Welcome back to Thursday Movie Picks series hosted by Wandering through the Shelves! . The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week, pick three to five movies and share the reason. Should anyone be interested in joining in, feel free to visit the main page here.
This week's theme is Fashion World. Same as Legal Thrillers last week, this theme isn't my favorite spot. The reason is similar: too many jargons and names (of people, of brand) I barely knew before. Yet, I can still manage to pick three films about Fashion World (that I watched and found a little liking in them).
01. Zoolander (2001)Until now, I can't really decide whether Zoolander is a hilarious satire or a total, direct mockery to fashion world. Ben Stiller directs and stars in as a quirky super model, Derek Zoolander, who makes modelling look like ' Dumb and Dumber' of fashion industry. It is dumb but candidly fun and exhilarating; most importantly, it reassures me that fashion industry is a weird, cruel world not to be understandable for common eyes.
02. The Devil Wears Prada (2006)The Devil Wears Prada is possibly the most obvious and popular pick for a film about fashion world, hence picking this makes a total cliche. However, I must admit that David Frankel's adaptation of Laura Weisberger's best-selling novel is terrific in portraying how cruel the industry has always been. How Anne Hathaway, a rock bottom to this industry, survives the ruthlessness and tyranny of fashion industry is downright admirable and sympathetic. Yet, who owns the film is the one and the only Meryl Streep as an Anna Wintour-esque figure, Miranda Priestly. Yes, fashion industry is alienating and cruel.
03. Saint Laurent (2014)Prodigal son of fashion industry, Yves Saint Laurent, got another biopic with Hannibal Rising's star, Gaspard Ulliel to portray him. Saint Laurent isn't actually a kind of film I would like. It is frontal and somehow depressing, but it never depicts fashion industry as an irony, but rather a one-dimensional depressing world. The only thing that gets me attached is Gaspard Ulliel, who emanates the persona of the titular figure in a queer, "French" way.
Afterwords: Fashion world is indeed a cruel, weird and alienating industry; and some films are able to capture that sense, but I am still one of the alienated viewer.