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00:00:07
Speaker 1: From the Australian. This is the weekend edition of The Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's time for the Devil Wears Prada to.
00:00:21
Speaker 2: Jehany Fendi Bulder.
00:00:23
Speaker 1: We're back in New York. The dialogue is haughty, the fashion is detailed, and the luxury is quiet. Luxury that is so quiet you need an era trumpet. Nikki Gammel, our chief film critic, joins me with her review of the movie that's about to take cinemas by storm and why she found it equal parts spectacular and sobering. Now, Nikki, I've got to ask. The greatest trope, I guess in the first Devil West Prata was the way Miranda Priestley made her entrance. Oh yes, Meryl Streep, as the Runway editor in chief, would storm in to her own office and just fooling her overcoat and you know, forty five thousand dollar handbag on the desk of whoever was nearest. If she's still doing that twenty years on.
00:01:13
Speaker 2: Well, it's all change. She has to hang up her own coat, which is huge. Not only that private cars no more. She has to take an uber also, she has to fly economy. It's so delicious Basically, the grand gatekeeper of old is being put in her place by the world of media. Now. It's kind of like Miranda's feeling her age. God, that's not what you're wearing to the dinner, That's all.
00:01:53
Speaker 1: A lot has happened since The Devil Wears Prida came out in two thousand and six and the sequel in cinemas. Now, the fashion and police have been replaced by influencers. Direct to consumer models have short circuited middlemen, and of course the world of print journalism has been ravaged by the Internet. It's a free for all. Everyone has a platform, but does anyone have any style? Protagonist Miranda Priestley played by Meryl Streep certainly does, and so does her offsider Nigel played by Stanley Tucci.
00:02:24
Speaker 2: The Brunello Cucinelli pants. Love those, and it's definitely need an embroidered two piece totem set, but not the terror catta because you're so pale.
00:02:36
Speaker 1: Journalist Andy Sachs played by Anne Hathaway is back in the sequel, but this time sax is no assistant. She's the key, hopefully to saving Priestley's magazine, Empire Runway.
00:02:49
Speaker 3: So he said that that we need, I mean, Runway needs to take control of the narrative of the Speed Pash story and restore credibility. But I thought that for sure you had approved, and we're excited, and that's.
00:03:04
Speaker 1: Why I came in here all like, oh, I can't wait to see this movie. And I've got two screenings booked for this weekend with my children and my own mum. Friends. This is going to be the multi generational movie of the year, isn't it. Everyone I know is going to at least one screening.
00:03:23
Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, I actually don't know.
00:03:26
Speaker 1: You know.
00:03:26
Speaker 2: I came away from Wuthering Heights and I just thought, in my bones, this is going to be huge, and women are going to see it again and again and again with the devil wez prior to look, I love this film. As film critic, I gave it four stars. But I think that was also tinged because of the fact that I am a writer and a journalist and this film is about journalism, how journalism works now, kind of the demise of legacy media, and it's heartbreak. I kind of hate to say it, but I ended up crying at the end, and I really wasn't expecting that from the Devil Wears Prata too. I thought it would be just a lovely, you know, fluffball confection like the one we had twenty years ago in two thousand and six, you know, the Devil Wears Brat of one. This one, for any journalist, it's kind of like a stab in the heart because it feels like it's too close to the bone. It is very, very real in terms of what it depicts about the decimation of news rooms and magazine worlds all over the globe. And it's really painful to watch.
00:04:41
Speaker 1: There's Charlton, who're glowing. Seems retail still suits you. Nigel, you're hanging in there by a fingernails.
00:04:47
Speaker 2: Do you rememal what magazine's think?
00:04:49
Speaker 1: All right, come on in, everybody, take a seat. Lots to discuss a really important theme in the first Devilwez Prata, and I'm assuming this one also was power, the abuse of power, certainly by people of influence in this world of fashion, and how the forces of fashion dictate what even the hideous blue jumpers that people at me a wearing. Yes, How are the characters in this movie, particularly Miranda Priestley, coping with that shift in the power balance.
00:05:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, look, the power dynamic has completely changed. When you know, the first Devil Wears Prata came out, major fashion labels were kind of distancing themselves from it because it was a real evisceration of the Vogue ecosystem, even though the magazine in the film is called Runway. This time around, it's really interesting in terms of how the power has shifted to the advertisers and the major labels. Basically, the premise of the film is at the start, Miranda Priestley, you know, ice Queen extraordinari, She's canceled. It's very, very damaging for the business, for stockholders and all the rest of it. So she has to try and retrieve the situation. And that's how our gorgeous heroine Andy Sachs ends up back with Miranda. But this time she absolutely sees through Miranda. So in a way Devil was prior to too, really really humanizes Miranda Priestley, gives her a touch of vulnerability, and dare I say it, the Devil is the angel in disguise. In terms of legacy media trying to preserve the integrity of old journalism.
00:06:38
Speaker 1: Mel Streep's betrayal is so interesting isn't it. And I think everyone has always assumed that she based the character on and a Winter. Of course, in the story, it's an a Winter figure. But she said in an interview recently with Stephen Colbert that in fact it was a combination of the film directors Mike Nichols and Clint Eastwood, that this this sort of quiet power and not saying a and
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keeping your voice very low and using all those tools of manipulation, I suppose to intimidate and to control an environment. What an amazing portrayal for Meryl Street across the generation. Really, she wasn't that old when she played this character the first time. How has she aged into the new Miranda Priestley now?
00:07:22
Speaker 2: Well, physically it doesn't look like she's aged at all, but I guess that's Hollywood. Ah. She looks amazing for a seventy six year old woman. But I think in terms of devils prior to too, which is why I connected to it even more than the first one. Was you really connect with Miranda this time? You know, I've got four kids, I am surrounded by teenagers. You know, you can suddonic little asides, you know, as she is policed for saying the wrong words, and she doesn't even know which wrong words she says. At one point in a staff meeting, well you know, was it methodone or New Jersey? You know, because she doesn't really know what's coming wrong, but she knows she's done something wrong, and you know, all the time she's just so close to being canceled. So there's a lot of pressure there. But underneath everything, which I think came through in the first film, too, is an old school journal who started off, you know, around the traps. I think of Anna Winter, you know, Patrick Winter, her father is one of the most esteemed journalists of the past century. And I feel like this film is a real tipping of a hat to old school type journalism as opposed to this new world, which is, you know, highly pressurized, kind of panicky of no matter what the integrity of the story, is it getting engagement, is it getting clicks? You know, there's a beautiful, terrifying line in there, something about Runway magazine. Are we the last plank of wood? Kind of floating around the of the Titanic, And you know it's like who knows, who knows? And the film is also looking at new owners kind of tech bro owners of media now as opposed to legacy media owners who had ink in their veins and were passionate about the printed product. It's a world some of us, a lot of us maybe aren't completely used to. So I just find that the script really skewers the kind of febrile atmosphere of media at the moment in a really powerful way, and through a comedy lens.
00:09:44
Speaker 1: Coming up the Australian heart throbs in The Devil Wears Pride of Us. Before I let you go, Nick, you have to ask about Patrick Bramle. So, now this is the second of the franchise where there's been an Australian love interest Simon Baker in the first one, who was kind of the you know, sleazy, charming editor Christian and now Patrick Bramble. We don't know much about his role. Who is he and how does he kind of get himself tangled up in this story.
00:10:27
Speaker 2: Well we can forgive him because he's allowed to have an Australian accent in this which is great. But he does play a developer who demolishes, guts the interiors of heritage buildings. So when he said that, I was going to like, but I still love you because Patrick is just no perfect you know. He's like he's in Colin. He's kind of the affable beta male. He's kind of warm and charming and he's kind of I got that loose, sardonic Australian sense of humor where you don't take yourself too seriously. So I would say, in terms of hot Aussie blokes, Patrick Rammol delivers Sorry for your beautiful wife.
00:11:16
Speaker 1: Nicki Gammel, thank you very much, thank you. The Devil wes Prata Too is in theaters now. Nicki Gammel is the Australian's film critic. You can read her review of The Devil wez Prata two at the Australian dot com dot au slash culture. This episode of the Front was hosted by me Claire Harvey and produced by Jasper League. Our team also includes Kristin amiot Leat Sammaglue, Tiffany Dimac and Joshua Burton