A new documentary proves that one of the most pretentious businesses in the world has room for at least one unpretentious person.
“Bill Cunningham New York” is a profile of a longtime fashion photographer and writer for The New York Times. Bill Cunningham may be best known for his collections of on-the-street photos of New Yorkers caught as they stroll the sidewalks and parks of his city.
He shoots high fashion and society parties, too, but the movie suggests that his interest lies not in celebrity or money but in the pure pleasure of design and color.
In fact, the longer you watch the movie, the more you realize he has very few other interests at all. He lives inexpensively, having been in a small studio in the Carnegie Hall building for years (the bathroom is down the hall) and delighting in catching a $3 sandwich at a Manhattan deli.
He rides a bicycle, favors an inexpensive smock (noting that the camera perpetually hanging from his neck would ruin fancy jackets anyway), and he rigorously refuses to accept food or drinks at the gala parties he covers.
There are stories told about him refusing money for work, in the early days of Details magazine, for instance. This doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, but he cheerfully insists that if they don’t pay you anything, they can’t tell you what to do.
At 80, Cunningham displays unfailing energy and cheer. Director Richard Press doesn’t try to trump up any great drama around him, although there is a colorful subplot about Carnegie Hall kicking out residents from its longtime artist studios.
Press is canny, though, because he guesses we’re going to be curious about this man, whose colleagues and acquaintances don’t actually know much about his life. Toward the end of the film, some of those questions (has Cunningham ever been in a romance?) will be asked, and answered, cheerfully, of course.
A number of movers and shakers pass under the movie’s gaze, including Vogue editor Anna Wintour and author Tom Wolfe. But the film takes Cunningham’s attitude to heart: It is no more impressed with them than he is. And he’s not easily impressed, unless he sees a random person walking by in a terrific pair of high heels. At which point, he goes to work.
“Bill Cunningham New York” (3 stars)
A charming documentary about the remarkably unpretentious fashion photographer Bill Cunningham, a mainstay of The New York Times and a great character study. The film follows Cunningham around as he hobnobs (completely unimpressed) with the rich and famous before returning to his tiny rent-controlled apartment.
Rated: Not rated; probably PG-13 for language
Showing: Harvard Exit
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