Bill Cunningham New York
What have you ever done with your life? Bill Cunningham bears the distinction as the most important man in the world (as one particular fashionista puts it). Meanwhile, he’s never had a romantic relationship, or any sort of balance to a life committed to taking photographs of pedestrians. I find myself oscillating between envy and pity while watching the bio pic Bill Cunningham New York. Envy for the accolades, the revery he receives everywhere he goes; pity for what must be the utter loneliness that his career fills.
Bill Cunningham is a delightful old man, always smiling and laughing, always cordial and polite, rolling around on a Schwinn that keeps him forever young. This documentary is a pure pleasure because it allows us to spend time with him. It chronicles his habitual life: he lives in a tiny shoe-box of an apartment in Carnegie Hall, which once provided studio spaces to dozens of interesting artists, but is being converted into privatized offices. It’s hard to feel too badly about the idea of his eviction, though, because his place is nothing more than a twin-sized mattress surrounded by a bunch of filing cabinets. He wears the same old blue jacket over very plain clothes, and he eats egg and cheese sandwiches or things equally simple - he hates fancy restaurants, or even moderately upscale ones. This is a man that truly doesn’t care about anything, seemingly, other than other people’s clothes.
When photographing, Bill looks for trends. He lets the city show itself to him. He doesn’t go out with an idea, or a pre-determined notion of what trends to spot. His art is very passive - he observes. Obsessively. And he takes great pride in it. Indeed, his work is staggeringly admirable. He might not be a visionary or genius, but he definitely has a keen eye for fashion, and is so committed to his documentation of it that he refuses to take money from anyone that might compromise him - editors, designers, event planners… He also won’t eat or drink anything while photographing parties - not even water. He’ll just eat some take-out Chinese food before going, and then he’ll bike home.
It’s Bill’s commitment that is so remarkable, and inspirational. Truly, you can get what you want in this world if you know what it is that you want. For Bill, he wants to take pictures of clothes - not celebrities wearing famous designers, not models showing off new labels - just people with good fashion sense, or bad. He’s committed himself to this pursuit to such a degree that he has become the validating force of the fashion world - be photographed by Bill and be worthy, be relevant. His camera has an existential significance. If it doesn’t capture your image, do you exist?
Bill Cunningham New York (partly shot in Paris) then, is a bigger picture than the man himself. It is a study of an image-obsessed world, and a testament to the therapeutic powers of fashion. There are other characters in this film as well, strange and provocative. One of them, a dignitary from Nepal, has an absolutely outrageous wardrobe. He speaks in a mousy way while displaying loud, exuberant colors and patterns. I get the feeling that something is profoundly off about this man, and yet, I am endeared to him and his crazy outfits. The way we look for each other matters a great deal. We express much more than style when we dress ourselves. There is a fluid psychology that currents though the city streets… and it’s perceptible in our fashion. Bill overtly knows what we all instinctively understand. He shows it to us.
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