Review: 'The Times of Bill Cunningham' chronicles the photographer's history but doesn't capture his spirit
If you know Bill Cunningham, it’s likely from his decades of photographing two wildly divergent scenes for The New York Times: The whirl of society galas, and the kaleidoscope of street fashion. You may also know him from the 2010 documentary, sanctioned by The Times, “Bill Cunningham: New York.”
Those who saw that film may find director Mark Bozek’s new documentary, “The Times of Bill Cunningham,” somewhat redundant. Those who didn’t may find it incomplete.
The heart of the film is an interview a young Bozek conducted with Cunningham in 1994 for a career retrospective at Carnegie Hall. It was supposed to be a 10-minute interview, but Bozek got Cunningham talking for far longer.
Cunningham, who died in 2016 at the age of 87, certainly had an interesting life. As a young man, he worked at Bonwit Teller, the famed fashion retailer, but had a side business designing hats for society ladies and movie stars — even Marilyn Monroe – under the name William J. He lived in the studio apartments at Carnegie Hall in the 1950s, with such neighbors as Marlon Brando, Leonard Bernstein and Paddy Chayevsky. He worked as an assistant to designers Sophie Shonnard and Noni Park, founders of the exclusive fashion house Chez Ninon, whose most famous client was Jacqueline Kennedy.
It was Shonnard and Park who first gave Cunningham a camera, which launched the career that defined him. He shot everything he could, but was particularly fascinated with the goings-on of the New York elite and the fashion choices on Manhattan’s streets. He eventually worked both gigs into two pages every Sunday in the Times, “Society Hours” and “On the Street,” with rich photo collages that showed his view of the city. Vogue editor Anna Wintour once quipped, “We all get dressed for Bill.”
Bozek augments the interview footage with the garrulous, slightly embarrassed Cunningham with a wealth of photos from the late photographer’s private files. There are images of every celebrity you can think of from those decades; he even got a shot in 1978 of the reclusive Greta Garbo, walking along in a nutria coat.
What’s missing, in Bozek’s construction and perfunctory narration (nicely delivered by Sarah Jessica Parker), is a lot of context for how Cunningham’s predilections for fashion translated into his work. The photos make for an interesting slide show, but one wishes for a little more about the man behind the camera.
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‘The Times of Bill Cunningham’
★★1/2
Opened February 14 in select cities; opens Friday, March 13, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but probably PG-13 for mild language and mature themes. Running time: 74 minutes.