Steineded How sad is this?

ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

NycLondon "Are clothes Art?" This film addresses this question. A documentary about organising the Metropolitan Museum of Art annual fashion exhibition and dinner for celebrities and rich people that occurs on the night before the exhibition opens. The exhibition is organised by the so called "Costume Insitute", the department at the museum that collects clothes. The department clearly feels that it is considered a second class citizen at this museum, as we hear many, many, many times from all of the main players in this documentary, that the Costume Institute is part of making a modern Museum that "does not have the traditional C19th view of art".However, what these people forget is that the Metropolitan Museum of Art is already very far from that. Indeed their stereotypical image of "what Art is", namely 'paintings and sculpture' was never true of many Americans museums, let alone this museum. Such American museums collected "non-Western" art from the beginning of the C20th. Thus, collecting "clothes as Art" not radical as Anna Wintour (editor of US Vogue) and the Costume Institute (lead by Bolton and Koda) suggest. However, what is confusing is the blurring the line between curatorial scholarship, and commercial sponsorship which the Costume Institute often proposes. (This is far from unique, as many museums in the Western world now suffer from this dilemma.) Thus, the exhibition organiser Andrew Bolton wears the clothes designed by his husband in at least half the film (this is not revealed, but the designs are very distinctive). The tension between scholarship and fashion is also featured in the film. A curator in the Asian Dept at the museum (who speaks Chinese to the Chinese designer of the exhibition) is always worried that the gloss of the high fashion will over shadow his galleries. Frankly, what did he really expect?! As viewers will see, for this exhibition the museum decided to put half the clothes in the Asian gallery space, and not in normal exhibition gallery space. I saw the exhibition and have to say this unique design ploy was very nice to see.So what is lacking is this documentary? Any serious discussion of the important intellectual issues. Any real attempt to edit idiosyncratic details from an objective account how to to mount a scholarly exhibition at the best museum in America. For example, why does Andre Leon Talley feature so strongly in this documentary? What do we have to see a photo of Bolton as 19 year old and vintage footage of London fashion in the 1980s and Bolton ruminating on the "bravery of new Romantics"? Nothing to do with China or the exhibition. Who comes off well? Karl Lagerfeld: "We make clothes, not art." Jean-Paul Gaultier, who knows the history of fashion. He walks around the opening and knows about cabinets' contents and artists - amazing!Weird facts: if you are a "special" museum trustee (Wintour) you can walk around the museum with cup of coffee whenever you want! For those who do not no visit museums, this is strictly forbidden for the rest of the world.The gala raises "$12,500,000" for a museum that requires $390,000,000 annual, OK every dolla 'elps, but all da hoopla fir … waah?Would I recommend this film? Not really, as we learn nothing new about fashion, fund raising, or mounting museums exhibitions.

JonathanWalford What I like about this documentary is that it unabashedly shows Anna Wintour and her colleagues express their perceptions of what is fashion, what is art and what is important in their lives. We observe Wintour's meetings with trembling underlings pushing endless cups of coffee at her, waiting to hear her snide comments about who is important and who is not and what will be done that day according to what she wants. Its hard to take Anna and her withering looks and Bolton's ill-fitted Thom Browne suits seriously. However, every industry is like this -- you could have a documentary about the New York Yankees, and everyone there would be just as serious about winning the pennant as these people are about creating a blockbuster exhibition. Questions are raised from watching this film that make you think: Is fashion an art form? Does art have to be relevant to be taken seriously? Is it fine art or is it a commercial product?

athenamuses-308-200437 A very good documentary that perhaps unwittingly reveals the shallowness of the participants. To me, Andrew Bolton is the only person who appears to have any substance at all. Watching Justin Bieber screeching in the hallway, people sniping at each other, sycophants gurgling over Rihanna's bizarre outfit which she caresses like some exotic animal and proudly announces that it took two years to make. What for? The dominant feeling of the entire movie was displacement and, for me, depression. I don't think one person laughed, took a walk, relaxed, or expressed an original thought in the whole movie. All this effort, all this tension, for what? To pay Rihanna twice the amount that any other celebrity has ever asked for? Why not just make a contribution to the Met? It was really an eye opener into excess, narcissism and a kind of professional, daily misery. I felt a little ill after watching it. The excesses of preening, posturing and vanity were all too much to bear. But the strangest thing is not one of these people except for Mr. Bolton, had anything remotely interesting to say.

Dave McClain One of the great things about movies is they expand our horizons – if we let them. Learning new things, broadening our world view, even discovering new interests. All can be benefits of watching a well-done film, regardless of the topic, but the individual Movie Fan first must decide to invest the time – and do so with an open mind. For many years, I didn't care to see documentaries… until I actually started watching documentaries. I discovered for myself that they don't just inform, but they cover many different topics, come in many different styles, can be extremely creative and can even be surprisingly entertaining. Before seeing "The First Monday in May" (PG-13, 1:30), I didn't have much interest in the world of fashion. Afterwards, I still don't. But that doesn't mean that in watching this doc I didn't learn new things, expand my world view, discover new interests, or appreciate the film's quality. Au contraire.This documentary examines some important aspects of fashion against the backdrop of planning and executing the biggest fashion exhibition ever at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Fashion world icons including European designers such as Jean-Paul Gaultier and Karl Lagerfeld discuss whether high fashion is simply "applied art" or whether it can (and should) ever be considered its own category of art, on par with painting, sculpture and architecture. Then we see Andrew Bolton, curator of the Met's Costume Institute, work with Vogue editor Anna Wintour (the alleged inspiration for Meryl Streep's character in 2006's "The Devil Wears Prada") as they blur that line further with their annual Met Ball.On the first Monday of May, the Costume Institute Gala (as the Met Ball is officially called) brings together people from the worlds of fashion, politics, high society, the arts, music and film for a lavish evening which serves as the most important fundraiser of the year for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. According to the film, "The Met Ball is the Super Bowl of social fashion events." Almost every year, the gala includes a themed exhibition combining fashion with other forms of art. The Met's exhibition "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" in 2011 (the year after McQueen's death) was the gala's most popular, but also created a standard that the Met Ball struggled to surpass."On the First Monday in May" is documentary filmmaker Andrew Rossi's look behind the scenes as the Met tries to top that 2011 exhibition with its 2015 theme "China: Through the Looking Glass". We see the planning and preparations for the exhibition as the main players discuss and disagree over issues ranging from aesthetics to cultural sensitivities. Some of the planners even fly to China to talk about the exhibition with the Chinese government and to promote the event, while Wintour, the long-time gala chairperson, works with her staff on which celebrities are coming, how to avoid potential problems in the seating arrangements and whether they can afford Rhianna, who has been scheduled to perform at the dinner. As the months leading up to the 2015 gala seem to fly by, Vogue is also moving its offices to One World Trade, the Met staff is increasingly worried about whether the exhibition can be finished in time and everybody wonders if the 2015 Met Ball will be as successful as they want and need it to be.This documentary is worthwhile, but unexceptional. It's well-balanced between establishing context, gathering first-person commentary from all the major players and utilizing Rossi's extraordinary access to the places and moments that he needs to tell this story. The film is educational and interesting, but not especially creative or exciting. The high points include taking in the splendor of the finished exhibition, checking out the beautiful outfits the celebrities chose to wear to this major event with such a specific theme, and seeing how many famous faces you can spot among the attendees. Of course, you have to actually see the film to enjoy any of that. A Movie Fan who only wants to laugh or see stories of death and destruction may not enjoy this movie, but open-minded cinephiles, and fans of art, fashion and celebrity culture, almost certainly will. "B+"