The Devil Wears Prada

There are two Parises.  Those who live here know this rather early on in their time in the capital; one being the Paris of the people, the businesses, the cafés, even the tourists, and the other…well, the other is more elusive.  It can be found in the 7th arrondissement, and along the rue de Seine in the 6th with its chic galleries, and on the Avenue Montaigne amongst all those label haute couture boutiques.  This is the Paris of the fashionistas, the rich, the stylish, the chic.  It is more often than not the Paris of the cinema – smoky, exclusive, provocative.  You can see this Paris in the faces of those undeniably Parisienne thin young women – models, most likely.  It is the Paris that beats along with the unstoppable heart of the fashion and art worlds. And what people fail to realize is that any city which falls on the map representing fashion’s increasingly global grasp on the world can be split in two: the city of the people and the city of the clothes.  This includes New York, bien sur, whose fashionable side is satirically represented in the new film The Devil Wears Prada, featuring the divine Meryl Streep and based on the popular novel of the same name. Meryl is not only in top form as the title ‘devil’ in this saucy romp through high-rise corporate Manhattan and Semaine-de-la-Mode Paris, she also wears the Prada. As well as the Chanel, the Hermés, the Versace and countless other haute couture labels that those sharper (and mascara clad) eyes among us might notice. What the film lacks in story it clearly makes up for by looking so damn good, thank you very much. Anne Hathaway (of The Princess Diaries and Brokeback Mountain) is Andy Sachs, an impressionable, aspiring journalist just out of school who walks right into the clutches of Streep’s Miranda Priestly, the cold and cruel queen of Vogue-like Runway Magazine. It is here that we get a keyhole view into the world of I’m-too-chic-for-words European fashion. Andy’s spunky attitude mixed with her naïveté catches Miranda’s eye, and the insult-filled tête-à-tête quickly turns into a kill-or-be-killed battle of wits. Quite soon, Andy is swept up in her fashion-filled life, complete with a fancy business trip to our beloved fashion capital and a somewhat (I didn’t think so) handsome suitor several years her senior. Will she continue down this avenue of vanity and glamour, surely headed for penthouses in Neuilly and on Central Park West?  Or will she give it up to pursue those things which ‘really matter’ in life? The film never digs much deeper than that (example: we are to believe her relationship is in ruins once Andy misses a birthday – quelle horreur!) and the end is a cop-out, but no bother – with all the madcap mayhem and beautiful couture, you’ll hardly notice.  Newbie Anne Hathaway’s fresh if slightly cloying performance serves as a nice compliment to the steamroller of talent that is Miss Streep.  Plus, the scenes filmed in Paris are perfection – especially the nighttime street corner scene in the 5th that just breathes romance. If you’re in the mood for devilish fun without too much strain on the nerves (or in the brain), The Devil Wears Prada is obligatoire! (The Devil Wears Prada is out this month in the US and on 27 September in France.) C. Dan Heching