Bonspiel Creation

          Bill Cunningham.  The guy has an amazing smile.

Last night I went and saw the  Bill Cunningham documentary with Rik and Julie at cinecenta.  It was fascinating.  Bill is 80 plus years old and still working, apparently every waking hour of his days, for the New York Times, shooting street fashion and in the evenings, socialites at charity events.  He is definitely living an austere life, with no kitchen in his apartment but dozens of filing cabinets full of negatives,(he still uses film cameras).  He’s surrounded by the hoi polloi of new york city (he is invited to every event), but will not accept even a glass of water, as he feels he is only free to do exactly as he wants if he’s not under any obligation (he has also torn up paycheques—“money is the cheapest thing....freedom, that’s the most valuable”(to paraphrase). Just when I started thinking he was kind of crazy, or at least seriously driven and possibly deeply unhappy, he is shown radiating joy and vitality in levels exceeding most people a quarter his age.  He does so so often throughout the film that it’s undeniable that his choices work well for him.

In his daily uniform of 16 dollar street-sweeper bluepolycotton jacket he rides his bike, helmetless, (and except for one incident)gracefully and assuredly through the streets of new york at all hours of the day and night, dismounting and locking the bike in order to photograph anybody who catches his eye.  His outlook is  egalitarian in that his only concern is whether the clothing is interesting---the cut, the line, the color---not the brand, cost, or prestige of the person wearing it.  He’s not a photographer in that he is not concerned with the composition or quality of the photograph, only in what it reveals.  Various highly respected figures in the fashion world pay their respects to his unwavering eye and unique sensibility. 

None of the people interviewed who are in his life (work colleagues and longtime neighbours) seem to know anything about his personal life.  This introduces an element of intrigue that intensifies until,  in the climactic scene of the film the documentarist asks Bill two questions, assuring him that he is not obligated to answer if he’s not comfortable.  The way Bill responds to the questions makes sudden sense of everything about him.  It’s a fascinating study of the result of creating a very unusual life from a set of deeply and unwaveringly held convictions that manage one big fundamental contradiction.

Some of the scenes took place in the lavish apartments and artists’ studios of the Carnegie center. I remember a couple of years ago there was a thing about how the last artists there were being evicted; most of them were over 80 and had lived theresince the 1940’s.  The incredible richness of these backdrops, contrasting with Bill’s austere work and living environment,  adds to the poignancy of this portrait of an artist nearing the end of his life.  Five thumbs up!