Friday, March 22, 2013
STREET PERSON
Today's film was Bill Press' NYTimes Critics' Pick documentary:
Bill Cunningham New York (2010)
I kept putting this film behind others in the queue but it finally surfaced today and I am so glad that it did.
Bill Cunningham is the fashion photographer (charity balls and stuff) for the NYTimes and, once a week, the curator of the iconic photo display On the Street. Also, of course, in the NYTimes.
Cunningham is a delightful personality, 80 years young. He knows thousands of people on sight and they know him.
He has recorded fashion history in NYC since the Fifties when he gave up designing hats (a declining business) and took up photography for the Times.
One day, he had leftover film from the night before and went out on the street scouting for snapshots of people in fashionable clothes. He made photo books, some now classics.
On another day, he got a snapshot of the famous recluse Greta Garbo, several shots. His editor saw them and asked him to make a layout with other street shots to make a theme. Which he did.
Now, decades later he still does that weekly column.
Cunningham is a very interesting guy on the personal side. He lived in the studio apartments at Carnegie Hall until the year this film was made. Crammed with file drawers and minimal living space, he lives a spartan life.
No car, he traverses the city on a Schwinn. His 29th. 28 were stolen.
We see a lot of fashion in this film but good stuff, not a lot of bullshit. He is the champion of the common man or woman who wants to dress in a way that makes a statement. He is not interested in celebrity except insofar as it helps pay his salary. He is not a paparazzi. He attends only charity events and charities that he approves of at that.
He is a seriously pixie like man who sparkles with life and energy. He is an optimist. He is in great shape. A natural beanpole of a man.
He is still very handsome and when he was younger, a real looker.
I really liked this film and saw all the deleted scenes. There is a lot in the film to see and hear again. A 4 out of Netflix5.
