Reflections on The Devil & The Fashion Industry

The Devil Wears Pravda is a pretty good movie though the terms "cliched" and "predictable" are pretty apt. The acting is quite good and Meryl Streep is absolutely perfect for her role as the consumed business woman whose ambitious dream has become nightmare for herself as well all who fall under her rule.

There are some genuinely funny moments in the movie, mostly by Stanley Tucci's character. His ascerbic wit and resigned nobility under fire is, perhaps, the best character study in the whole work. Without revealing too much for those who may not have seen it, his short speech when he receives the worst disappointment of his life, is absolutely superb, both in delivery and content. It sums up the whole relationship that a person has to have in order to work with, live with and be consumed by, a high achieving, powerful creature such as Miranda Priestly (Streep). For all those who contemplate the world of power and recognition, whatever the industry, note well from Tucci what such life entails.

There were a couple of instances in the movie which causes one to chuckle about things that the director probably didn't intend.

First - there is the hilarious idea that Hathaway, dressed in school girl kitsch, is somehow supposed to be seen as plain. The woman walks into the office for her intial job interview and is promptly laughed to scorn by women wearing very expensive clothes that seem inspired by a Salvation Army window display. Hathaway glows no matter what she is wearing and it was truly hilarious watching the director attempt to convey her as somehow less glamorous than those laughing at her. It was necessary to the plot but in order to tell a story about an ugly duckling turning into a swan, you have to start with an ugly duckling.

Second - there is the scene where Streep proceeds to flay Hathaway alive for snickering when a fashion decision between two nearly identical belts is being made. Streep proceeds to enlighten Hathaway about the true vocation of Designer clothing. She talks of art, of how the decisions that are made trickle down into the lives of the masses, how the world is somehow made a more beautiful place, how children are nurtured, how truth is advanced, how love is fostered (OK, so I'm embellishing a bit), etc. etc. In another generation of movies, it was the kind of scene where heavenly music would start playing in the back ground. Her purpose was to raise Hathaway's conscience by revealing that the fashion industry is NOT all about elitism, about faddish manufacturing of taste, about culturaly snobbishness, about insider cutural incest. Yeah, right. See, point one above.

Third - there is the scene where the earnest and concerned father travels to see his daughter because he is worried about how this new job is consuming her. She is never home. She is running around too much chasing after the whims of her boss. She is not taking time for herself. Etc. etc. etc. In a gesture of love and compassion he gives her some money because he is afraid she is not making the rent. In all of this, there is not one single concern raised over the fact that the woman is living with her boyfriend in the apartment whose rent needs paying. Post-modern ethics do not triumph in this movie, they are never questioned. When Hathaway awakens after a one-night fling it is passed over and forgotten, a mere burp in the digestion of bigger portions. Sex is incidental, being true to one's self, to one's friends, to the inner nobility which one must be concerned to preserve and nuture and promote, is the message of the movie.

"To thine own self be true" , Polonius advises Laertes, but Shakespeare had an idea that being true had some meaning other than personal inclination, else Hamlet would not have been plagued by his conscience. In this movie, the message about being true to one's own self, is far less morally instructive. Miranda Priestly (Streep) perhaps gives us better insight into its true nature. She is "true to herself" to a fault, sacrificing time with her charming twin children (a bit of an anomaly here), ruining her marriages, and sitting, alone, without makeup, wearing a common bathrobe, in an expensive hotel room in Paris. Yet as she reviews the cost, rehearsing it as a means of revealing the essential humanity that lies beneath her hard-bitten exterior, she arrives at the inevitable conclusion. It is worth it. This is her life. What ever price she has to pay or whatever price she requires other to pay, so that she may be Miranda Priestly, it is worth it.

With no external standards to guide us, the inevitable progression of human pride will direct our steps, large or small, down this path. The Devil Wears Pravda is a fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood walks in the dark forest of the Fashion Industry and is saved from the wolf that seeks to gobble her up. But one has to wonder, based on how the movie ends, if the salvation she receives, is just at the hand of another wolf in different clothing.  Clothing that does not quite hide the hooved feet showing underneath.

Comments

[Chris Bradley]

I haven't seen Curse of the Golden Corset, yet, but I shall! Mmmm. Gong Li.

[beepbeepitsme]

Can't say I was terribly impressed with 'The Devil Wears Prada' even with Merril Streep who I think is a great actress.

I saw 'Curse of the Golden Flower' today which I thought was fantastic.

http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-curse22dec22,0,2098349.story