PRAIRIE LOVE

A man we only know as 'The Vagrant' is driving his beaten up wreck of a station wagon across North Dakota’s frozen tundra he’s dressed head to toe in fur lined clothes that we can hardly make out his face. He chances upon a broken down truck in the middle of nowhere and its owner is lying  unconscious in the road. He loads up the stranger in his station wagon and drives on continuing to listen to his dating self-help tapes until NoDak the stranger comes round and tells his story of being on his way to pick up his soon-to-be released-from-prison girlfriend who he has never actually met.

The two odd mis-fit men share little in common except their overwhelming desire to stop being bachelors and so they soon fall out and NoDak runs off and eventually falls unconscious again.  This time the Vagrant leaves him there to die and assumes his identity and heads off to the Prison to pick up what will now be his girlfriend.  The 'couple' have never exchanged anything more than letters , most of which The Vagrant had liberated from NoDak so he could actually get away with impersonating him.

The Girl is as wacky as he is and so surprise surprise, the ‘big romance’ that they have both wanted too much was doomed from the start, and when her suspicions were confirmed that this man was not her pen pal who had courted her for the past three years, then the sticky end was inevitable.

This oddest of movies premiered in Sundance 2011 in a section that the Festival call ‘NEXT’   which ‘is our speak for creativity that transcends limitations’. I guess it infers the next generation of movies that are pushing the boundaries, which I suppose this one does in its way.  Trouble it is so totally quirky and absurd in every minute detail it seems somehow to forget to reach us in any positive way.  I didn't hate it per se but I did find the whole thing as unattractive as the three main characters themselves.  I think this is one is for a taste that I have yet to acquire ( and probably won't in all reality).

It did however make me want to put North Dakota on my list of States never ever to visit!  Its as bleak as hell : the rednecks are welcome to it.


★★★

THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL

When a disparate group of middle-class Brits  discover that their limited pensions will not provide them with much of a retirement they abandon their homeland and get enticed by some advertisements for THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, which lays claims to a luxurious sanctuary for "the elderly and beautiful" in Jaipur, India. The seven of them meet up for the first time en route when their cancelled plane ride for the final part of their journey has to be replaced by an over-packed ramshackle bus that barely gets them there in one piece.

On arrival, the Hotel is nothing short of a dump, albeit in a very pretty location, and is absolutely nothing like the paradise lyrically promised in the brochure.  Sonny, the ever-optimistic young owner/manager works overtime trying to encourage his new elderly patrons to make the best of it, and for some of them his infectious good humor starts to slowly break down their inbred British reserve.

Each of them has a story. Evelyn, recently widowed to find that her husband of 40 years had left with masses of debt that she had no inkling off and now must actually get her first ever job; Madge fed up with being her grandchildren’s live-in sitter and wants to meet her next husband; Muriel an embittered racist ex-housekeeper who’s been told by her local hospital that she can get her hip replaced quicker & cheaper in India; Norman who is essentially an oversexed old man who wants to make new conquests; Douglas & Jean a grossly miss-matched married couple who blew their entire savings in their daughters’ new ‘sure bet’ company; and then there is Graham an ex High Court Judge who is back in India to try and track down his boyhood friend.  It’s Graham’s story that has the most resonance and gives a beautiful core to the piece (and has you dabbing your eyes for a minute).

The characters are, on the whole, stereotypes, the story weak and way too long, and there are some unexplainable plot twists that don't make any sense e.g. miserable Muriel suddenly not just likes foreigner but is so happy to be with and wants to solve all their problems too. BUT with all of it’s faults, this most gentlest of quintessential English comedies with its rich helping of some wonderful one-liners is a real crowd pleaser, especially if, like me, you are on the wrong side of 40 (just!).  It is a little gem.  Due of course to the enviable cast of real acting greats that veteran Director John Madden ('Shakespeare In Love', 'Her Majesty Mrs Brown') has gathered.  British naturally, except for young Dev Patel ('Slumdog Millionaire') who plays Sonny and holds his own very well even in the august company he works with.   Two Dames no less with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith plus Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton & Ronald Pickup.

If there’s a message in this wee comedy then I guess it would be that if you learn to let go of the past, you will be really surprised how wonderfully different your future can be.

P.S. I originally 'blogged' this when I saw this real grown up comedy when it first opened in the UK,  and have just tweaked it after seeing it again now that it has opened in the US.  Its doing remarkably good business at the box office  which is not too big a shock as its same audience that just made Downtown Abbey such a hit stateside, and for them I should add that the movie re-unites Maggie Smith (The Dowager Countess) with Penelope Wilton (Cousin Isobel). 


★★★★★★★★★

PORFIRIO

In 2005 Porfirio Ramirez Aldana’s name was splashed across the headlines and on all the television broadcasts in Colombia for his audacious and foolhardy criminal act.  What made it even more sensational was the fact he was a paraplegic in a wheelchair at the time.

In Alejandro Landes’s extraordinary new film the details of the incident, which although being the main reason for its existence, are not revealed until the very last part of the movie, as in fact Landes makes how Porfirio gets to this point in his life the central focus of the tale he wants to tell.  The story is very real indeed but rather than film it as a documentary it has been made as a narrative that is part bio-pic and part cinema verite with the exceptionally inspired idea of casting of Porfirio to play himself.

The police had shot him in the spine sometime in the 1990’s for a reason that we never learn.  This small town once successful business owner is now trapped in his shabby home and reliant on his lazy teenage son to help him deal with his daily bodily functions.  His only source of income now is selling minutes on his cellphone to people in his poor neighborhood.  The only bright spot in his life is his young girlfriend with whom he can still manage to have something of a physical relationship with.

With very sparse dialogue Landes painstakingly films every minute detail of Porfirio’s day so we get to feel the intense boredom and frustration that he deals with simply to survive.  The cinematographer has placed the camera deliberately low so the view we get is exactly the same as the one Porifiro can see.  

On a rare trip outside the four square walls of his small house, Porfirio recklessly maneuvers himself in his wheelchair to his Lawyers Office as he wants to try and persuade him to actually get moving on the lawsuit he has filed against the Government for compensation. And then on another day a traveling salesman calls at his house, and Porfirio finds in him a willing accomplice who will help him towards his plan for action.

The fact that it all culminates in the 'big incident' is not totally surprising because by that point Landes has ensured that we sympathize with a man struggling hard  to maintain some sort of dignity.  Although I credit the director with this, I should in fact mention that it is Porfiro's powerful and disturbing performance that makes it so convincing.

The story in itself is completely remarkable but its Landes's unique vision that made this such a phenomenal movie, and quite unlike anything I have ever seen before.  It ... and both Landes and Porfirio are picking up countless awards as it currently does the Film Festival circuit.  MIFF Exec. Director Jaie Laplante classified Landes as a Director to watch ....and as this is his first narrative, I think he is right.


★★★★★★★★★

LA PROMESSE

With the Belgian film auteur Dardenne brothers latest movie 'The Kid on The Bike' opening in NY to near rave reviews, it seemed like a good time to hone up on some of their earlier successes that are playing in a Retrospective at the Miami Beach Cinematheque this month. With five films in their resume winning at Cannes Film Festival, there is a wealth of history to choose from, and strangely enough my first taste was to be the brilliant 'La Promesse', which for some odd reason the folks at Cannes let it walk away without an award.

Filmed in 1996 it could almost be called 'The Kid In The Bike Mk 1' as Igor the protagonist is a 15-year-old boy who is swept up in his father’s world that ruthlessly exploits illegal immigrants and is always racing around their small rather squalid looking town on his motorized scooter. 

Roger (the dad) runs a construction business and forces the immigrants to work for him as laborers to pay off their ‘debt’ of being given a safe haven.  They try to hide when an Immigration Inspector turns up one day and Hamidu, one of the men, has a serious accident and falls badly off the scaffolding, and rather than allow Igor to take him to hospital Roger persuades him to be complicit in letting the man die, and then help him dispose of his body to avoid any trouble with the authorities. Before he dies, Hamidu begs Igor to promise to take care of his wife Assita and their baby who have recently arrived from Africa.

Igor tries to salvage his conscience by doing small favours for Assita like paying off her debts, whilst at the same time Roger frantically goes to great length to cover up the crime.  As time passes and Assita grows more suspicious about their excuses for her husband’s sudden disappearance, she consults an African seer who confuses her suspicions which sends her into a real panic.  When her baby gets seriously ill and much to Roger's chagrin Igor rushes to help her, there is the inevitable brutal and nasty showdown between father and son.

It’s time for them all to make choices, particularly Igor, who has grown fond of Assita and feels that he should tell her the truth regardless of the consequences. But in the end nothing is left neat or tidy, and even by making moral choices there is still no conclusion. Yet somehow it seemed OK that the Dardennes just left us hanging there wondering.

The frenetic pace never let up for one single moment and with the sheer nastiness of this society’s underbelly of racist xenophobes that profited by making a quick buck out of exploiting helpless and desperate immigrants who placed their lives in their hands had me walking out of the theater totally stunned. It’s obviously not just something that could happen only in Belgium (although after watching the ultra-violent 'Bullhead' recently I must say I'm rethinking the idea that they are such nice gentle people after all ..LOL).  It could happen anywhere , and sadly at any time.

The shining exception was the character Igor played quite brilliantly by a very  young Jeremie Renier  it was a remarkable performance.  Now I cannot wait to see 'The Kid on The Bike' as in this new movie,  a very grown up Mr Renier gets to play the dad!


★★★★★★★★★

DETATCHMENT

Billed as a drama, this new movie on the hellish experiences of a substitute teacher in a public high school from infrequent Brit filmmaker Tony Kaye is nothing short of a horror story. It makes his 1998 hit movie 'American History X' seem like a walk in the park by comparison, and that, if you recall, was about a couple of thuggish brothers who were neo-Nazis!

Henry Bathes latest teaching gig is at yet another inner-city school that is failing both its pupils and its staff.  The Principal is about to be fired because of the school’s abysmal exam results mean that parents are reluctant to move into the area and therefore property prices are depressed! The students however display no interest in learning whatsoever and use their mandated time in the classroom to violently taunt the teachers and generally create havoc. Henry who seems totally disaffected, refuses to back down to his new pupil’s threats and when they are met with his stoic and calm demeanor they actually slowly start to respond positively to him.


The other teachers are floundering and are overwhelmed by both a system and by pupils that they can no longer control.  In fact one of the best scenes is when Dr. Parker the School Counselor just totally loses herself one day and bawls a student out is such a manner that even the kid gets frightened.

Whilst dealing with all this stress at school, Henry must also deal with his dying grandfather suffering from dementia and wrestling with some unresolved family demons in his past.  And good Samaritan that he is, somehow Henry has taken a 15 year old prostitute under his wing and off the street and plays a fine line with her between moral guardian and friend. 


It is a totally frightening scenario (and I’ve deliberately left a few of the worse parts out to avoid spoiling the story), and it never lets up for one single moment.  Its deliberately provocative and sensationalistic and if there is any message that Mr Kaye and Carl Lund his screenwriter intend to give about the education system in inner cities, it must be simply, that there is no hope. At all.

As a movie it is however compelling viewing mainly due to the powerhouse performance of Adrian Brody who for once reminds us why he once won an Oscar.  Add to this Marcia Gay Harden as the bruised Principal about to tossed away; Lucy Liu as Dr. Parker the counselor who needs some therapy herself; James Caan as a cynical old teacher past retiring but gets through the day thanks to his happy pills; and Christine Hendricks the desperately lonely teacher who almost puts a move on Henry but she has lost the knack; and also Blythe Danner, Tim Blake Nelson, Bryan Cranston and William Peterson.

If Mr Kaye's purpose was to shake us all up, he really succeeded, and I for one will be steering clear of schools for a very long time  after this.


★★★★★★★★

THE CONQUEST

This is the story of how Francois Sarkozy actually landed the job of the President of France, and it isn’t always a pretty tale.  There is a bold announcement at the beginning of this feature film that states that this is BASED on events that happened as opposed to it being a factual account, and so as a non-French viewer I can only take a stab in the dark as to what parts really did happen, and what are simply the machinations of a very imaginative screenwriter.

The opening scene when Sarkozy in summoned to the Elysee Palace by President Chirac to be told yet once gain that he was not going to be made Prime Minister but instead would be in charge of the Interior Ministry, speaks volumes about the intense rivalry of these two men who detested each other. The pompous and rather grandiose Chirac thought Sarkozy just a common pushy upstart. In fact more than slightly reminiscent of the opposition that grocer’s daughter Margaret Thatcher got from the landed aristocracy that ruled the UK's Tory Party when she had the temerity to go after the top job.

The film flashes back and forth over the next five years as the diminutive Sarkozy builds a seemingly insurmountable power base much to the chagrin of Chirac and Foreign Minister Villepin. Whilst Chirac tries to use his presidential power to keep Sarkozy in his place whenever he can, Villepin (later promoted to Prime Minister) his bitter rival scurrilously plots to bring about Sarkozy’s downfall at every single opportunity.

As he starts this journey to win the Presidency, Cecilia his (second) wife is very much at his side as both his biggest fan and his closest adviser.  Along the way as Sarkozy gets increasingly manic chasing his goal his single-mindedness means that not only does his marriage gets neglected, but at the same time when the campaign misfires he very publicly takes his wrath out on Cecilia.

He fails to notice that she has fallen for Richard Attias his Events Organizer, and the penny doesn't even drop  she is walking out on him with packed bags in her hands midway through the campaign.  This is after all not the USA where a candidate's spouse is signed up for life (or at the very least the life of the campaign.).  Even though he has some powerful friends in the French Media who try to keep a lid on the story, word still leaks out that Cecilia has left him. Sarkozy puts a spin on their ‘separation’ for the public whilst behind the scenes he was desperately trying to woo her back just so that he could win the Election.

She does return, but very reluctantly, and tries to manipulate the Campaign staff to almost enact some revenge.  But she saves the brunt of that for Sarkozy himself by very publicly not showing up with him to vote on Election Day itself.  Then as we already knew, he won and moved into the Elysee Palace, and she moved back to New York.  To live happily ever after?

The film totally focused on Sarkozy so M. Royale his Socialist rival in the Election was barely mentioned. 

As a Brit I was naturally unaware of a lot of the details of what was really happening at that time so I can only really judge the film as a piece of entertainment rather than an historical record, and in that context with its overly-dramatic soundtrack it seemed more than a tad like a Lifetime Television Drama, albeit a very good one. I dont know why, but I was very naively shocked at how 'dirty' the French play their politics, but in reality I guess it is no worse than any other country.

The actor Denis Podalydes who played Sarkozy was quite brilliant and really caught the essence of the man and made him seem like a fascinating man.  The most surprising thing to me was that I came out of the theater totally sympathetic to the man who was chosen by his country but rejected by his wife as he  clawed his way to be President.  That cannot be right surely?


★★★★★★★

BORN AND RAISED

Young Bubbs needs to up sticks and leave his small coastal town if he is ever to live his own life.  He still lives with his embittered mother Mary who is obsessed with the fact that every man in her life always runs out on her and she is on Bubbs case constantly, and then there is his girlfriend who is dumping him to land a big catch.  But just when he could be on the verge of finally making his exit, he realizes that he has been harboring some pretty deep feelings for Cory who's his best friend’s sister and who it turns out could do with a upstanding young man as a new beau as she has just caught her heel of a boyfriend cheating on her again.  Cory is keen on Bubbs but is reluctant to commit to a relationship if he is still itching to leave town.

And then there his grandfather Frank who set sail to seek some adventure when Bubbs was still a young kid and keeps popping up in Port every now and then as he and his grandson have grown very close, much to the disdain of Mary.

This rather touching wee story is less a coming of age story and more one about becoming a man.  Bubbs struggles to discover that the only way to make others in his life happy, is to find an inner peace for himself first.

There are no startling plot lines or any major surprises in this very simple story’s development, and the key to the success of this rather delightful and engaging movie is the freshness of the writing and the very credible and likeable characters that make it all work.   Without a single ‘star’ or even a well-known actor in the talented cast that first time director/editor Joshua Dragge has assembled, they bring a real energy and commitment to making both their characters and their relationships together very believable.  (the one weakness is in Mary whose anger seems somehow so unreal).

My enthusiasm for this enchanting new movie that really captivated me was somewhat enhanced by the fact that it was made by home-grown Florida talent, and even the setting of the story was the Florida Coast,  and that this screening at the Miami International Film Festival was in fact its World Premiere .  Written by a very young Nick Loritsch (who also starred at Bubbs, and produced it too) who told us at the Q & A they have filmed in in 2009 and had been fine tuning it (and financing )  since then.  It was well worth the wait.

Full credit to MIFF for programming it, but not simply because they were local boys who did good, but for the fact they produced an exceptionally entertaining movie with very high production values that really deserves to be seen by a wider audience.

Now  Available from Amazon

 ★★★★★★★★

THE ILLUSIONIST

Based on a script by the late great Jacques Tati the French comic genius and directed by Sylvain Chomet ('The Triplets of Belleville') one knew that this film would have to be good.  And probably even much better than that.  And it was, and more.

The story involves a sad lanky French magician named Tatischeff who is slowly coming to realize that now it's the early 1960’s the Music Halls are a dying art.  He therefore has to take work wherever he can and when he lands up in a Pub on a remote Scottish island, he discovers he has one fan at least.  She follows him to Edinburgh and cooks, cleans and does everything to make him happy (other than THAT!).  He lavishes what little money he has on her even though he now struggles to find any work at all, and she is making eyes at the handsome young romeo that lives next door.

If you have seen ‘the Triplets’ then you will know the wonderful exaggerated sense of style of Chomet’s beautiful animation that is a sheer joy to watch.  (If you haven’t seen it, where have you been?)  Tatischeff is a re-incarnation of Tati’s M. Hulot and is as poignantly funny, though of course nothing ever goes right for him.  And once again M. Chomet proves that words are really not necessary to tell a story.

I first viewed this in London c. 18 months ago when it was just released, but never got around to ‘blogging it’ which was the main reason I sat down to watch it again.  I’m so pleased that I did because there is so much wonderful fine detail in every nuance of the film that I had somehow  overlooked or had simply forgotten.

A worthy successor to his Oscar Nominated ‘Triplets’ and I’d like to think that M Tati would approve too.  If you didn't see it first time around, its now available on DVD,  put it on your 'Must See List'.


★★★★★★★★★

BEYOND ASSIGNMENT

The movie followed three photo/journalists in far flung parts of the world as they went about  their work.  The fact that they were all located in dangerous regions made it more fascinating, and that they all happened to be women added a certain frisson to the documentary

Mariella Fuller is a Swiss/Lebanese photo/journalist who originally went to South Africa when she was commissioned by Marie Claire Magazine to do a piece on infant rape. It was to take her 3 days.  What she discovered profoundly moved her, and now some eight years later she is still there working documenting   the child abuse that is so prevalent there and is about to publish a book this year of  her work.

Gail Tibben is an independent photographer who has been working in Jerusalem for the past decade.  She has been exploring the theme of religion, documenting the various Christian denominations in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre, baptism in the River Jordan, the ancient Samiritans and Ethiopian Christianity.  As a photo/journalist working in the city she also closely covers the atrocities such as car-bombings even when it means putting her own life at risk.  Working as a woman there gets in that entrenched society seems to get harder especially now with the Ultra-Orthodox Jews taking such extreme stances.

Adriana Zehbrauskas is a Brazlian photographer working in Mexico on a Project on Faith. Her rough inner city patch included the fervent religious folk ( as evidenced in her wonderful coverage of 'The Day of The Dead Festival') to out and out macho gangsters. Her ‘guide’ who took around lived in a 10 ft sq. room with her large family, and yet seemed perfectly content that as this was ‘God’s will’.

The movie is the work of Miami local filmmaker/film school professor Jim Virga, and he really made this a cohesive and thoroughly engrossing piece by simply letting the women tell their own stories in their own words.  Excellently edited it’s a powerful film about three dedicated and totally committed women that were a joy to watch and for some 76 minutes share their stories.


★★★★★★★★

Beyond Assignment Trailer from KnightCenter on Vimeo.

LE VENDEUR aka THE SALESMAN

Marcel Lévesque has been the Salesmen on the Month for the past 16 years in a small car dealership in a backwater town in Quebec where it never ever  seems to stop snowing.  Marcel is past retirement age but whilst he is still fit and anxious to keep working, the town that was totally dependent on a paper mill that is closing, is dying.

Marcel a widower, lives for his job: his house is literally right next-door to the Garage. And the love of his life is his grown up daughter Maryse and his young grandson. Together they constitute his whole reason for being, and despite the prospect of the town’s impending doom, he’s very happy and content with his lot.

In this gentlest of stories, the slow moving plot chugs along building up a picture of Marcel’s somewhat ordinary life. A well-liked genial man who as a master of his craft, knows exactly when it’s ok to tell a fib (or two) when closing a sale. There almost seems some redemption in the fact that he sells an unemployed local man a fancy new truck they both know he cannot really afford and when he tries to return it, Marcel is charm itself, but accepts that he cannot actually do anything concrete to help the poor struggling guy.

Then one day tragedy strikes ……. one had been waiting for the pace to step up, but this was not the twist that I had expected.  It makes Marcel question everything about himself and his life as he realizes that he may soon lose everything.

This extraordinary debut feature film from writer/director Sebastien Pilote really crept upon you with its slow sure-footed story line that developed into a heart-breaking emotional story.  A great deal of the credit is due to actor Gilbert Sicotte who’s understated and utterly convincing performance as Marcel set the perfect mood for the piece.

I  saw  it   as  the final  film at  this  years  Miami International  Film Festival and it was the perfect thoughtful note to end on even though it  was a  tad  incongruous sitting  in  shorts  and  t shirt  watching blizzard  after blizzard  cover  the car lot.     I’m going to put it on my watch list  to see  it  again  when  it  gets  a  theatrical release, and also make a mental note,  never ever to think about a vacation in Quebec!    


★★★★★★★★

SOMEDAY THIS PAIN WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU

The thing I really loved the most about this movie was the title, which is actually a wonderful sentiment that I never really wanted to believe in, but now I am in my dotage I’ll admit has more than a smidgen of truth to it.

James is the teenager who is at the receiving end of this advice from his grandmother who herself leads such an idyllic picture-book country cottage life herself it doesn't seem that it’s coming from her own experience.  Except that she is substituting for the role of mother in the boy's life as his own (her daughter) is away with the fairies too often to fulfill the role herself.

Ma is Marjorie, who’s just arrived back to her chic Manhattan townhouse having walked out on her third husband whilst still on their honeymoon.  She just wants to get back to her reality, which is owning an avant-garde Chelsea Art Gallery where no-one seems to want to come and part with the their hard earned cash to buy any of the ridiculous pieces on sale. The latest exhibit is talking garbage bins!  James’s vain father, still dating girls young enough to be his daughter, is about to have plastic surgery and he thinks his son is gay, just because James prefers salad to steak. And to complete the family, James's 23 yr. old sister is dating her much older (and married) college professor.

Margery struggles to relate to James especially as he is now insisting he doesn't want to go to College so she sends him to a Life Coach/Psychotherapist who declares him normal.  But by that point we already knew that. And in fact ‘the crazies’ were all the others around him. Except maybe for Granny.

My main beef with this potentially sweet Coming Of Age  movie was that all of the characters, except maybe James and Granny, were like caricatures.  Too exaggerated and too unreal.  It was hard to escape the feeling that the story/movie was lacking in substance to make it complete, and a very weak ending didn’t help that.

On paper it had a lot going for it with a cast headed by two Oscar winners Marcia Gay Harden & Ellen Burstyn plus Peter Gallagher and Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood) but the only one who really shone was young Toby Regbo in his movie debut as James.  (The less we say about Lucy Liu as an emotionless Life Coach, the better!)

So a pleasant enough movie with some funny moments with a likable kid but I really wouldn't rush to see it.  Any pain you may actually derive from the experience will not in fact be any use to you at all.

★★★★★

DIANA VREELAND : THE EYE MUST TRAVEL

Diana Vreeland was the Queen Bee of Fashion: a Demi-God of Style who reigned supremely from her different ‘thrones’ of power for five decades and single-handedly changed the way women dressed.  You may think that a brash statement but it is totally befitting of this large-than-life style maverick whose influence at the helm of both Harpers and Vogue was matched by her outlandish statements and opinions.  To Ms. Vreeland, everything was black and white: there was no grey.

This wonderful tribute documentary by Lisa Immordino Vreeland (the wife of her grandson) pieces together some of the parts of her life.  I add some of the parts because besides from the 'big jobs' that she was renowned for, the movie uncovered a wealth of facts about her life that are totally surprising and that she barely touched on.  There are far too many to list here but Ms. Vreeland claims to have gone shooting with Buffalo Bill (‘marvelous fella’) in the Rockies when she was a kid; danced with the Tiller Girls (the UK’s Rockettes) in the 1930’s; sold Wallis Simpson some couture lingerie for a weekend with the King; waved to Lindbergh as he flew over her house on his famous flight etc etc.  When one of the Vreeland son’s (now in his 80’s) added that he knew for sure that last fact was not true as their house was not on his fight path, he confessed that his mother loved to improve her stories which he simply called ‘faction’.

Born in Paris to an American socialite and a British businessman Diana lived in Europe until the outbreak of World War 1, but even when the family settled back in the US, Paris would always be her first love. She married Reed Vreeland, a Banker in 1922 and they lived in London until 1937 in which time she made her mark in British society, although she always claims that the best thing about living in London was … Paris …especially as she was getting her clothes fitted personally by Mlle Chanel.

Back in New York she caught the eye of legendary magazine editor Carmel Snow who offered her the job of writing what turned out to be an outrageous column called ‘Why Don't You’… imposing her own somewhat outlandish take on fashion on the hapless readers of Harpers.

Her life then really took off … she met Richard Avedon who she worked with for the next 40 years, and he was just one of the many fashion heavyweights that she collaborated with over the next five decades.  As evidenced in detail by the film, the work that she produced there as Editor, and then in the top seat at Vogue was outstandingly wonderful.  She threw the rule book out of the window on every single aspect of doing fashion spreads and the pages of her magazines were crammed full of stunning photography shot in exotic places which were simply beautiful works of art.

More importantly what the movie so accurately portrays is that these were not just pictures of clothes but real visionary concepts that placed fashion in context with the remarkable world that she wanted people to relish and enjoy.

They were extravagant pieces and having no interest in keeping an eye on the bottom line or appeasing advertisers (like the Ms. Wintour of today's world does to the detriment of magazines!) cost Ms. Vreeland her job at Vogue.   Bereft at 70 years old and totally unwilling to even think about retiring she leapt at the chance the Metropolitan Museum offered to run the Costume Institute.   The amazing success she achieved there over her years at the helm is well documented and dealt with in the film, but what I really enjoyed were the behind the scenes stories like how she commissioned a hapless assistant to make a pompadour wig with a frigate in it and demanded it 'bigger and bigger'.

Her sons found her distant, fashion industry notables (such as Oscar De la Renta, Calvin Klein, Manolo Blahnik) adored and respected her, and her staff feared her.  She was in every sense of the word a real diva and a fashion icon and her legacy is how she made people think outside of the box in terms of style and how she always invested her joie de vivre in it at all times.

Bruce Weber had attempted to film a memoir on Diana V  before, and now that Lisa Immordino Vreeland has succeeded at last, and so brilliantly, anybody with the tiniest inkling for style should be indebted to her.  My only regret is that I wish I could see all the material that never made the final cut as I am sure there are a whole wealth of more hilarious anecdotes and eccentric quotes.

P.S. In the 1995 film 'To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar', drag queen Vida Boheme (Patrick Swayze) gives a copy of Vreeland's autobiography to a thrift-store clerk and tells him to "commit sections to memory." Later, the clerk quotes a passage that reads "That season we were loaded with pizazz. Earrings of fuchsia and peach. Mind you, peach. And hats. Hats, Hats, Hats, for career girls. How I adored Paris."

★★★★★★★★★★