Search - The September Issue on DVD

Anna and Grace

prisrob | New EnglandUSA | 02/26/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

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Marvelous look into the making, design and people who put the September Issue of Vogue out to the public. The fashion magazine that is a part of our culture and gives us the in depth study of fashion around the world.

Anna Wintour is the the influential editor of 'Vogue' and everyone is reverential to her. Heads of fashion studios do her bidding, they understand she can make and break their careers. In fact, Anna likes to control those around her, Anna wants all of her people to be in shape and to be healthy. Several of her staff mentioned that she has suggested they go to the gym. We are shown a little bit of Anna's personal life. She speaks of her two brothers and sister, all very successful in their lives, and she says her family thinks her job is 'interesting'. She feels her job as editor of Vogue was predestined- she made a list of what she would like to be as a child, and she said work for Vogue. Her father chastened her and said 'Editor of Vogue and here she is, fulfilling her father's wish!

Grace Coddington is the creative director and a more down to earth, realistic woman. She Was a model in the 60's and 70's and later went to work in the field of fashion, working her way up the ladder at Vogue. Anna Wintour considers her a genius in her field. Grace has long red hair, one of her trademarks. I kept thinking throughout the film that her stringy, frizzy hair really needed a shaping and cutting. Grace seems to love color, but is found wearing black much of the time. We can tell as we watch her work that she has an eye for fashion and creative design. Her scenes are fabulous, and this film is as much about her as it is Anna. They admire each other and have found ways to work with each other, but I suspect, Grace suffers more stress as her work is deleted.

The two of them, Anna and Grace together, are formidable. Each knows and understands they job, and they do not deal with fools easily. Anna is known as the 'ice lady' but she is the head of the company and the success of each magazine rests on her shoulders. She has power and uses it wisely from my perspective. In her home she shows a softer version, and when she looks at her daughter you can see how proud she is of her daughter and how much she loves her. But, it is often the severe Anna we see, the fashion designers' hands tremble in her presence. One large jolly fellow is, André Leon Talley, Vogue's resident jester, who wears a different bizarre suit, coat and hat every time he appears. The characters who are and surround the staff are all excellent and excel,and God help them if they make an error.

Anna Wintour claims that "fashion is not about looking back, it's about looking forward. This is a documentary that was fun and informative and took us into the world of fashion. Large, overblown, but always beautiful- Paris, Rome and New York City, how exquisite!

Highly Recommended. prisrob 02-26-10

Front Row: Anna Wintour: What Lies Beneath the Chic Exterior of Vogue's Editor in Chief

Grace Coddington & Didier Malige: The Catwalk Cats

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Recommend, provided that you are at least remotely intereste

M. B. Alcat | Los Angeles, California | 11/12/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

""The September issue" (2009), directed by RJ Cutler, is a behind-the-scenes documentary about the production of the September 2007 Vogue issue. Of course, this documentary is also about Anna Wintour, the woman who has been Editor in Chief of American Vogue since 1988, and that is also rumored to have been the inspiration for the "boss from hell" in the film "The Devil wears Prada".

Cutler's crew was given ample access to Anna Wintour's meetings with her staff, and went with Anna to many activities that are part of her job, for example fashion shows and visits to fashion designers. The director was also granted final cut rights, and it is easy to see that in the result he achieved, this interesting and somewhat hard-edged documentary, where elegant clothing and caustic remarks are similarly pervasive.

"The September issue" provides the spectator with a glimpse into the hard and extremely competitive world of the fashion business, where only the fittest seem to survive and even photos of very beautiful women need to be digitally enhanced. This documentary also allows us to know a little more about Anna Wintour, probably one of the more influential women in that world, and someone who happens to be rather scary when she thinks that her staff's efforts are below the standards of excellence and innovation expected from them.

On the whole, I can say that I enjoyed watching "The September issue" and that I can recommend it to you, provided that you are at least remotely interested in the fashion world and the way it works.

Belen Alcat"