The September Issue (2009)

The documentary itself was great in many ways- the story-telling, film, interviews and insights about the nature of the relationships between each person involved with the production of the magazine issue. I was most struck by Anna W...walking from place to place, person to person with a constant 'puss' on her face. Always ready to dish out demeaning and cutting remarks. The first shot of the film was a surprise to me, I was not aware of Anna before this film, and when I heard this woman speak her ideas, I immediately thought this person is totally clueless about her class and about the distorted view of the world she had. As the film went on, it became noticeable that the majority of the people she interacts with are white people, rich white people. I also observed the sheer amount of power she has.This is not feminism folks, this is a woman who assumed the role of her past male predecessor, and combined them with her own seeming delusions of being royalty- the Folie of this delusion is that *everyone* helps make it happen by kissing her ass:they defer, they submit. This woman is exactly what is wrong with how people use their power. Her use of power appears to be based in supporting exclusivity, inequality and exploitation. To see her complete clueless-ness about people who live outside of her vacuum of sycophantic/terrified underlings. I felt turned off completely by this documentary- the entitlement, the implied nepotism (wants daughter in the industry), the seriousness given to the issue of fashion and the denial of the 'real' world outside of the fashion bubble. This doc to me, exposed a superficial world that is characterized by some of the ugliest uses of power, amazing disrespect and dis-ingenuity.

I'm 74, never bought a copy of Vogue in my life, my brief exposure to the rag trade didn't (to say the least) endear it to me, I'm not even a movie fan. But I was utterly enthralled by this movie. Most thought-provoking documentary I've ever seen and certainly the most visually beautiful.I admire Anna Wintour. I like that she's kept the same hair style since her teens--it's just right for her. I love the way she dresses; feminine, graceful, mostly soft print silks & handsome jackets. I love the way her face lights up and softens when she looks at her daughter. I like the colorful primitive pottery she seems to collect. I love the oriental rug in her office. I love her Golden Doodle dog.I don't wonder at her brusque detachment; a sweet empathetic soul would be eaten alive in that jealous back-stabbing industry.I adored honest, authentic, intelligent, sensitive, durable, tersely eloquent Grace Coddington: duck-footed in flat shoes, black sack dress, trademark wild red hair. The shots of Paris/London/Milan/Rome are the most gorgeous travelogue ever. There are so many marvelous things about the movie. The whole concept, the script, the pace, the film editing, the music, the glimpses into the mechanics of the business and the ordinary-to-surreal characters who people it.I'll watch it again and probably more than once, and that's the highest accolade I can give.

The September Issue is a superficial look into the making of the September 2007 issue of Vogue. Many of the shots consist of various photographers, art directors and members of the editorial staff behaving in a groveling and subservient way around editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. The one exception is stylist Grace Coddington, a confident and gifted woman who does superb creative work and isn't afraid to stand up for herself. Her work really is the backbone of the magazine. Once she leaves, Vogue is on a fast ride downhill. Wintour's insights, as she looks at and discusses potential fashion spreads, seem fairly prosaic. She must have gotten the job by game-playing and the usual machinations of the business world. Outside of standing back somewhat and letting Coddington do her work, I don't see what she contributes to the magazine except for making her staff feel compulsively insecure. I enjoyed the few scenes that show her with her twenty-something daughter, who wants to be a lawyer. She clearly has the ability to "get" to Wintour that no one else in the film does. Good for her. Wintour talks about her father and siblings, but neglects to mention her American mother, an interesting omission. Wintour is a lonely character, in a way. There's a revealing scene of her in the back of a town car clutching a Starbucks coffee and staring straight ahead. She's off in her own world most of the time. As is to be expected, no one on the Vogue staff actually wears the outlandish clothing featured in the magazine. Wintour wears flattering silk dresses, Coddington dresses in various frumpy black outfits and the staff and photographers wear practical work clothes. The exception is Leon Talley, the only member of the staff who truly buys into the fashion myth. Since Wintour reveals so little of herself and the filmmaker is as deferential to her as the rest of her intimidated staff, ultimately "The September Issue" is an elegantly made film with no emotional heart.

How can one woman hold so much power in a multi-billion dollar industry? The September Issue shows all the mind-blowing meticulous and uncompromising work that went behind the biggest issue of American Vogue, the September 2007 840-page phone book-thick fall fashion bible. If you thought Meryl Streep in Devil Wears Prada was, well, a devil, then the real-life pope of international fashion whose word on all things sartorial is doctrine and canon will leave you speechless as she makes the most famous and esteemed designers nervous like little girls who doubt that they know even a single thing about clothes, puts into trash $ 50,000 worth of fashion editorial work, and dictates to major retailers what the rest of us are going to wear.However, the more profound aspects of this documentary are the less notorious driving or hindering forces of multi-million-copy-selling Vogue. Anna Wintour, aka "nuclear Wintour," has chinks in her armor. After all, every deity is a human first, and Anna is a mother to a daughter who thinks that the fashion industry is "amusing," a sentiment shared by Anna's three other siblings. To the commander-in-chief of couture and prêt-a-porter, this seems to send an unwelcoming weakness. Juxtaposed with Anna is creative director Grace Coddington, the apparent warmness to Anna's iciness. Pushing each other has been the norm for their 20 years of working close together. The dynamic between the two is exciting, frustrating, and a necessary endeavor to produce the pages of fashion's most revered reference. Fashion people will eat up this film. However, normal people/fashion outsiders will not regret seeing this insightful piece about how it is to be supremely powerful, what it takes to be at the pinnacle, and the costs of this might and glory.