THE FIRST MONDAY IN MAY

OUT 30 September / CERT 12A / 91 mins director andrew Rossi cast andrew Bolton, anna Wintour, Wong Kar-wai, Karl Lagerfeld CULTURE’S DEPENDENCE ON celebrity is explored in this intriguing, if preening documentary chronicling Vogue doyenne anna Wintour’s bid to stage a gala worthy of The Met’s costume curator andrew Bolton’s spectacular China: Through The Looking

Glass exhibition. Compared to the trenchancy of andrew Rossi’s 2011 exposé of The New

York Times, this lacks wit and causticity. Moreover, Wintour is allowed to hijack proceedings, with flashes of her ‘dragon lady’ temperament distracting from clashes between Bolton and artistic director Wong Kar-wai over such issues as colonialism, stereotyping and appropriation, which are central to the discussion of Western arrogance and fashion’s status as art.