I’ve longed to watch Bill Cunningham New York for months and I finally had the chance to on Friday!
The movie packed a potent punch of style, satire and (surprise!) sadness. It’s both a documentation of New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham and an intimate look at the city through it’s oldest inhabitants.
Street-style photographers are really just style-stalkers deep down inside, waiting for the right chance to snap!
It was hard to lose track of Bill. He zoomed around Manhattan events and streets sporting his signature blue windbreaker on a bike.
The man was a Nikon ninja!
His shutter speed must’ve been an eighth of mine, because the moment he lifted his arms, he would drop it. Pressing the flash button is no big deal.
The result of hard work:
Makes you wonder, did Bill help design his own movie poster?
At the time of filming, Bill Cunningham lived in a claustrophobic two-story apartment at Carnegie Hall Studios. He joked that one day he’d come out of the apartment either in a coffin (no need to explain) or a hospital stretcher (due to the precariously stacked art books on filing cabinets).
He had neither kitchen nor bathroom in his quarters. The only thing that distinguished the room from a library was a tiny cot he is pictured above sitting on! I don’t think any New Yorker could bare to use a public shower facility at home.
After the movie was made, Bill moved to another apartment (this time on the edge of Central Park). Carnegie Hall tried to relocate it’s aging residents to convert beautiful artist studios to grey cubicle spaces. Boo.
I can’t wait until Bill Cunningham New York comes out in DVD!
