and the only time that you actually see any sort of vulnerability in her is when she says that her brothers and sisters don’t seem to think much of what she does. Even her daughter Bee dismisses the fashion industry as "amusing" and is determined not to follow in her mother’s footsteps.
Yet this woman has so much influence over the fashion industry that she can actually have designer clothing companies change their designs or even the fabrics of clothes that they’ve produced. Anna’s team at Vogue is made is of a lot of larger-than-life characters. The documentary also features actress Sienna Miller in a cameo that she may regret agreeing to because the fashion experts are fairly unforgiving about her appearance. For me, the fashion editor Grace Coddington is the absolute star of the documentary- she’s funny and blunt and she and Anna have a great dynamic because Grace is one of the very few people whose opinion that Anna actually considers. I think that anybody who likes The Devil Wears Prada or Ugly Betty or even America’s Next Top Model will love The September Issue. Anyone who has even a passing interest in fashion or journalism should definitely go to see it when it comes out in Ireland on the 11th of September.
Rating: 8/10
- By Lorraine O'Hanlon
