Big glasses to Big Eyes

This is a Festival review of Iris (2014)

More views of – or before – Cambridge Film Festival 2015 (3 to 13 September)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

28 July

This is a Festival review of Iris (2014)

Having seen Iris (2014) at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2015, one was struck straightaway by how it is a lesser account than Advanced Style (2014) of the phenomenon of not just #irisapfel, but these other women, becoming a style icon later in life – is that why it is only now on UK release (when there seems to be relatively little more to say about the film) ?

We admire Iris Apfel's obvious flair, but her acquisitiveness - though hardly unique - makes her hard to like much... pic.twitter.com/yZV32HrFx1

— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 27, 2015


At first, one just put the following simple paragraph in the round-up of events (without intending a piece that would end up in Seen at Sheffield : Doc/Fest films with full reviews) :

Iris (2014) (Odeon Screen 8) – unlike with Mavis !, a film that was not exactly awash with humility, although Iris Apfel is a great encourager and collector with definite tastes and flair, and where doing a deal – having justified the concept of haggling in its appropriate place – seemed part of the thrill of the chase in remorseless acquisitiveness (although tempered by giving archive material, both temporarily and permanently)


Now, however, as the wheels of publicity are pushing this big imagery of Iris Apfel from film-posters and trailers – though, really, when one has seen a few outfits with an excess, in size and number, of necklaces / pendants, and bangles / bracelets, one has a pretty good guess at how she will dress next – it seems germane to ask a few more things :

Iris Apfel

* Maybe Apfel was an inspiration, too, to Ari [Seth] Cohen to write the book on which the film that Lina Plioplyte made is based, but one does not have to root around in Advanced Style to find what makes it a story worth telling (please see below) : not just true-life feature films, but documentaries, not only need stories that are substantially factually true, but that have a truth about them as to why they need to be told*

-> 'Viewer entertainment will vary in direct proportion to interest in the unusual but ultimately mundane details of Apfel’sday-to-day'

— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 28, 2015

The movie plays a dutiful personal assistant, tagging along with Apfelduring her routines without ever crafting something like a storyline

— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 28, 2015

* By contrast, Apfel’s story is very static, consisting essentially of having had a big break of being asked [or did she offer ? (one forgets)], by someone who knew of her private collection, to display some costumes (and, inevitably, accessorize them) when an exhibition fell through – true The diva is indisposed stuff (where the understudy gets to shine and be loved)

Little happens in Iris; small moments are drawn-out, and we get a frankly too-slow tour through her [...] quarters : http://t.co/emscdNkehK

— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 29, 2015

* Yes, the exhibition was the first of its kind, and it has led to other breaks, but that is the essentially recognition late in life territory of the other film, except that we are not forced to have just Apfel as our focus – her collection of couture may be well chosen and curated, but that, apart from stories of her husband’s and her days and expertise in interior design (where only the cognoscenti knew them and what they did), and seeing them together now, is all that the film, over and over, is about

Tziporah Salamon

* It is not just that Advanced Style can be multi-stranded in a way that, for the reasons given, Iris is not (though that is not to say that a way of reanimating the rather plainly presented material could not have been employed), but that, for women such as Tziporah Salamon (http://www.tziporahsalamon.com), it is all happening in the time of the film for her and others to be invited to appear on covers (rather than for us to be told that it happened for Apfel, and to see her do others, and make what are not new kinds of appearances in the fashion world)

* And, in those whose endorsements are quoted on the poster (please see above), we notice not cinema reviews, but that they are from lead fashion magazines Marie Claire and Elle UK (as well as Red Magazine)...


End-notes

* And Iris feels more like a Big Eyes (2014) amongst documentaries, in that, however remarkable the story may be, does that per se make it one that needs to be, or benefits from, being told as a piece of cinema ?


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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Unaltered appreciation

This is a review of Advanced Style (2014)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2014
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

17 May

This is a review of Advanced Style (2014)

One does not immediately place the phrase, but the title of Lina Plioplyte's film (and of Ari Seth Cohen’s book, which gave rise to it, and his blog before it) plays upon the hackneyed words 'at [my / your, etc.] advanced age'.

The film tells the story of the older women whom Cohen made it his project, after he had been advised to come to New York City to find his inspiration, to feature on his blog (and we see him approaching new candidates on the street) : although he is present a fair bit to help the ones whom he featured earlier on ‘manage’ what is happening, it is their story, and nothing in this Dogwoof documentary takes away from that.

In several cases, these well-dressed women on the street already had their own boutiques, which featured the fashions that they liked and which they wanted to preserve for others to buy, whereas others had been models in earlier times, but the thing that they had in common was enjoying wearing the clothes out and about and them being seen, which is where Cohen had found them.

With a little help from his blog and then from the resultant book, things had begun to happen in the fashion world, with t.v. appearances and modelling work. Although each showed taste, self-belief and talent, probably each of us will have a favourite for her look and what she aspires to, whether Tziporah Salamon, showing off her clothes on her bicycle, or Ilona Smithkin, teaching art, and making her own eyelashes.

Maybe the colour balance had been slightly shifted so that the functional establishing street-shots shone less than the scenes, full of colour, when outfits were bursting out of the screen. However, the whole choice of foils to the moments of flowering of fashion was equally a very good one, and the film also pulled no punches in addressing rivalry, disability and decline.

The connection and caring between these women, with their sense of style, was the most heartening, alongside seeing them gain recognition that they may not have expected : they are, of course, a paradigm for people of all kinds who may no longer be seen for who they are or what they can do, but who are there to be recognized…






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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)