By Bianca Posterli
After months of waiting, playing the trailer on repeat, searching for any information leaks, and rumors of illicit viewings, The September Issue has finally been released. As expected, director R.J. Cutler produced a brilliantly fantastical documentary that focuses on Anna Wintour and her fashion bible, Vogue, treating viewers to an unprecedented view inside the offices, lives, and emotions of 4 Times Square. Through his vision and video cameras, all felt Grace Coddington’s pain when her pages were cut, and each could relate to the pressure of creating the most important statements for a monstrously important annual moment in fashion: the September issue. Modelinia chatted with R.J. to get the director’s view on a film that has been talked about endlessly and is sure to be a major collector’s item.
You said you didn’t believe in acting as a fly on the wall to shoot this documentary. How did the relationship you developed with the editors add to the final product?
I think unless you have a real trusting relationship with your subjects you’re not going to get the intimacy and honesty this film has. Along with that comes compelling narrative and humor that makes a film really enjoyable and makes for a good movie. When we make these movies we grow close with the subjects. The whole approach is to be people first—not to be invaders or inquisitors but to be people.
The film is quite the Grace story as well, which is odd since we heard that she was running away from the cameras at first. Did you know she was going to be such a big part? How did her role change the film?
I didn’t know, but the more I got to know her and the more I became familiar with the dynamic at Vogue, for me the central relationship was Anna and Grace. The movie I wanted to make was one that told their story. The whole film process is one of discovery. It’s not like I had a notion in mind other than knowing the questions that I was asking in the beginning. You start with simple questions that won’t surprise you in terms of what they are, like, Who is Anna Wintour? How does she do what she does? Who are the people that work with Anna? What’s their background—who are they? How do they do what they do? You start to see things and realize what stories in all of that are resonant to you as a filmmaker. And that’s how you make your movie.
The intimate details are what make documentaries so special, like when Raquel Zimmermann was eating a pie after her couture shoot. How do you know when you’ve caught an important moment?
When you’re shooting you’re following your instinct and what’s going on, but you’re in the moment. You’re working to see it all as clear as possible. You have a sense of the relative value of anything you shoot, but you really don’t have a full understanding of the material until you get into the edit room. It’s through watching it and seeing it in the context of other material that you develop a full sense of it. Of course Raquel eating the tart was a delightful moment because we were standing there, delighted that Raquel got her dessert, but also terrified—on everyone’s behalf—that a drop of it would get on the six-figure Chanel couture dress. I remember that moment like it was 30 seconds ago. It’s a really beautiful little scene for so many reasons.
What was it like to be entrenched in the epicenter of fashion? Is the eye of the storm crazy or calm?
As with anything, you can’t really generalize too much. It’s different days, different experiences, different people, different situations. But the one consistent thing was that it was all fascinating. It was such a rich experience. One of the things that’s great about the work I do is you get this invitation to float into the world of people who you otherwise wouldn’t watch go through their work and their everyday lives. You get to see it up close and see people do the great work they do, and you get to observe these very high-stake situations. It’s always different.
What did Anna and Grace teach you about fashion?
As you can imagine, it’s not possible to spend a year seeing the world through their eyes and not learn an enormous amount. I was coming from a position of someone who had no experience at all. It wasn’t just Anna and Grace who taught me. There were a lot of people at Vogue who were very generous with their time—Sally Singer, Hamish Bowles, Candy Pratts Price, André Leon Talley, Tom Florio from a business perspective. They really took me under their wing in terms of giving me the lay of the land and being supportive of the project to help me understand who was who and far more.
Were there any scenes that you took out that you wish you kept in?
This movie is that rare thing: a director’s cut that actually ends up in movie theaters. Because I had final edit, every scene, every frame, every music selection is as I would do it if I had six more months of editing time. I wouldn’t change a thing. There are some beautiful scenes that we did cut; we hope to include them all on the DVD, which will come out in the new year. There’s a wonderful sequence where Grace Coddington and Elissa Santisi figure out how to put a shirt on that was featured—well it’s not a shirt, it’s a top, a wraparound thing that baffles even the greatest minds in the business how it actually works. There’s the complete photo shoots that you see featured in the movie, which are all much longer sequences. And then there’s a scene where you see Thakoon design a shirt from beginning to end that is just a gorgeous sequence.
Grace would also want me to point out that there’s lots of footage of her cats that I brutally excised without realizing who the true stars really are. But for me this film is exactly as I want it.
Will you be attending Fashion’s Night Out? If so, which events?
I will be in San Francisco that night and am looking forward to attending whatever events are going on there.
