Bill Cunningham New York (Monday, July 11, 2011) (53)

There is a moment in the middle of Richard Press' documentary Bill Cunningham New York, where the eponymous New York Times fashion photographer is at a gala dinner for the New York City Ballet where the organization is honoring billionaire, philanthropists and arch-conservative political stalwart David Koch (a big friend of Lincoln Center). Cunningham is introduced to Koch, shakes his hand and chuckles as he does with most people. For me, this instant gave me a strange feeling, as Koch has in recent months become the most visible money backer of the Tea Party movement and the most significant supporter of tax cutting and government spending cutting in the country (he's one of the most significant backers of the move in Wisconsin to deny teachers their ability to organize). Koch stands for his own wealth and, ultimately, killing the poor (who needs 'em?!). It reminded me of a comment in a Wallace Shawn essay where he says that artists live in mansions that are paid for by their rich neighbors who also live in mansions nearby - and how those neighbors who support their art get rich by paying their employees badly.

But this biodoc is the absolute opposite of anything political or polemical. It is light and fun and floats above the reality of the people on the ground who we see. In it we learn about the life and work of Bill Cunningham, the On The Street photographer for the New York Times Sunday Styles section, a passionate lover of stylish clothes, expensive and inexpensive, worn not just by models on the runway, but by everyday people. He is known by those in the elite society circles who go to black-tie events and by fashion wonks who see his work as the forward-facing reality of what they do (which frequently is backwards- or upwards-facing). (Of course, the people in the film who know Bill are also the people who specifically read the Sunday Styles section, and are also the same people who go to independent documentaries in New York City. This is photographing to the choir, or preaching in the darkroom, or something.)

Cunningham, himself is a wonderful anomaly. He is in early 80s, lives in a tiny studio in Carnegie Hall (well, he's kicked out at the end of the film along with the other 6 permanent residents, all older than dirt), rides a bike around Manhattan taking pictures of street style as he sees it developing. He studies Fashion (with a capital F) at the Paris and New York fashion weeks, and then sees how these designs spill down to the ground and are picked up by normal, non-model people who don't have perfect bodies (or tons of money). He doesn't seem to have any close friends, has no specific sexuality (though when asked, his demurral suggests he's gay... not that it matters much, because he's so asexual), apparently goes to mass on Sundays and almost never eats much. He has almost no "style" in his clothes, doesn't seem to own much of a sport jacket or suit, and mostly just wears one of those blue French street sweeper jackets (that he's buys at the BHV when in Paris every 6 months).

One of the many luminaries who speaks about him (a list that includes Anna Wintour, Tom Wolfe, Iris Apfel, Patrick McDonald and other famous and fashionable New Yorkers... or New Yorkers famous for their fashion) says that he's really just a documentarian of fashion and style. This is a very true thing. We see how what he does is much closer to a sociologist cataloguing the mores and trends of people over time than it is what you would find in Vogue or Elle.

When you see a montage of some of his layouts from over the years, you see that he was able to document that at some point (1985) off-the-shoulder was a popular look, and that at another (1993) black kids wore low-hanging jeans (not to say either of these styles are over today). The whole, "if-aliens-came-to-earth-what-would-they-think" question is very clear. If they saw one of his layouts, they would really have an idea of what clothes New Yorkers (and Parisians) wore during our era.

This is a very fun and sweet documentary and one that makes you laugh and smile a lot. I love movies about New York and this is exactly that. This is not particularly deep, but it is enjoyable. Cunningham is a lovable, weird guy. This is mostly fashion navel-gazing, but it's a fun show.

Stars: 3 of 4

L'Amour Fou (Friday, May 20, 2011) (33)

L'Amour Fou, or "crazy love", is a documentary ostensibly about the relationship and partnership between Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge. It shows how they met in the late 1950s, fell in love and then worked together for the next 40 years. The film was shot after YSL died in 2008 and just as Berge is about to have all of their belongings crated up and sent to auction in 2009.

The problem with the film is that it's a bunch of information about Yves Saint Laurent, Berge, their art collection, their auction and their relationship, but there is no sensible structure, so we don't know what to make of what we see. On the surface this seems like it could be a bio-doc, or a double bio-doc (a bi-bio-doc?) about who YSL and Berge were and how they created the House of Yves Saint Laurent, what it did and what its legacy is. We actually get only a smattering of history, finding out that they met through YSL's mentor, Christian Dior (although it's not clear how Berge knew him), and set up a new couture house later.

Major facts about YSL, like how he popularized (or invented?) pret-a-porter lines and pant-suits, are alluded to in passing, but never really underlined. There are a few interviews with a few women who worked with them, but they're never identified and their recollections are trivial.

Bizarrely we see a lot of footage of art handlers packing up works of art and sending them to New York, then London and then to Paris for the auction of their stuff. There seems to be a fake poignant moment when Berge is watching their stuff be sold for gigantic prices (a total of $484 million ...in the midst of the worst economy in recent memory) and his face is somewhere between sad because he's giving up his stuff and happy because he's making so much money with it. This doesn't really lead to anything and we don't really know enough about his relationship with the art to know how he feels.

I can't say this movie teaches you much about YSL, Berge or the auction of their stuff. It's a prefect example of how documentaries need a script or an outline in order to make sense. This doesn't seem to have either and as a result we bounce from one house to another (it seems that they had three homes together, in Paris, Marrakesh and Normandy), from one time period to another and from one anecdote about collecting art to another. We never learn what motivated YSL in his designs, what motivated Berge to be a fastidious manager, how they worked together while loving one another, why they collected the art they collected and how they came to purchase it all. We sometimes get the suggestion of answers to a lot of these things, but nothing direct or specific.

Stars: 1 of 4

Good Hair (Sunday, October 11, 2009) (147)

This is a documentary by comedian Chris Rock about the science and culture of black women's hair. I'm a bit baffled as to why Rock would make this - I mean he's never shown a heck of a lot of interest in hair before and I don't think he's a stylist by day or anything - but he actually takes the somewhat trivial topic and makes an interesting story about it.

He looks at all sorts of aspects of black hair, from historical trends (relaxer and straightening to weaves and hair pieces) to price and social impact. These sequences are intercut with the Bronner Bros. International Beauty Show, the Super Bowl and Oscars of the black hair industry rolled into one. The final day of the show is a competition where five hair stylists perform acrobatic routines showing their skills with scissors and showmanship. (The loudest and most flamboyant of the participants is Derrick J, sometimes seen on the Real Housewives of Atlanta, where he designs wigs with housewife Kim.)

But not all of the film is flash and glitter. Rock looks at how most of the companies who sell hair products to black women are white- or asian-owned. The few black-owned companies are well loved, but not nearly as big as their non-black counterparts. Rock goes to India to show how most hair weaves come from temples and holy sites where pilgrims have their black and brown hair shaved as pious offerings to god. This hair is then taken to the U.S. where it is sold (for thousands of dollars a weave) to the black community.

There is a look at how very traditional black hair (an Afro, say) is basically unwearable for black women as society expects wavy or straight shiny hair and not the tight curly hair that grows on their heads. This is a very sad observation - especially when we see this history of this bias, going back to Josephine Baker and other black celebrities of older generations.

Hair has been a political tool and a repressive agent by Whites over the Black community for centuries - and Rock shows how black women are now accepting this as standard now and embracing it. It's hard for me as a white guy to say that black women should fight back and wear their hair how they want, when it would seem that they want the expensive, uncomfortable and fragile hair - but it does make me a bit uncomfortable. Still, I appreciate this interesting, funny look at a topic I didn't know much about before.

Stars: 2.5 of 4