Miranda ‘fashion print’ Priestly with declining book sales must turn to her old assistant, now nemesis in the form of Dior’s senior online executive Emily Charlton to ‘reignite the fashion’.
Back in 2003 a book was written and published by Lauren Weisberger called The Devil Wears Prada. It spent 6 months in the Sunday Times bestseller list and sold 13 million copies worldwide. Subsequently in 2006 the first – and what was due to be the only film – launched and quickly became a cult classic. Adored by millions around the globe, it was known and remembered for its many wickedly memorable lines and biting satire of the fashion industry in the early 2000s. Designed around Anna Wintour, who was then and still is, the style queen, she became the mental backbone and inspiration for our devilish antihero, Miranda Priestly.
Fast forward 20 years, almost to the day and we see the second although hopefully not the last instalment finally land in cinemas. After 222 million people rapidly absorbed the film’s first full trailer online, anticipation peaked for this new ultra-stylish fashion adventure. Once again set in the heady high stakes (although now much grander) Runway offices of New York, and at more than double the original film’s budget. Although the majority is now for the heightened cost of each main actor, this film is once again an elegant plunge into the fast moving fashion world where haute couture designs are created for the oh so privileged few.
Bringing back the joyous cast from 2006, and launching the career of two, we have the queen of fashion Miranda Priestly played by Meryl Streep, the devil incarnate whose biting wit and nonchalance to those around her created an iconic cinematically ice cold character. Alongside her is the ever attentive Nigel Kipling, played by Stanley Tucci, who like the others has not aged and can still throw a lovingly stinging designer line Andy’s way. Cue Andrea ‘Andy’ Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway, whose previous role was initially as the ugly duckling, a ‘put upon’ apparently chubby new assistant, her fashion choice to wear hideous skirts and blue polyblend sweaters until she saw the light of the walk in ‘size six’ wardrobes of Runway. The returning cast would not be complete without Emily Blunt, Miranda’s original number one assistant who now heads up Dior’s successful online marketing world; once again in offices far grander than that of the first outing. As if moulded by Miranda, her character is sharper than ever and belies her surname with her Mary Poppins’ styled eloquent British accent that adds to her whole charismatic charm all over again.
To make this work once more we see the returning director David Frankel (Marley & Me) and senior writer Aline Brosh McKenna (Cruella) once again team up to potentially recreate the magic of the first. 20 years on, Miranda has been feeling the pressure of the online world’s sales; now personified by Emily at Dior, Miranda’s grip is beginning to wane although her love of her controlling role is almost as strong as ever although now policed by the stunning Amari Mari, played by Simone Ahley (F1) to blunt her often poisonous tongue. To regain her hold she is delivered from on high her saviour in the form of Andy, a financially struggling yet award winning journalist fighting for the right of free speech in a rapidly changing hardcopy designer world collapsing in upon itself.
There are of course obvious comparisons between this and the first film. Prada 1, gave us many brilliant lines – some improvised – that will be remembered for many years to come. The second doesn’t quite meet the peak standards of the original on point script, yet with a similar build budget, this outing has given us an increasingly lavish spectacle of a more open, visually gorgeous world including Lake Como and Milan alongside an almost full size recreation of Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. With bigger sets and a gravitational pull that has drawn voluminous cameos to the film including Donatella Versace and John Batiste, it is the music that once again pulls this tale to another level. Opening with The End OF An Era, by Dua Lipa, it is however Lady Gaga and Doechii’s track, Runway that powers the last act’s spectacle near conclusion alongside Gaga’s additional track Shape Of A Woman sung on stage within a fashion show in Milan.
There is the distinct possibility there will be a third film in the same giddy universe although Anne has stated she prefers to do something entirely different but with the same cast. A second book was published in 2013 called Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns although this was set 10 years after the first and will most likely not be used for the third in this currently successful duology. With the box office soaring past figures of the first film and currently approaching $500m at the time of writing, Prada 2 has indeed become a ‘runway’ success.
May the bridges I burn, light my way.
I love my job, I love my job, I love my job!
That’s all…
Author: Piers, Maidstone Store
