The September Issue

The documentary follows the making of the September 2007 issue of American Vogue. It comes out at 840 pages, the thickest issue the magazine had produced. The camera is beside Anna Wintour in meetings, on shoots and at the final cull. The film is not interested in fashion. It is interested in the balance of power between two people: Wintour decides, the creative director Grace Coddington makes the shoots, and much of her work is erased by a single glance. Coddington's resistance is the real subject, and the audience's sympathy moves there too. The form is observational: few interviews, no narrator, the camera in the room. The crew went in and out of the magazine over eight months. R.J. Cutler directed. That Wintour granted this much access is the film's real value; a person who answers almost nothing written about her is here seen working, and there are a few personal scenes with her sisters and her daughter. André Leon Talley is in it too, and the most entertaining moments are his. Who it is for: viewers curious about the fashion world and documentaries made inside institutions. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a critical eye. The film asks no questions about the industry and stays almost entirely within the frame Vogue permitted.