The Thousands

RJ Cutler’s lively behind-the-scenes documentary about the September 2007 issue of American Vogue promises an insider’s view of legendarily hard-nosed editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, and it delivers as much as Wintour is willing to give away. She clearly got more than career advice from her newspaperman dad, “Chilly Charlie” Wintour, but she betrays a touching anxiety to impress her accomplished siblings and to have daughter Bee follow her into fashion.

There are plenty of industry antics for the Devil Wears Prada crowd. Wintour seals retail deals for baby couturier Thakoon Panichgul and bosses Oscar de la Renta around. Commanded to lose weight, editor-at-extra-large André Leon Talley feebly swats tennis balls, swathed in an absurd Louis Vuitton towel. And woe betide photographer Mario Testino, who disobeyed Wintour’s edict to shoot at Rome’s Colosseum.**Still, Wintour remains largely inscrutable. A far more engaging presence is Grace Coddington, Vogue’s feisty Welsh-born creative director who seems the only person prepared to stand up to Wintour. Yet Wintour respects Coddington, and we can see why. It’s Coddington’s almost magical ability to transform gossamer-light ideas into gorgeous, powerful visual narratives that, more than anything else in The September Issue, explains the allure of Vogue.