'The Devil Wears Prada'

The Devil Wears Prada (2006) 

Director: David Frankel
Genre: Comedy
Certificate: PG


After being assigned the task of writing a blog I decided (after much deliberation) that I would review and analyse films. I will be writing about a different film weekly exploring various genres. My first film is in fact a fashion film named ‘The Devil Wears Prada,’ which is a film based on the renowned ‘wicked witch’ of the fashion world ‘Anna Wintor.’ Originally a best selling novel, ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ made its debut on screen in cinema in 2006. The opening scene features a young naive small town journalist ‘Andy Sachs’ played by Anne Hathaway.
The film explores the notion of ‘face in fashion’: the idea that people within the fashion industry must conform to the stereotypical ‘model’ look. Throughout the film comical aspects of the fashion industry are revealed, the script is full of satire and irony, this is bought out when Andy is first employed by the fashion magazine ‘runway’ and Miranda; editor of ‘Runway’ enters into the building.
The journalists get wind of her approaching and in a wild frenzy attempt to prepare for her arrival. It is here that the audience are made aware that the character of Miranda Priestly is extremely feared. As Miranda enters the office she makes no recognition of Andy’s presence other than tossing her coat over her, though amusing, we get a feel of the degradation Miranda inflicts upon people that she meets.
Throughout the film we see Andy changing into a fashion icon. She begins to wear Couture and extremely expensive fashion labels. Her partner becomes aware of this change and believes that she is becoming like the clones she had described to him at the office. Concerned, he confronts Andy and she becomes defensive although notices that she has been becoming addicted to work as she is invited to more and more.
Her life becomes completely revolved around her work and it is noticed by all that Miranda seems to almost like Andy. Eventually Anne Hathaway having gone through a series of ‘self discovery’ finds out that she is not cut out for the gruelling fashion industry and instead chooses comfort over career.
Miranda’s life is shown to be miserable and lonely, and we can somewhat understand why she is the way that she is. ‘The Devil wears Prada’ is a breathe of fresh air. We are made to breathe a sigh of relief when Andy decides to be herself again and goes back to doing what she loves the best small town journalism. The viewers are left with far more respect for Andy than highly successful and wealthy Miranda.

Cast:

Meryl Streep – Miranda Priestly

Anne Hathaway – Andy Sachs

Emily Blunt – Emily

Stanley Tucci – Nigel

Simon Baker – Christian Thompson

Adrian Grenier – Nate

Tracie Thoms – Lily

Rich Sommer - Doug

Daniel Sunjata – James Holt

David Marshall Grant – Richard Sachs

James Naughton- Steven

Tibor Feldman – Irv Ravitz

Rebecca Mader – Jocelyn

Jimena Hoyos – Lucia

Gisele Bundchen