Mademoiselle C

In contrast to the intimidating Anna Wintour portrayed in the documentary The September Issue and the roman à clef The Devil Wears Prada, the heroine here—fashionista Carine Roitfeld—is an all-around wonderful person and women's-wear muse. Director Fabien Constant's upbeat (although not terribly weighty) look at fashion-editor Roitfeld shows her operating in nonstop glamour-drive. Quitting the Paris edition of Vogue, where she had made her reputation (especially with highly eroticized Tom Ford photo layouts dubbed "porno chic"), Roitfeld heads to New York and launches her own magazine, CR Fashion Book, as a "laboratory" for her imagery and fantasies (a brief, silly "war" with her former publisher Condé Nast ensues over the use of star photographers). Roitfeld also creates the deluxe illustrated book The Little Black Dress, wows the Cannes Film Festival with an all-black catwalk show, and becomes a grandmother. She is described as an inspiration who inspires the best from everyone around her, including shutterbug Bruce Weber; models Lara Stone, Kate Upton, Linda Evangelista, and Stephanie Seymour; and celebrity guests Sarah Jessica Parker, Kanye West, and P. Diddy. Mademoiselle C offers only mere glimpses into Roitfeld's stable (unmarried) private life with long-term partner Christian Restoin, and serves up only small hints of Roitfeld's childhood and Coco Chanel-influenced evolution. Fans of similar catwalk-u-mentaries like Unzipped or Lagerfeld Confidential will likely enjoy this one as well. Recommended. (C. Cassady)