Love, Cecil

The epistolary inference from the title of this fascinating documentary about renowned British photographer Cecil Beaton—one of the 20th century’s greatest visual masterminds—is particularly apt, as the film itself is a heartfelt cinematic love letter to Beaton, who was most known in America for his drawings and photographic work for Vogue magazine in the 1930s, as well as his award-winning costume and set designs for movies such as Gigi and My Fair Lady. Beaton’s keen eye for beauty took him from the world of fashion photography to war photography; during the postwar years he would test his mettle in Hollywood, photographing the likes of Greta Garbo and others, before getting the commission of a lifetime for My Fair Lady in 1964. But this is no simple hagiographic tribute; Love, Cecil does not glaze over Beaton’s failings—including his bitchy elitism. His most infamous failing occurred at the height of his fame in America in 1938, when Beaton was temporarily blacklisted for still-inexplicable anti-Semitic references in his drawings for Vogue. This flirtation with anti-Semitism didn’t put off the British Royal Family, however—the next year, Beaton became the royals’ official photographer. Vreeland succeeds in painting Beaton as a social outsider who used his talent for artistic self-invention to insinuate himself in the upper ranks of society. A thoughtful and visually stunning portrait of a true British eccentric who was one of the premier visual artists of the last century, this is highly recommended. (M. Sandlin)