On Demand Focuses On BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK → On Demand Weekly

On Demand Focuses On BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORKSeptember 21, 2011

Zeitgeist

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: BILL CUNNINGHAM (Zeitgeist).

BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK - On Demand
By Amy Slotnick

Even if you’ve never looked at the New York Times’ weekly columns, “On The Street” and “Evening Hours” by Bill Cunningham, which thematically document, predict and define fashion trends of the moment, the documentary BILL CUNNINGHAM, NEW YORK is a fascinating character portrait. And if you happen to have an interest in fashion, style, photography or New York City, then it is a film not to miss.

After following his columns for years and secretly hoping to one day appear in one of his weekly photo montages of the streets of NYC, I found Cunningham to be completely unlike what I would have expected. Part photographer, part journalist, part voyeur and part reckless bicycle rider, the film shows us someone who has found his true passion and never once questioned his singular, obsessive focus.

The film follows him on his pursuit to capture the emerging trends found on the street by day, and to the top charity events of the city by night. But you would never know it by looking at him. Traveling only by bicycle, no matter the weather, Cunningham’s uniform to these exclusive, high priced events is always the same, a $20 street sweepers jacket. That he is there to document fashion and high society is only one of many contradictions between Cunningham’s personal and professional lives.

Although he is certainly a New York institution and revered by both the fashion world and exclusive society circles, Cunningham lives a sparse life in the Carnegie Hall Studios, rent controlled artists apartments where he has lived for decades. The apartment is filled with large filing cabinets that contain every film negative he ever shot and does not have its own kitchen or bathroom (he uses a shared bath off the hallway). But at the time of filming he is about to be evicted due to Carnegie Hall closing the building to residents.

The city wants to relocate him to a much larger apartment, with views of Central Park, and yet Cunningham seems uncomfortable with the idea of actually having his own amenities. When asked if in his 82 years he has ever had a romantic relationship, he seems almost bewildered at considering the idea. Surprisingly, he has no feeling of loss about this or the apartment.

His camera and fashion are his only loves and it has never occurred to him to want anything more. Interwoven throughout the film are interviews with several of his frequent subjects – style and society icons such as Anna Wintour, Tom Wolfe, and Iris Apfel.

- Amy Slotnick

Amy
Amy Slotnick is a contributor to On Demand Weekly. She works as an independent producer and freelance consultant to film financing start-ups. Previously she was a Senior VP of Production at Miramax Films.