Bill Cunningham New York (2011)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

As a creature Bill Cunningham exists not just in New York but could only exist in New York. Only The Big Apple would provide an environment supportive of an someone obsessed with photographing what people are wearing. Certainly, the Los Angeles area provides a sustaining environment for huge populations of paparazzi but they survive by taking photos of celebrities and only by extension the clothes they are in (or more accurately the clothes they are mostly out of). Cunningham's visceral need to bike around NYC's streets and snap photos of what folks on the street are wearing in addition to his paparazzi duties wouldn't pay in other towns. And it is his obsessiveness that gives this documentary of his life its fire. Watching him interact with other people in the film is interesting because they seem to be talking with a cartoon character come to life. If Bill is the Road Runner (or Wile E Coyote, your choice) then New York is the cartoon canyons they compete in. Bill actually lives at Carnegie Hall (answering the age old question on how you get there - you move in when it was still residential and rent controlled and fight their efforts to evict you.) Like a cartoon canyon, Bill's New York is simplified down to a pantomime background. Bill's work limits itself to just the glamorous, well-tailored residents and beautiful spaces of the city making the streets seem like one massive catwalk. But in the same sense that Bill does not see the need to define himself further than photographer, his documentary does not need to define the city greater than a stage. The only major shortcoming of the movie is the question of whether it carries substantive enough material to have warranted a theatrical release. This could have easily been a two-part PBS special and it would not have seemed to have pushed the boundaries of televised entertainment. In short, if you enjoy New York or fashion r biography, this light documentary is for you.

Wonderful film about the misunderstood and often contradictory peculiarities of the fashion world. Bill himself is an everyday man strikingly distinct from some of the outrageous fashions on display in contemporary New York yet he is respected ans one of the most enduring authorities on fashion today. His simple and discreet way of living as embodied by his spare and modest studio in Carnegie hall (a stark contrast in itself) illustrates Cunningham's principles on fashion itself: "It's not the celebrity, the spectacle, it's the clothes." What is also insightful is how tends and set and grow organically out on the street, not on some fashion runway (although it remains a fascination for Bill). The idea that fashion is not just for the rich and famous, but for the everyday person is exemplified by the "bag ladies" of new york, the "water bottle", "baggy jeans", and 80s fashion; it's lovely to see Bill pay tribute to these somewhat eccentric trends in the column that also charts the who's who of high society in New York as if to say "these are our people, and this is our culture, no matter who you are."Bill is a charming and enigmatic character, still going strong at 80(!) years and heartwarming to see with so much respect amongst his peers. The city of New York is a character itself as always, the variety of fashion and cultures is incredibly rich and entertaining. He shows that there are many good people in high society who donate themselves to charitable and artistic institutions; yet while he becomes involved in that world of riches he remains cautious about becoming too involved dedicating himself solely to the art of fashion.While Bill concedes he may not have lived the ideal life (and I think the interviewer probes just a little too close), his life remains immensely rich from his friends and connections, one in which he has almost free rein to document his passions, ironically without the material things fashion itself can exemplify. He is such an enigmatic and joyous character that one can only believe his is greatly fulfilled by life, and only wrongly assume, he is missing out on anything.

Bill Cunningham can't be bought. He is there to observe and to take pictures, not to consume the fancy meal or mingle with the celebrities; a line which most individuals in his position would most likely blur. Bill has a section of the Sunday New York Times Style section where he will point out a new clothing trend he sees on the streets, what people were wearing at a recent evening gala, or just profile an interesting looking person. I used to skip over this section every week; however, now that I know about Bill from the excellent documentary Bill Cunningham New York, I will never skip over this section again.Even though Bill is now 80 years old, he still dons his signature blue jacket every day and rides his bicycle all over Manhattan searching and taking pictures. If it is raining, he will duct tape a garbage bag over his shirt. He is searching for interesting clothing and it does not matter if a celebrity is wearing them or not. A major separation between Bill and other photographers is he is just fine not taking a celebrity picture; he does not care at all about a person's fame level, just in their choice of clothing.Bill is usually the first to notice a new trend. While frequenting street corners, crosswalks, and the outside of department stores, he will immediately stop his bike (sometimes in the middle of traffic) to snap a few shots. During the first week of August, he happened to notice that a lot of New Yorkers were wearing black and made that a his column's focus. Bill has become a celebrity on his bicycle as he cruises the streets and there are many influential people, who Bill could care less about, who crave his attention. There are interviews from Anna Wintour, Tom Wolfe, and other very powerful people in the fashion industry who will also take time out of their day to find out what Bill knows.Even though he has the power to affect clothing trends, until very recently, Bill lived in Carnegie Hall as one of the few remaining visual artist tenants before the final lot of them were evicted to new premises. He slept on a cot in what could be described as closet space surrounded by dozens of file cabinets containing his life's work. If Bill thinks he has seen something before, he is pretty sure he can go back and find it. One example is of a designer who revealed a new collection only for Bill to find a 1972 photo montage of an eerily similar line.Bill Cunningham New York is a documentary I was not eager to see because I assumed it was just about the fashion world. I was completely wrong. It is not about fashion, it is just about Bill and his routine which is completely absorbing and perhaps the best documentary of the year. It is also the second documentary this year dealing with the New York Times released just before Page One: Inside the New York Times. Now that I have seen them both, there is a reason the story on Bill Cunningham is on the short list of 15 documentaries which are eligible for this year's Best Documentary Oscar. If it happens to win, it will not matter very much to Bill. He will be doing what he does every day, riding his bicycle to find the next interesting pair of shoes.

I had very little idea of who Bill Cunningham was other that he is a photographer, works for the New York Times and that's about it. This documentary is a stunning insight into a man who is really an unknown. At 80 years old Cunningham stills works for the Times, he cycles around the streets of NYC taking photos of everything and anything, but his real passion is fashion. The images that get into the Times are of everyday people in NYC, who for what ever reasons, perhaps a unusual coat, or pair of shoes, stand out from the rest. As he himself says, he's not interested in celebrities, the everyday is more beautiful.His passion for what he does is immense and consuming, he admits he had no time to do very little else, but has no interest in the glamour side of fashion and lives incredibly humbly, prefers cheap sandwiches to fancy dinners or repairing a cheap rain mac with tape to save buying a new one 'that will eventually tear anyway'. He is a wonderful character with a seemingly endless joy for his work and the world around him. A career spanning decades has lead to him meeting an array of people and photography thousands more, his work fills endless filing cabinets in his tiny studio apartment above Carnegie Hall (which sadly came to an end, after the Carnegie artist director kicked out the last remaining tenants) much of which will never be published. His passion for his work shows clearly when he is awarded a medal by the French government. Not only his acceptance speech wonderful and moving, before hand he is busy working, snapping guests, which as one woman describes, 'You are working at your own party?!' The film follows Cunningham as he goes on his daily journeys, as well as a trip to Paris for fashion week and we also get to see him putting his column together, remarkably he still uses old film cameras and choices to get them developed at a small shop. He has absolute perfection for his column, ensuring the photos are in the right order. We also see a handful of Cunningham's subjects from over the years, an array of wonderful if not eccentric New Yorkers, all individual and delightful in their own way. The excitement they have for appearing in Cunningham's column is great to see and shows what a wonderful job he does. As he is never rude or horrid about what he sees, it's almost a stamp of approval, Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue, even says that Cunningham foresees fashion well before desingers do and suddenly next season, an idea is everywhere.Cunningham remains an unknown in the sense that the film reveals very little about him. Nor does it seem that those who have known him for years, know much about him. When near the end of the film he is asked if he has ever had a relationship, he laughs and says no, he never has had time. He opens up briefly about family and desire. It is a fascinating moment, one that becomes ultimately sad as Cunningham breaks down momentarily, for what reason we can only guess.This film is a fantastic insight into one person and their passion, one that is simply told but is uplifting and often funny and if anything inspiring. It shows that some people lead the most simplistic life and yet achieve so much happiness and that is a glorious thing.More reviews at my site iheartfilms.weebly.com