24 Oct 2010

Saturday Night September Issue

For one of my classes, my professor has asked us to analyze one of four movies and compare it to what we have been learning in class. What do you know…one of the movies on the list just happens to be a favorite of mine. The last time I watched The September Issue was sometime over the summer, but tonight I spent my Saturday night watching it again and this time trying to dig deeper below the surface of what this movie is about. I realized I may have missed the whole point the previous times I have watched it. It’s not a reality show. It’s not just a movie about a magazine and it most certainly is not a movie that encourages young girls who aspire to be Anna Wintour to get into this industry.

I’m sure the first time I watched the documentary my naive self was probably shocked at how the various parts of an issue all came together [duh.] This time, I focused on the passion and emotion specifically from Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington. Their personalities were at opposite ends of the spectrum yet the film was able to capture them beautifully in their most vulnerable state. I found myself identifying with both of them at certain points during the film.

While the film pans Anna as a frigid ice queen and Grace as the free-spirited, it is clear to see that they share one very important trait. They both work extremely hard and care a lot about what they do.

A few weeks ago, I went on a retreat where I was asked to choose which side to be on. “Do I work to live or live to work? Most people chose work to live because that’s kind of the obvious choice if we’re talking reality. I don’t think many people would choose live to work, but I did. This isn’t the life that most people want because there’s no in between. No one wants to have a life where it is work day in and day out and not having any time to live, but regardless it is rewarding. I want to know what part of a person’s career makes this all worth it. Hopefully, I can tell you the answer to that soon.

“You have to have something to put your work in otherwise it’s not valid” – Grace Coddington

Posted on October 24, in -