2006年上映的电影《时尚女魔头》展现的是一场Logo的欢宴,时尚的视觉大餐:嘴涂Chanel唇膏,手挽Hermès包包,脚踩Manolo Blahnik高跟鞋的女郎流连于纽约街头,形成一道道夺目的风景线。但是,这部电影另外一个心照不宣的“贡献”是把一位重量级的时尚幕后推手——安娜·温图尔,美国版《Vogue》的主编,推到了幕前。看客第一次见识到时尚界的“权力”与 “权威”所在:她的一笑一颦几乎可左右一个设计师的未来;她朱唇轻启,一个“不”字就让下属战战兢兢,不知所措。
如果说《时尚女魔头》的结尾处梅丽尔·斯特里普的嘴角漾起的一抹微笑让你感到有一丝温情的话,那么纪录片《九月刊》展现的则是残酷的职场百态:金钱、权力、名利、心计……
是的,“时尚”不过是华丽的包装。
欢迎来到现实世界。
——Mac
文字难度：★★★★
Tohe September Issue, a documentary about the creation of a single, very 1)fat issue of American Vogue in a 2)far-off 3)gilded age (i.e. 2007), has little to say about fashion, the real 4)ins and outs of publishing or the inner workings and demons of the magazine’s notoriously demanding 5)meanie-in-chief, Anna Wintour. Rather, this entertaining movie is about the maintenance of a brand that Ms. Wintour has brilliantly cultivated since she assumed her place at the top of the editorial 6)masthead in 1988 and which the documentary’s director, R. J. Cutler, has helped polish with a take so flattering he might as well work there.
To judge from the 7)flurries of behind-the-scenes evidence, however, if Mr. Cutler did work for the 8)exacting Ms. Wintour he would still be doing reshoots. Shot on digital with an eye for 9)sumptuous color by Bob Richman and briskly edited by Azin Samari, the 88-minute movie opens with Ms. Wintour explaining that “there is something about fashion that can make people very nervous.” Certainly she unnerves her staff, as you soon see from all the 10)huddled bodies and 11)popping eyes. Even the more 12)self-possessed, like Candy Pratts Price, seem 13)in the grip of awe. Is Ms. Wintour the “high priestess” of the magazine, an off-camera voice asks. “I would say pope,” Ms. Price says with a 14)queasy smile.
纪录片《九月刊》讲述的是在那“久远的”镀金年代(即2007年),美国时尚杂志《Vogue》一期厚重的单本杂志是如何制作完成的。而关于时尚、出版界的真实详情或是内部的运作方式以及安娜·温图尔——以严苛闻名的“刻薄鬼”主编,该片则提及得少之又少。这部有趣的影片更多地讲述了温图尔女士自1988年成为主编以来经营品牌的辉煌历史,该纪录片导演R·J·卡特勒用带着“奉承”味道的镜头使影片锦上添花,好像他本人也是安娜·温图尔手下一员似的。
但从幕后花絮显示的忙乱状况来看,要是卡特勒先生真的为这位事事要求完美的温图尔女士工作的话,恐怕本片还在重拍中。这部长达88分钟的影片由鲍勃·理查曼执镜,色彩华丽;由阿辛·萨马理剪辑,灵动跳脱。影片一开场,温图尔女士便说明:“时尚有种让人神经紧张的特质”。显然,她让下属心生畏惧,这点你一下就可以从那些乱成一团的人们和他们瞪大的眼睛处知晓。即使像肯蒂·普拉茨·普莱斯那样泰然自若的,似乎也神色敬畏。片中出现一处画外音,问道:“温图尔女士是这本杂志的‘高级女祭司’吗?”普莱斯女士面带一丝不安的微笑,回答道:“在我看来,她是教皇。”
Many will grasp this distinction, having already watched 15)supplicants 16)kiss the ring in the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada, with Meryl Streep as a fictionalized and Americanized version of Ms. Wintour. Etched in 17)acid and often 18)hilarious, the performance, while not wholly modeled on Ms. Wintour, helped humanize her public profile, lessening the 19)sting of the original book, written by Lauren Weisberger. The documentary continues this humanization largely by showing Ms. Wintour very hard at work, rather lonely and sensitive about her British family’s low opinion of fashion. She’s a poor little rich girl 20)swaddled in fur and iced to the bone.
She’s also pretty funny, perhaps at times accidentally so. Much of the movie’s pleasure comes from the utter ease with which Ms. Wintour plays the 21)Red Queen of fashion and orders off with their heads. In the case of the British actress 22)Sienna Miller, the cover girl for the September 2007 issue, which gives the movie its structure and hook, the head 23)in question receives the 21st-century version of a severing: it’s Photoshopped to unreal perfection. However lovely, Ms. Miller proves a problematic Vogue ideal for the editors, many of whose own faces are somewhat surprisingly 24)scored with wrinkles. It’s a mark of how pitiless Ms. Wintour can 25)come across that you end up feeling a bit sorry for Ms. Miller.
In truth Ms. Wintour was just doing her job. Yes, there’s cruelty here, but of the most 26)attenuated kind: she says no, employees tremble. The strongest, like the flame-haired Grace Coddington, the magazine’s longtime creative director and the documentary’s hugely 27)diverting 28)stealth star, seem to have figured out how to survive with their dignity intact. Most of the truly ugly stuff in fashion—the models starving themselves and the animals inhumanely slaughtered for their fur—remains unnoted in The September Issue, much as it often does in Vogue. And while the movie 29)shuns any 30)overt discussion of money, it includes an instructive scene of Ms. Wintour playing the 31)coquette with one of the magazine’s important advertisers.
很多人在2006年上演的电影《时尚女魔头》中看到那些“信徒”如何匍匐在主编脚下,那么他们会领略到这一区别——该片中梅丽尔·斯特里普饰演的角色就是虚构的美国版温图尔女士。片中对其尖锐的刻画,往往带着搞笑的效果,电影尽管不全以温图尔女士为原型,但却极大地人性化了她的公众形象,并淡化了作者劳 伦·魏丝伯格在原著中所表现出的尖锐。纪录片《九月刊》继续展现温图尔女士人性化的一面,主要表现她工作上的拼搏,同时又表现她因为英国的家人对时尚嗤之以鼻的态度而感到分外孤独和敏感忧伤。她只是一个富有却可怜的小女孩,身裹皮草却仍感到凄寒入骨。
偶尔她也会很风趣。影片的乐子大多源自这里——温图尔女士非常安然地扮演时尚界的“红桃皇后”,下令“砍掉他们的头”。2007年9月刊的封面女郎、英国女演员西耶娜·米勒,是影片的主线和亮点,而其头像则要接受21世纪式的严苛挑剔:其图像得被PS到完美,却失真。尽管米勒已经要多美有多美,但对编辑来说,她要成为《Vogue》的理想形象还是问题多多。而令人诧异的是,那些编辑当中都有些满脸皱纹的,也并非完美。这一切都显示了温图尔女士可以怎样的无情,到最后你都要为米勒小姐感到有点难过了。
事实上,温图尔女士只是在做她的本职工作。确实,这里很残酷。不过最为温和的场景是:温图尔说“不”,员工们对此胆怯颤栗。最强的人物,如杂志的元老级创意总监、红发的格蕾丝·考丁顿以及纪录片中出现的有趣而诡秘的明星,他们似乎懂得如何保全自己的自尊。时尚界中众多真实而丑陋的问题——模特为保持身材而节食,动物被无情屠宰以此来获取它们的皮毛——则未在《九月刊》中披露。对这样的事情,《Vogue》往往避而不谈。影片回避公开讨论金钱问题,但仍加入了引人深思的一幕——温图尔女士向杂志的一个重要广告商卖弄风情。
Of course it really is all about money. Despite 32)being crammed with glossy images of beautiful, weird, unattractive, ridiculous and 33)prohibitively expensive clothes and accessories, Vogue isn’t about fashion: it’s about 34)stoking the desire for those clothes and accessories. It’s about the creation of lust and the transformation of wants into needs. Almost everything in this temple of consumption, including its lavish layouts and the celebrities who now most often adorn its covers, 35)hinges on stuff for sale. Some of that stuff comes with a price tag, but some of it is more 36)ephemeral because Vogue is also in the aspiration business. Mr. Cutler doesn’t notice or doesn’t care about any of that, which makes his movie as 37)facile as it is fun.
Given this, it’s no surprise that Ms. Wintour is doing her part to 38)flog the documentary: she gave a party in its honor and recently appeared on 39)David Letterman’s show, with and without her signature sunglasses, her 40)glazed stare and tight smile firmly in place. The movie affords you many opportunities to marvel at the 41)parsimony of that smile and wonder if she’s as bored as she looks, even while waiting for an 42)agitated Stefano Pilati, the creative director at 43)Yves Saint Laurent, to show his newest collection.
“That’s pretty,” she says, in a voice so 44)drained of affect it’s a wonder he doesn’t commit 45)seppuku with his scissors. You feel bad for Mr. Pilati, but it’s Ms. Wintour’s 46)hauteur that makes you laugh and keeps you willingly at her side.
当然了,这一切的确都跟金钱有关。虽然充满或悦目,或怪诞,或乏味,或荒谬且价格高得让人无法承受的衣服配饰华丽的照片,然而《Vogue》意不在时尚。其目的旨在激发人们对这些衣服和配饰的欲望,制造欲望并将欲望转化为需求。在这座“消费神殿”内,几乎一切都围绕着待售的商品,包括杂志那华美的排版和那些现在大多是用来装饰封面的社会名流。有些东西是有标价的,有些则是随着潮流如镜花水月般稍纵即逝,毕竟,《Vogue》也是个“追梦”行业。导演卡特勒并未留意或者他根本就不关心这些,这使得影片轻松有趣却又肤浅。
这样一来,我们就不奇怪温图尔女士尽其力量大肆宣传该纪录片了:她以影片之名办了个派对宴会,最近还上了大卫·莱特曼的谈话节目。无论戴上或摘下她那招牌式墨镜,她都时刻保持木然而专注的眼神和克制的微笑。影片让你充分见识并惊讶于她对笑容有多吝啬,让你疑惑她本人是否也像她看上去那样无趣。即便在等待伊夫·圣罗兰的创意总监——焦躁的斯特凡诺·皮拉蒂展示其新作时她也是如此。
“不错,”温图尔说,话语中不带丝毫感情。皮拉蒂没有用他的剪刀“切腹自杀”当属奇迹了。你会为皮拉蒂先生感到难过,但也会为温图尔女士的高傲而大笑并心甘情愿地成为她的拥护者。
“时尚圣经”的幕后重量级推手
《Vogue》杂志被誉为“时尚圣经”，是隶属于Conde Nast（康泰纳仕）出版集团旗下的刊物。全世界各个不同版本的《Vogue》均聘用了当地最具创造力的编辑、写手以及摄影师来呈现出各个国家不同的文化。毫无疑问，《Vogue》杂志推动了全球时尚产业的蓬勃发展。而在众多版本的《Vogue》当中，以美国版、英国版、法国版和意大利版的最为出彩。现在让我们认识一下除了安娜·温图尔之外，其他三个版本的《Vogue》主编。
Alexandra Shulman:《Vogue》英国版主编
她毕业于英国伦敦的圣保罗中学。1992年，她成为杂志主编。像Mario Testino和Tim Walker这样的摄影大师就是由她发掘的。《Vogue》英国版颇受英国读者的喜爱，每月发行量达20万，读者数量达iio万人。
Carine Roitfeld=《Vogue》法国版主编
她自2001年开始担任《Vogue》法国版主编。Carine Roitfeld成为主编前做过摄影师助理、自由设计师和杂志造型设计师。现在， 《Vogue》法国版的主题大片的造型设计基本都出自她手。
Franca Sozzani：《Vogue》意大利版主编
从1988年起，Franca Sozzani就担任《Vogue》意大利版的主编。同时，她亦热爱写作，写了不少关于时尚、艺术、服装方面的书。 《Vogue》意大利版被认为是所有版本中与艺术结合得最紧密，同时也是最出彩的时尚杂志。