2006年上映的電影《時尚女魔頭》展現(xiàn)的是一場Logo的歡宴，時尚的視覺大餐:嘴涂Chanel唇膏，手挽Hermès包包，腳踩Manolo Blahnik高跟鞋的女郎流連于紐約街頭，形成一道道奪目的風(fēng)景線。但是，這部電影另外一個心照不宣的“貢獻(xiàn)”是把一位重量級的時尚幕后推手——安娜·溫圖爾，美國版《Vogue》的主編，推到了幕前?？纯偷谝淮我娮R到時尚界的“權(quán)力”與 “權(quán)威”所在:她的一笑一顰幾乎可左右一個設(shè)計(jì)師的未來;她朱唇輕啟，一個“不”字就讓下屬戰(zhàn)戰(zhàn)兢兢，不知所措。

如果說《時尚女魔頭》的結(jié)尾處梅麗爾·斯特里普的嘴角漾起的一抹微笑讓你感到有一絲溫情的話，那么紀(jì)錄片《九月刊》展現(xiàn)的則是殘酷的職場百態(tài):金錢、權(quán)力、名利、心計(jì)……

是的，“時尚”不過是華麗的包裝。

歡迎來到現(xiàn)實(shí)世界。

——Mac

Tohe September Issue， a documentary about the creation of a single， very 1)fat issue of American Vogue in a 2)far-off 3)gilded age (i.e. 2007)， has little to say about fashion， the real 4)ins and outs of publishing or the inner workings and demons of the magazine’s notoriously demanding 5)meanie-in-chief， Anna Wintour. Rather， this entertaining movie is about the maintenance of a brand that Ms. Wintour has brilliantly cultivated since she assumed her place at the top of the editorial 6)masthead in 1988 and which the documentary’s director， R. J. Cutler， has helped polish with a take so flattering he might as well work there.

To judge from the 7)flurries of behind-the-scenes evidence， however， if Mr. Cutler did work for the 8)exacting Ms. Wintour he would still be doing reshoots. Shot on digital with an eye for 9)sumptuous color by Bob Richman and briskly edited by Azin Samari， the 88-minute movie opens with Ms. Wintour explaining that “there is something about fashion that can make people very nervous.” Certainly she unnerves her staff， as you soon see from all the 10)huddled bodies and 11)popping eyes. Even the more 12)self-possessed， like Candy Pratts Price， seem 13)in the grip of awe. Is Ms. Wintour the “high priestess” of the magazine， an off-camera voice asks. “I would say pope，” Ms. Price says with a 14)queasy smile.

Many will grasp this distinction， having already watched 15)supplicants 16)kiss the ring in the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada， with Meryl Streep as a fictionalized and Americanized version of Ms. Wintour. Etched in 17)acid and often 18)hilarious， the performance， while not wholly modeled on Ms. Wintour， helped humanize her public profile， lessening the 19)sting of the original book， written by Lauren Weisberger. The documentary continues this humanization largely by showing Ms. Wintour very hard at work， rather lonely and sensitive about her British family’s low opinion of fashion. She’s a poor little rich girl 20)swaddled in fur and iced to the bone.

She’s also pretty funny， perhaps at times accidentally so. Much of the movie’s pleasure comes from the utter ease with which Ms. Wintour plays the 21)Red Queen of fashion and orders off with their heads. In the case of the British actress 22)Sienna Miller， the cover girl for the September 2007 issue， which gives the movie its structure and hook， the head 23)in question receives the 21st-century version of a severing: it’s Photoshopped to unreal perfection. However lovely， Ms. Miller proves a problematic Vogue ideal for the editors， many of whose own faces are somewhat surprisingly 24)scored with wrinkles. It’s a mark of how pitiless Ms. Wintour can 25)come across that you end up feeling a bit sorry for Ms. Miller.

In truth Ms. Wintour was just doing her job. Yes， there’s cruelty here， but of the most 26)attenuated kind: she says no， employees tremble. The strongest， like the flame-haired Grace Coddington， the magazine’s longtime creative director and the documentary’s hugely 27)diverting 28)stealth star， seem to have figured out how to survive with their dignity intact. Most of the truly ugly stuff in fashion—the models starving themselves and the animals inhumanely slaughtered for their fur—remains unnoted in The September Issue， much as it often does in Vogue. And while the movie 29)shuns any 30)overt discussion of money， it includes an instructive scene of Ms. Wintour playing the 31)coquette with one of the magazine’s important advertisers.

Of course it really is all about money. Despite 32)being crammed with glossy images of beautiful， weird， unattractive， ridiculous and33)prohibitively expensive clothes and accessories， Vogue isn’t about fashion: it’s about 34)stoking the desire for those clothes and accessories. It’s about the creation of lust and the transformation of wants into needs. Almost everything in this temple of consumption， including its lavish layouts and the celebrities who now most often adorn its covers， 35)hinges on stuff for sale. Some of that stuff comes with a price tag， but some of it is more 36)ephemeral because Vogue is also in the aspiration business. Mr. Cutler doesn’t notice or doesn’t care about any of that， which makes his movie as 37)facile as it is fun.

Given this， it’s no surprise that Ms. Wintour is doing her part to 38)flog the documentary: she gave a party in its honor and recently appeared on 39)David Letterman’s show， with and without her signature sunglasses， her 40)glazed stare and tight smile firmly in place. The movie affords you many opportunities to marvel at the 41)parsimony of that smile and wonder if she’s as bored as she looks， even while waiting for an 42)agitated Stefano Pilati， the creative director at 43)Yves Saint Laurent， to show his newest collection.

“That’s pretty，” she says， in a voice so 44)drained of affect it’s a wonder he doesn’t commit 45)seppuku with his scissors. You feel bad for Mr. Pilati， but it’s Ms. Wintour’s 46)hauteur that makes you laugh and keeps you willingly at her side.

紀(jì)錄片《九月刊》講述的是在那“久遠(yuǎn)的”鍍金年代(即2007年)，美國時尚雜志《Vogue》一期厚重的單本雜志是如何制作完成的。而關(guān)于時尚、出版界的真實(shí)詳情或是內(nèi)部的運(yùn)作方式以及安娜·溫圖爾——以嚴(yán)苛聞名的“刻薄鬼”主編，該片則提及得少之又少。這部有趣的影片更多地講述了溫圖爾女士自1988年成為主編以來經(jīng)營品牌的輝煌歷史，該紀(jì)錄片導(dǎo)演R·J·卡特勒用帶著“奉承”味道的鏡頭使影片錦上添花，好像他本人也是安娜·溫圖爾手下一員似的。

但從幕后花絮顯示的忙亂狀況來看，要是卡特勒先生真的為這位事事要求完美的溫圖爾女士工作的話，恐怕本片還在重拍中。這部長達(dá)88分鐘的影片由鮑勃·理查曼執(zhí)鏡，色彩華麗;由阿辛·薩馬理剪輯，靈動跳脫。影片一開場，溫圖爾女士便說明:“時尚有種讓人神經(jīng)緊張的特質(zhì)”。顯然，她讓下屬心生畏懼，這點(diǎn)你一下就可以從那些亂成一團(tuán)的人們和他們瞪大的眼睛處知曉。即使像肯蒂·普拉茨·普萊斯那樣泰然自若的，似乎也神色敬畏。片中出現(xiàn)一處畫外音，問道:“溫圖爾女士是這本雜志的‘高級女祭司’嗎?”普萊斯女士面帶一絲不安的微笑，回答道:“在我看來，她是教皇?！?/p>

很多人在2006年上演的電影《時尚女魔頭》中看到那些“信徒”如何匍匐在主編腳下，那么他們會領(lǐng)略到這一區(qū)別——該片中梅麗爾·斯特里普飾演的角色就是虛構(gòu)的美國版溫圖爾女士。片中對其尖銳的刻畫，往往帶著搞笑的效果，電影盡管不全以溫圖爾女士為原型，但卻極大地人性化了她的公眾形象，并淡化了作者勞 倫·魏絲伯格在原著中所表現(xiàn)出的尖銳。紀(jì)錄片《九月刊》繼續(xù)展現(xiàn)溫圖爾女士人性化的一面，主要表現(xiàn)她工作上的拼搏，同時又表現(xiàn)她因?yàn)橛募胰藢r尚嗤之以鼻的態(tài)度而感到分外孤獨(dú)和敏感憂傷。她只是一個富有卻可憐的小女孩，身裹皮草卻仍感到凄寒入骨。

偶爾她也會很風(fēng)趣。影片的樂子大多源自這里——溫圖爾女士非常安然地扮演時尚界的“紅桃皇后”，下令“砍掉他們的頭”。2007年9月刊的封面女郎、英國女演員西耶娜·米勒，是影片的主線和亮點(diǎn)，而其頭像則要接受21世紀(jì)式的嚴(yán)苛挑剔:其圖像得被PS到完美，卻失真。盡管米勒已經(jīng)要多美有多美，但對編輯來說，她要成為《Vogue》的理想形象還是問題多多。而令人詫異的是，那些編輯當(dāng)中都有些滿臉皺紋的，也并非完美。這一切都顯示了溫圖爾女士可以怎樣的無情，到最后你都要為米勒小姐感到有點(diǎn)難過了。

事實(shí)上，溫圖爾女士只是在做她的本職工作。確實(shí)，這里很殘酷。不過最為溫和的場景是:溫圖爾說“不”，員工們對此膽怯顫栗。最強(qiáng)的人物，如雜志的元老級創(chuàng)意總監(jiān)、紅發(fā)的格蕾絲·考丁頓以及紀(jì)錄片中出現(xiàn)的有趣而詭秘的明星，他們似乎懂得如何保全自己的自尊。時尚界中眾多真實(shí)而丑陋的問題——模特為保持身材而節(jié)食，動物被無情屠宰以此來獲取它們的皮毛——則未在《九月刊》中披露。對這樣的事情，《Vogue》往往避而不談。影片回避公開討論金錢問題，但仍加入了引人深思的一幕——溫圖爾女士向雜志的一個重要廣告商賣弄風(fēng)情。

當(dāng)然了，這一切的確都跟金錢有關(guān)。雖然充滿或悅目，或怪誕，或乏味，或荒謬且價格高得讓人無法承受的衣服配飾華麗的照片，然而《Vogue》意不在時尚。其目的旨在激發(fā)人們對這些衣服和配飾的欲望，制造欲望并將欲望轉(zhuǎn)化為需求。在這座“消費(fèi)神殿”內(nèi)，幾乎一切都圍繞著待售的商品，包括雜志那華美的排版和那些現(xiàn)在大多是用來裝飾封面的社會名流。有些東西是有標(biāo)價的，有些則是隨著潮流如鏡花水月般稍縱即逝，畢竟，《Vogue》也是個“追夢”行業(yè)。導(dǎo)演卡特勒并未留意或者他根本就不關(guān)心這些，這使得影片輕松有趣卻又膚淺。

這樣一來，我們就不奇怪溫圖爾女士盡其力量大肆宣傳該紀(jì)錄片了:她以影片之名辦了個派對宴會，最近還上了大衛(wèi)·萊特曼的談話節(jié)目。無論戴上或摘下她那招牌式墨鏡，她都時刻保持木然而專注的眼神和克制的微笑。影片讓你充分見識并驚訝于她對笑容有多吝嗇，讓你疑惑她本人是否也像她看上去那樣無趣。即便在等待伊夫·圣羅蘭的創(chuàng)意總監(jiān)——焦躁的斯特凡諾·皮拉蒂展示其新作時她也是如此。

“不錯，”溫圖爾說，話語中不帶絲毫感情。皮拉蒂沒有用他的剪刀“切腹自殺”當(dāng)屬奇跡了。你會為皮拉蒂先生感到難過，但也會為溫圖爾女士的高傲而大笑并心甘情愿地成為她的擁護(hù)者。