Directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland
Running time 1 hour 38 minutes
MPAA rating: not rated

by Deborah Krieger

As I watch more and more movies, I find myself recommending hypothetical double bills of films that complement one another in some way. In the hypothetical Deborah Krieger Film Festival, every film chosen to be viewed in a single session would address similar themes in similar settings, differing in terms of their aesthetics (Snowpiercer and Hotel Artemis), or present two views of the same kind of subject (Edge of Seventeen and Carrie Pilby). Love, Cecil, the exhaustively-researched new documentary about designer-photographer-writer Cecil Beaton, would then pair nicely with Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson’s mannered comedy-drama about a figure with whom Cecil Beaton would respect in principle and likely loathe in person. Beyond the biographical similarities between the fictional Reynolds Woodcock and the very real Cecil Beaton—they were both English; they loved dressing up their mothers; they really loved their mothers in general; they were inspired by the female form; they were active during the same period of time—it would be extremely curious to be able to compare and contrast how Woodcock and Beaton approached the world. As a designer, you control one-third of the conversation: you control what is made. As designer-photographer you control what is made, and how it is represented. The third element is us, the audience: how what has been made and represented is now seen.