As a creature Bill Cunningham exists not just in New York but could only exist in New York. Only The Big Apple would provide an environment supportive of an someone obsessed with photographing what people are wearing. Certainly, the Los Angeles area provides a sustaining environment for huge populations of paparazzi but they survive by taking photos of celebrities and only by extension the clothes they are in (or more accurately the clothes they are mostly out of). Cunningham's visceral need to bike around NYC's streets and snap photos of what folks on the street are wearing in addition to his paparazzi duties wouldn't pay in other towns. And it is his obsessiveness that gives this documentary of his life its fire. Watching him interact with other people in the film is interesting because they seem to be talking with a cartoon character come to life. If Bill is the Road Runner (or Wile E Coyote, your choice) then New York is the cartoon canyons they compete in. Bill actually lives at Carnegie Hall (answering the age old question on how you get there - you move in when it was still residential and rent controlled and fight their efforts to evict you.) Like a cartoon canyon, Bill's New York is simplified down to a pantomime background. Bill's work limits itself to just the glamorous, well-tailored residents and beautiful spaces of the city making the streets seem like one massive catwalk. But in the same sense that Bill does not see the need to define himself further than photographer, his documentary does not need to define the city greater than a stage. The only major shortcoming of the movie is the question of whether it carries substantive enough material to have warranted a theatrical release. This could have easily been a two-part PBS special and it would not have seemed to have pushed the boundaries of televised entertainment. In short, if you enjoy New York or fashion r biography, this light documentary is for you.

I can't positively gush about this movie more than any other viewer can. This documentary warms the heart and allows people to see a side of life not many seem to slow down enough to view. I had never heard of him before watching this, but Bill truly is a great man. This movie makes me want to slow down and appreciate the everyday styles that people choose. I loved the various side-interviews with notable subjects of his photographs and colleagues, many of whom have similarly quirky yet important stories to tell. The music was so well grafted into the scenes that you may overlook it, but it guides the times and New York-living so well that it shouldn't be overlooked, either. If you're looking for a heart-warming documentary about a very important figure and artist in modern fashion photography, you'll enjoy learning about Bill as much as I did.

I wasn't sure how I felt going into Bill Cunningham New York. I thought to myself this is a man who goes around New York photographing men and women wearing their attire, and doing a lot of cutting and pasting into making it a weekly section in The New York Times. But I also thought that this couldn't be the end of the story. Something about Bill Cunningham had to be interesting, creative, and unique to get his own film.Thankfully, I thought correctly, and now am fully intrigued by the life of eighty-year old Bill Cunningham. His job is not only a different one, but one he tirelessly continues to do as he rides around on his twenty-ninth Schwinn bicycle up and down lower Manhattan to photograph boots, hats, scarfs, clothes, pants, etc. This is a man who through thick and thin keeps on smiling. You'd never know he was having a bad day because he'd most likely smile during that too.Bill lives in a tiny, rent-controlled apartment in Carnegie Hall where there is no kitchen, but dozens of file cabinets filled with negatives and positives of photos he's taken over the past several years. He sleeps on a mattress that lies on top of several more file cabinets. All I can say is if you think you're a dedicated lawyer, do you sleep on your briefcase? The film is 90% about Bill and his photography, and the other 10% tries to nudge him in the side trying to dig deeper in his personal life when he won't let you. We keep asking questions like "Is Bill straight?," "Does he date?," and etc, but we get little to no answers. Maybe because this is a documentary about his work not his personal life. But the neglection of something a documentary on a specific person needs, a little background, just brings this gem down a tad bit.Bill explains how when he was a young child, at Church on Sundays, instead of listening to the preacher he'd be too busy staring at other people's hats. This shows that his passion for fashion, a relatively eclectic thing, started early and never held up.Many of us work at a job that keeps us satisfied and puts food on the table. Bill works a job that keeps him over-joyed and puts food on his floor next to his file-cabinets. Rarely do a lot of people truly love what they are doing, but Bill is one of them. He's a person who if you watch be happy for a while, it begins to make you smile. He's the kind of person that just fills you with glee.Bill Cunningham New York is short and sweet, but still leaves many questions unanswered that I'm sure will remain unanswered forever. Bill is a closed book, but open if you ask him anything about fashion. He's a mirror-image of what you can become if you take life on the slow track and live a very basic, yet eventful life. It's almost inspiring with its storytelling of just a simple, yet so complex man of interest.Starring: Bill Cunningham. Directed by: Richard Press.

I had very little idea of who Bill Cunningham was other that he is a photographer, works for the New York Times and that's about it. This documentary is a stunning insight into a man who is really an unknown. At 80 years old Cunningham stills works for the Times, he cycles around the streets of NYC taking photos of everything and anything, but his real passion is fashion. The images that get into the Times are of everyday people in NYC, who for what ever reasons, perhaps a unusual coat, or pair of shoes, stand out from the rest. As he himself says, he's not interested in celebrities, the everyday is more beautiful.His passion for what he does is immense and consuming, he admits he had no time to do very little else, but has no interest in the glamour side of fashion and lives incredibly humbly, prefers cheap sandwiches to fancy dinners or repairing a cheap rain mac with tape to save buying a new one 'that will eventually tear anyway'. He is a wonderful character with a seemingly endless joy for his work and the world around him. A career spanning decades has lead to him meeting an array of people and photography thousands more, his work fills endless filing cabinets in his tiny studio apartment above Carnegie Hall (which sadly came to an end, after the Carnegie artist director kicked out the last remaining tenants) much of which will never be published. His passion for his work shows clearly when he is awarded a medal by the French government. Not only his acceptance speech wonderful and moving, before hand he is busy working, snapping guests, which as one woman describes, 'You are working at your own party?!' The film follows Cunningham as he goes on his daily journeys, as well as a trip to Paris for fashion week and we also get to see him putting his column together, remarkably he still uses old film cameras and choices to get them developed at a small shop. He has absolute perfection for his column, ensuring the photos are in the right order. We also see a handful of Cunningham's subjects from over the years, an array of wonderful if not eccentric New Yorkers, all individual and delightful in their own way. The excitement they have for appearing in Cunningham's column is great to see and shows what a wonderful job he does. As he is never rude or horrid about what he sees, it's almost a stamp of approval, Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue, even says that Cunningham foresees fashion well before desingers do and suddenly next season, an idea is everywhere.Cunningham remains an unknown in the sense that the film reveals very little about him. Nor does it seem that those who have known him for years, know much about him. When near the end of the film he is asked if he has ever had a relationship, he laughs and says no, he never has had time. He opens up briefly about family and desire. It is a fascinating moment, one that becomes ultimately sad as Cunningham breaks down momentarily, for what reason we can only guess.This film is a fantastic insight into one person and their passion, one that is simply told but is uplifting and often funny and if anything inspiring. It shows that some people lead the most simplistic life and yet achieve so much happiness and that is a glorious thing.More reviews at my site iheartfilms.weebly.com