Bill Cunningham: The Man; Bill Cunningham: The Movie

Anyone seen the doc? Anyone love the man's slideshows like I do?

Going to see it tomorrow night...

This is my dad's cousin.

Woah!

Ha, just kidding.

Aw, I bought it.

I guess he's as ubiquitous as the weather if you're in New York, but I knew nothing about him until seeing the film. Very likeable guy, sort of the flipside of the Worst Part of Getting Old thread. The filmmakers concentrate on his work, so they're almost apologetic when they finally ask him a couple of personal questions you've been wondering about; they let him dodge one and half-answer the other, which is fine. Nice musical surprise at the end.

Hey, this is streaming on Netflix now and worth watching.

This was great. However... the one scene in the movie where they ask him the "personal questions" is... hard to watch and it changed the entire tenor of the whole thing for me.

absolutely loved this

yeah no doubt

the one scene in the movie where they ask him the "personal questions" is... hard to watch and it changed the entire tenor of the whole thing for me.

absolutely. the monkish intensity he gives to his subject, the total devotion, really seems to be of a different species than the other NYC eccentrics and clothes-horse character types that he lives among.

the other moment where he shows some emotion other than cheeriness is accepting the culture medal from the french: "he who seeks beauty will find it"

I found this movie almost profoundly moving. I thought the personal questions bit was particularly strong, given how absolutely noninvasive and gentle the asking. He barely gets out a question about sexuality and Cunningham sort of laughs it off. He asks a very non-confrontational question about church, however, and Cunningham all but breaks down. Truly powerful.

my favorite bit was probably cunningham ambling happily at the barrier outside one of the paris fashion shows while some functionary fiddles with her clipboard. suddenly some higher-up appears and says "let him through, he's the most important man on earth"

also the insanely beautiful apartment he gets out of his buyout

haven't seen this yet, but i got snapped by him once from behind. it appeared in the spread with the caption "art opening casual"

Did he ask you for a release?

don't need on on the street, do you?

nope. i had no idea until my friend showed it to me a few days later!

this was in the gallery

er, "in public" i guess i meant

So you recognized your own butt?

"He asks a very non-confrontational question about church, however, and Cunningham all but breaks down. Truly powerful."

Hmmn I wasn't sure that the breaking down might not be connected to the first question though (and the two questions are not unconnected anyway).

i know what the back of my shirt looks like!

http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/public/RR906z4550G4g6NtAeRnaOd1DjEj8Oh-bijQPDr8b5_W4sc3Tg9i6JndoTzQy2UgvdI4Ivm3G6u8-kaGFDdTJJ9-n0em_XHeHCR-HzbaD88TWhCuBuuDGhzg7l1h_xeDj4TFCUnUav4mtDwTgvGaOR_6Mh7dbhJcFPu8=s220-c

:)

such a beautiful fulm

RIP

fascinating dude. the documentary made him, if anything, more mysterious. his column was always a bright spot in the times.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Hey, a secret memoir! Published this September.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/style/bill-cunningham-memoir.html

The BC New York doc is one of my very favorite movies, and I only found out yesterday, to my absolute delight, that someone made another (more widely biographical) film about him a few years ago based around a long video interview he gave.

It uncovers even more fascinating detail about the man, and it's just absolutely freaking incredible.

Best of all, it's available on archive.org, check it out - https://archive.org/details/ttBillC