'September Issue' a blend of fashion, friction

“There is something about fashion that can make people feel very nervous.”

Anna Wintour says this at the top of “The September Issue,” and she should know. Wintour, editor of Vogue magazine, was widely said to be the role model for Meryl Streep's nightmarish Miranda Priestley in “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Wintour goes on to talk about how fashion can make people feel frightened, excluded, intimidated, ignorant — all feelings she herself clearly inspires over the course of this movie.

Director R.J. Cutler's documentary, filmed in the year after the fictional “Devil” was released, may have been designed to soften the image of the famously hard-edged Wintour.

This isn't the dragon lady portrayed in “Devil.” Wintour isn't so much mean or belittling as she is a strong-willed, focused and often-frosty dictator.

“I have to be warm enough for the two of us,” smiles Publisher Tom Florio.

Still, the parallels to “Devil” are everywhere in the film — in the cutthroat hallways of Vogue, in the fashion showrooms of Gaultier, Galliano, de la Renta and Wang, and on the runways of Paris and New York.

“The September Issue” chronicles the nearly yearlong effort to publish Vogue's biggest annual issue, with its fall fashion theme. That issue of the magazine runs 840 pages.

Cutler skillfully captures and edits both ravishing fashions and conflict between key players.

A big-name photographer doesn't quite measure up to expectations. A flamboyant at-large editor swoons that he's “losing it” when Wintour's opinions clash.

Underlings madly dash about for last-minute run-throughs in Wintour's office.

Wintour's, clearly, is the only opinion that counts.

The most interesting serve-and-volley Cutler manages to set up is between Wintour and her trusted creative director, Grace Coddington. With a shock of red hair and a series of shapeless black frocks, Coddington tells the camera that Vogue is a fashion church, and “Anna is the pope.”

A former supermodel herself, Coddington conceives of photo shoots that don't just show off clothes but tell a story. Trends from the 1920s fuel a movie-inspired spread in muted tones.

Anna doesn't like the soft color and dumps Coddington's favorite photo.

Coddington dreams up a story on color blocking — clothing in solid, vivid colors.

Anna dumps the entire shoot three days before deadline and orders something more whimsical.

“They're killing another of my spreads, and they're lying to me,” Grace softly moans. “I'm furious. They've thrown out $50,000 worth of work.”

But the result, of course, is someone's idea of sublime. And we know who that someone is.

“The September Issue” won the cinematography prize at Sundance this year and was a grand-prize nominee.

Contact the writer:

444-1269, bob.fischbach@owh.com